Acoustic Guitar Construction

John, I know that. What I was getting at is, looking at that Harmony soundboard, I was surprised that any sound other than a 'thump' would issue forth, let alone a 'wonderful' sound that anyone would appreciate. Whether it would be perfect for a given situation is another question, but that could be asked of any instrument.

deadedith wrote:John, I know that. What I was getting at is, looking at that Harmony soundboard, I was surprised that any sound other than a 'thump' would issue forth, let alone a 'wonderful' sound that anyone would appreciate. Whether it would be perfect for a given situation is another question, but that could be asked of any instrument.

Sorry, I thought your comment was with respect to the bracing pattern I was using. Most of the guitars made before Torres were later ladder braced. I really do not have any experience with a ladder braced guitar, but my comment about the environment still holds. What you need for a guitar that you are playing in your house is different than what you need playing unplugged in a large room. I personally think a small parlor guitar sounds way better than a dread. I find it more responsive with a sweet voice, but it will get lost playing to an audience in a hall. In short I am not surprised the a ladder braced guitar can sound good. You have a nice stiff top that will happily vibrate. A thud would come from a very loose top. You might not have enough energy to get deep loud low notes but it could still have a clean voice. The design is just not very efficient relative to later bracing styles.

I hear what you're saying, and I agree.
In any case, your bracing looks great - just on an intuitive level it looks right, if you know what I mean.

I am hoping to close this guitar this weekend. I have a few things that I need to do first, that I hope in my excitement I do not forget. Mainly I need to install the end strip or wedge. Late Sunday and bit by bit through the week I finished the bracing of the top and started on the back. Hoping to raise my game a bit now that I have my vacuum box. I pre-carved the back braces and put a few coats of shellac on them. The idea is to have sealed braces and center strip but still an unsealed back on the inside. No reasons other than I hope it looks cool. When gluing the braces down in a 15' radius dish I was not happy with the way the end of one of the braces was gluing down so I put a few bits of brace wood on the ends of the braces to hold them down with the vacuum.

Ultimately there was no problem with how the braces glued down.

Moving along, I had to hit the honey do list today, so I was only able to get the end strip in and cut a bunch of small braces to hold the transverse braces down.

When I glue the top down it will happen as shown in the pictures. The top and sides will be in the solera. I will mostly use cam clamps but I can use rubber bands as well, that is what all of those dowels are for on my solera. It is nice working this was as I can make sure the rims are clamped right where I want it on the top. For those following (I describe it early in the blog) you will see that I still have the top indexed to the solera. Not visible but in place, the neck is also indexed to my solera with a couple of 1/8" diameter dowels. So if my indexing is correct I can not fail having the top and next properly aligned. Here are a few pictures cutting the rebate and installing the end strip. The picture also are the first view of my Australian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) bindings combined with my African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon ) back and sides

I just use a scrapper as a guide for my saw. Before I cut with a razor saw I score very deep with a new scalpel blade hoping to have a clean line at the top of the cut. Although it does not look like it in this series of pictures. The saw is always on the waste side of the cut and the scraper is on the outside.

I did get the top glued onto the rims today with the neck straight and centered. Also I nearly finished the preparations for gluing on the back. After I glued on the top I glued some small braces to hold the harmonic braces in place. I finished up marking where I need to route for the back braces. I had to cook dinner and I had a couple of drinks so I will save the routing for tomorrow.

wow John making great progress and it is looking great.
I just installed my end wedge yesterday too. the Acacia is going to look fantastic on that blackwood.

Kevin