Acoustic Guitar Construction

John - I located the bridge before anything else; that location was paramount. I used Ken Cierp's bridge locator , short scale, with the 12th fret marker on the locator right where the neck will meet the body. Then I followed the Collins plans as to brace location and proceeded accordingly.
The Collins plan, based on the 30's Washburn, showed a bridge plate that I chose to replace with the larger spruce piece that many modern builders - John How, prominently - are using.
I also made the soundhole larger than the one on the plan, because I will be binding the soundhole and thus reducing its diameter.

Oh now I see where the confusion lies - when I said there was 'nothing definitive' I was not talking about the bridge location - sorry for the mixup - I was referring to the brace locations. My bad. The bridge location definitely has been defined mathematically, that is why I established that before anything else.

Got it,

I agree that you can move your braces around relative to the bridge and I am not sure what effect that would have to the sound.

John

The back, right before I sanded the braces a bit. I then glued it on.
That little drawknife I got from LV tools does a most excellent job of truing up the sides to the rims, if you have a little time and feel like doing something with a hand tool.

Awesome build Dave. Hard to believe how quickly you've gotten to this point and still maintained your quality. Can I ask a stoopid question? Why is the guitar in that contraption on its side?what is that contraption? What purpose does it serve?

Just holds the thing steady while I scrape sand etc. It's got little stop blocks that keep it from moving to and fro, and tightens to keep things steady. There are much better ones here on the forum - search for 'troji' - this one works too.

Thanks Dave. Yes I could have used something like that when I rebuilt that old Parlor guitar. Did I mention I finished it. Gave it to Mackensie. Taught he the G Major chord for her first lesson. I'm still amazed at your progress.