Now we can glue up the back braces with hide glue. You see there are braces underneath the back that are radiused in the same curve as the bracings. Before we let everything dry it is important to clean up all glue squeeze out.
And here you see it all clamped up. In the second picture you get an idea of the back radius.
In the meantime, I have cut all the frets to length and now I am cutting off the tangs on both ends where the binding will go, using a special cutter that is made for this task.
The top has been clamped down in the special jig that will be used to construct the entire guitar. On nylon string guitars we use this thing called a Solera, where the neck and the body are built as one, with the correct neck angle build it. This is the strongest construction that gives the best tone transfer. You cannot see that this jig has also had a radius dished out in the lower bout of the top. Nylon string guitars have a curved, radiused top to handle the stresses of string tension with much thinner bracings.
As you can see the braces have now also been shaped and before we clamp everything up, it is time to do some more glue clean up. A professional build is a clean build.
Clamping down these very thin, very rounded racing is tough, but we have a system that works. Here you see it half clamped up.
And here you see everything clamped up. The top bracings are not radiused in the front as they are in the back. So, the slight top radius will be forced into the bracings, making everything stiffer and stronger without adding weight.
And now, before we get to the next step of gluing up the box, it is time to put in the label. This is the first of the signature series and it gets both our signatures on it. A great moment.
