Thought this might be fun to show how I've been able to build in my small space. For context I am currently working out of a 1300ish square foot apartment. I share the space with my wife and my wonderful little 1 year old boy.
As a result of his age and the small space I can't use anything toxic like Nitro finishing products. nor can I do things like sand indoors or use multiple machines that kick up a huge amount of dust like sanders/electric planers etc...
So I've just accepted the limitations of the space and chosen to work within the parameters that I currently have. Instead of seeing it as a flaw to building I see it as a feature. The only machine I do have and use is a binding machine which really and truly is the most time saving device I own.
Besides the binding machine for cutting binding channels everything is done completely by hand. Planes, chisels, sanding, scraping, etc... It is a bit time intensive but it's amazingly rewarding when one comes together.
I really love and admire alot of the work that D'aquisto produced during his life, the minimalism in my opinion is among the same line of thinking that is in the viol family of instruments. There's very little ornamentation, the designs are simple yet refined, the focus is on sound above everything else. I have always admired that about traditional violin makers so I want to try to emulate that in my instruments. I also really admire the instruments from people like the Larson Brothers, Tony Klassen, mid-late 30s Gibson designs, and quite a few others.
This guitar is going to be my OM homage (an OM-age?) basically it takes the principle body shape and modifies it a bit for a slightly different sound and response. I'll talk more about that as it takes shape over the next couple of months.
As with any build the fun part is picking out wood to make the guitar from. For this one I'm just going with the tried and true combo of Indian rosewood and Adi spruce. The spruce top I kind of like since it has some more interesting grain to it than your typical "bread slice" top. I like the darker grain lines. Some call it a lesser top, but you have to work with what you have. Or as some folks call it wabi sabi.
For all my glue joints I use hide glue. I learned to use it through repairing older guitars and I've learned to love it for just about everything. Really does make things easier to maintain. And if you totally screw up a glue joint it's not a big deal at all to undo it and make it right. I use a couple of horseshoe clamps for some weight and I use wedges to push the edges together. The jointing is done mostly by plane but I final fit on a small piece of glass with some sandpaper for a close and tight joint.
Once the top and back are glued together I picked out an adirondack billet to use for this guitar. I'm planning to make this thing as lightweight as possible so with some careful sawing I should be able to get all the needed top braces save for the popsicle brace out of this one billet.
It has a slight wave in the one end I'll cut off but the grain is good.
I'll post more updates as I get time to complete the prep work for the other parts. I'm excited to be building a new body style for me. For now I'm off for a walk with my son. Hope you all enjoy this build. Going to be fun for me to look back and see how it all came together once it's done!