New builds for US shows
 

Well, it’s that time of the year... when you realize that you have to get cracking to build guitars for the upcoming shows! I’ll be showing at the Artisan Show in Harrisburg in April, AND LaConner in May... I might even stay in the US in between the shows so, who knows, I could bump into some of you fine gents :)

I’ll try and chronicle here the builds for the show guitars... I settled for a Thames in cedar and koa (wait to see the photos i of the koa... it’s mind blowing) and a Columbia baritone in Italian spruce and maple. Here are some pics to get started

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Sanding the plates on my awesome diy thickness sander

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Scarf joints ready to be glued

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50 years old hair tint bottle for my hide glue... talk about recycling!

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Scarf joint clamped, the tape helps loads with the slippage!

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Kerfing strips prep, here in basswood

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Another kerfing shot, mahogany on my table saw sled

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My little helper taking care of the fanfret compound radius baritone fretboard

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Fretboard waiting for purpling and inlay before going back on the operating table to cut the radiused blind fret slots.

...to be continued...

Max, I look forward to seeing you and auditioning your instruments at the Artisan Guitar Show in April...:up:

One down... now I’ll tackle the other one and off to the fret slotting
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And the boards are done!
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I also started in the body of the baritone, tomorrow will inlay the back and start designing the rosette

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Nice wrap!

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Sides in the mold

Thanks for the thread; love those fretboards!
Hard to tell that one is fan fret...what are the lengths?

Great work, as always, Max! Thanks for sharing with us.

I'm looking forward to seeing you and your guitars at the Artisan show.

Thanks! The perspective of the photo is weird, you are right. The fanfret baritone will be 28.3-27.3... it’s a weird scale and I wanted to go 29-28 BUT the guitar would have not fitted in the case I have for it ;) and there is no time to get a new one... there you go, secret revealed :)

Hey Superman, can’t wait as well! Lots of catching up to do! See you soon.

New builds for US shows
 

The inlay work in the baritone back is done... it’s insane how much work goes into something that looks so simple!


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It all fits together

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Taken apart in order to seal the channel with shellac

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Blonde on blonde

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Flooded with thin ca glue

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Some funky mitering going on here

Here is the koa for the Thames... it’s gorgeous! Attachment 18568

And some more Columbia rosette action
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Some sort of miters’ graveyard;)

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Almost done!

One rosette down... I’m becoming allergic to mitering

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There is no such thing as too many gobar deck photos! Maple, spruce and hot hide glue!

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New builds for US shows
 

And one more rosette for the Thames

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It takes many steps to do one of these composites rosettes: routing, preparing the pieces, mitering the purfling, glueing the pieces together, leveling, then rinse and repeat, depending on the complexity of the design...

And here comes the back for the Thames, some incredible koa from my friends @ koa guitar sets in the UK.

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I don’t know if I love more that plane or the shooting board ;)

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Curly koa curls

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And glued, ready for some action tomorrow...

Another Koa shot! While the glued braces on the Columbia rest before voicing I had a go at thicknessing the plates for the Thames... tonight I’ll brace the back. The wood is so beautiful I decided against a backstrip or inlay... sometimes the wood needs to be left well alone :)

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And the Columbia waiting for next step

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