A new Dred guitar build started

[Kevin in California]

It's time to start another guitar while I'm in the finishing stage of my current violin build.

This one is Indian Rosewood that I brought back from India in 2014. The top will be Sitka spruce. Bindings will be curly maple. I've made up some wenge/holly/wenge purfling that I'm considering using for top, back and side purfling and in a rosette design.
Or I may do an abalone rosette with the purfling and abalone purfling on the top. Not sure yet.

The neck blank is Spanish cedar. Headplate will be ebony.
Fretboard is ebony. I think I'll do gold frets and tuners but may change to nickle. We'll see.

I have the neck blank glued up, scarf headstock and stacked heel.

Today I thinned the sides on my Ryobi drum sander and bent the first side.

I like to spritz the side with water and wrap it in kraft paper first and then foil. It's an oily wood so the paper helps absorb any oil that leaches out. The foil helps keep the moisture in the wood a little longer for the bend.

My controller is set for 270 degrees. I start the waist bend at about 200 slowly and not going a the way down. Then I bend the lower bout at 270 and then the upper bout and lastly crank down the waist. Cook it for about 10 minutes, cool down to 150 then heat back up to 270 and turn the blanket off. I'll wait until completely cooled before removing.

[peter havriluk]

Kevin, that bender and blanket controller look right familiar! Nice to see another project start up.

About Gold fretwire? Any idea where I can buy some Evo Gold? The one set I bought I just used and this alloy ain't available from the usual sources. Oops.

[John Parchem]

Fun to see a new project start up!

[Kevin in California]

Peter
Stewmac sells the gold wire. I've been using it

You made a similar controller correct?

[peter havriluk]

Yup to the controller. You and I had a correspondence about it when I made it, and my attempts to decode that word salad of 'English' that was the PID device's documentation. And your Fox bender looks a whole lot like the one I made from Georgia Luthier Supply drawings.

I've tended to avoid StewMac, trying not to encourage their peddling tools folks don't need at astronomical prices. It looks like I need to hold my nose if I want more gold fretwire.

It's good to see you provide some traffic in this forum, it had gotten awfully quiet.

[Kevin in California]

Sides are in, end and neck block are in. Sanded in the radius dish, now gluing the homemade Spanish cedar kerfing. Top in today, tomorrow I'll glue in the back kerfing and then level the kerfing down to the sides in the dish again.

[Herman]

Good work Kevin, as always. But why such a massive mold?
Herman

Maybe I start a thread about making a mold.