Dennis & Dave Double Build

[Dennis in Anola]

Just started building a D-28V (Dennis) and a J-185 (Dave) from KMG kits. Dave is a jam buddy of mine. The wood was very nice in both kits.

[Dennis in Anola]

D-28 rim is done. J-185 rim is under construction.

[ken cierp]

A two-fer this will be fun to follow!

Just a note -- I cannot see the second JPEG?

[Dennis in Anola]

Ken sometimes I have a problem posting a picture in line and it appears as an "attachment" that you need to click on to open. Anyways, here's the second picture (hopefully).

[Dennis in Anola]

Ready to glue up the "28" back braces. One of the braces had a minor flaw in that the radiused edge wasn't 90 degrees to the sides near one end. I just added a small shim and I'll blend it in properly before gluing that brace.

[Dennis in Anola]

Well, I ran into a problem I didn't expect installing the D28 rosette. When I took it out of the caul I see that the treble side of the Herringbone channel wasn't cut perfectly flat on the treble side. The outer edge of the channel in this area (as shown between the arrows) is .012" lower than the inside edge. The Herringbone is essentially flush with the inside edge but it is below the Sitka wood around the outside. I'm not sure what can be done about this or how much the thickness of the top can be sanded down to avoid a major visible depression in the final finish. The rosette is a focal point of the guitar so I would welcome any suggestions as to how to salvage this top. The Sitka top is an exceptional piece of wood and I'd like to save it if at all possible.

I can see only two viable options to salvage the top:
1) Use some kind of clear leveling agent, which will accept the lacquer paint so that the "defect" will be virtually invisible. But I don't know what to use. I do know that lacquer shrinks over time but I do have time to flow some lacquer into this area before final scraping & sanding the top, or:
2) I could send the top back to Ken if he is able to recut the channel for me.

[ken cierp]

Martin tops and other brands are many times as thin as .090" around the sound hole. Actually I've seen disassembled Martin sound boards that were .090" all around. Off topic a little but I perimeter thin down to just over 1/16".