Acoustic Guitar Construction

The "rope" inlay beneath the binding on the side is a very interesting use of this type of decoration. Usually it appears on the face of the top. Bending it to conform to the outline is not an easy task, and it can look pretty "bulky" on the top, depending on other factors. Putting it on the side looks very natural here.

I made a bit larger bridge, based on the one I posted last week. EIR dyed black with Feibing's.

The fretboard and headplate had a bit too much yellow in them to go well the bubinga, so I stained them with some dark walnut minwax. I am going to put one more coat of the stain on.

Dave,

You've got my curiosity aroused about sanding the sides flat, with what looks like sandpaper wrapped around a hunk of ABS plumbing pipe. So...any idea if sides' needing this attention is a common condition (and if I see it on a project of mine, please don't faint)?

Thanks!

Hi Peter - there are different ways to approach the task, see here:
http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/bi ... lprep.html

It's always a good idea to flatten those sides before routing the binding channels, since any imperfections in the sides can be translated to imperfections in the binding channels.

The job is made much easier if you cut a very small bit of the back and top off first, like a very narrow binding ledge; that way you are not sanding the top or back, but just the sides.

If you do not flatten the sides before binding one may very well end up thinning installed binding during prep for finish. This will occur if the sides are even slightly cupped. By the time the side edge at the bindings is sanded the binding itself maybe nearly gone. I learned this the hard way.

A few pix of the freboard/fb binding and bridge. Color is off - the piece of fretwire in the pic is actually gold, and looks sweet next to the wood. FB iscuban mahogany, stained to contrast more with the top.
And I shaped the end of the fb to 'echo' the shape of the bridge somewhat.

Pressed in the frets and sanded them flush on the ends. No dressing yet.