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I've gotten all the braces roughly shaped with the correct radius, and the back braces have been glued on.

I'll be going to Texas the end of this week to visit my folks, getting this finished on time may be difficult.
At least I don't have to fix the top!
But then, I haven't cut the binding/purfling channel yet either.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

You brace the top prior to cutting out the soundhole?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

No Bryan, his sound hole uses Stealth Cloaking Technology that only makes it appear to be a solid piece of wood! When you plug in, the stealth turns off and you can see the sound hole.

Or....SHUT UP! You're gonna tip him off to a major flaw that will kill his chances of winning!


Posted from my Mustache using Tapatalk

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I was just hoping to see a new trick, I may need to use it someday. Now I see what is going on. You are going to sell him some of your fancy kerfs. Then he can rub them on using a round stencil.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Yes, I brace the top before I cut out the soundhole. The top's not braced yet, they're just lying in about the right places, but I will glue on the braces before I cut out the sound hole. For that matter, I'll close the box before I cut out the soundhole. I've got the circle drawn on both sides so I know where it will be while I'm glueing on the braces. I cut out the sound hole freehand with a hobby knife, so it's just as easy after everything is together. I usually do the final sanding after the box is together but before cutting out the soundhole. I think it makes it easier to sand the top, but many of my techniques leave something to be desired.
I won't be using any CostaCerfs on this one, I'm sticking with the tone of my laminated unkerfed linings. (Sorry about the copyright infringement, Tony)

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Where in the Republic will you be visiting???

Hey Rodger,

Looks really nice. Love that bloodwood/maple combo making up the back.
Can you tell me more about your FB radiusing carrier? What angle is on that and for what radius? How did you cut the angle out, or did you just make a wedge and glue a stop-strip onto the length to hold the FB?
I like the RW top.

You will be hearing from my people.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I'm back from the Republic, although I'd rather still be there. I was in Conroe, just north of Houston, visiting my folks. Had a nice visit.
I'm going to start bracing the top tonight.
Tony, I'll have my people ignore your people.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Since you are not Mrs. Costa, that is unacceptable. Please have your people either
1) blow off my people
or
2) say they will call and then never call or call many hours late. Make another empty promise to meet, only to blow me off again.
I'm into that. Don't ask.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

You would have loved my return flight. Initially, they said we'd be delayed an hour for maintainence. At boarding time they said another half hour. Then another half hour. Then maybe 3 more hours for another plane to arrive, no wait, we've fixed the plane, it's ready. Oh, yeah, it's at the hanger and it'll be half an hour to tow it over. Then....
I was speaking of option 2) when I said I'd have my people ignore your people. My people aren't as rude as I am, so they'd tell you they were going to do something.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Thanks, I'm quite anxious to see all this under finish. It should look spectacular, unless I screw it up!
The FB radiusing carrier is straight out of Bob Benedetto's book. The angle is about 5°, and it's for a 12" radius. I cut the carrier board against a fence on the bandsaw with the table tipped 5° and glued on a 1/4" x 1/2" scrap as a stop-strip. It saves a lot of work by taking off most of what needs to be removed at the edges, which is where the most needs to be removed. I'll be making another soon, I've decided 12" is too tight and I'm going to 16" for the radius. The angle for that is 3.5°.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

From where I am, Sandy was just another storm. There have been at least two worse storms this year, but they didn't get a week of media hype. I'm sure other areas were more severely impacted, but we didn't even lose power. Since I couldn't go into work for a couple of days, (my office is right on the harbor, there was some flooding on Monday and Tuesday) I got a little more done.
I finished fitting the back to the sides.

I got the top braced.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I got the top glued to the rims.

I fitted the neck joint.


And closed the box!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Here's one last shot, the fretboard and headplate are not yet attached, just laid out to see how this is going to look.

I'm hoping the binding and purfling will help, I'm not quite loving the way this top looks yet.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I’m trying to think of a word to describe the woods used here, I keep coming back to “delicious.”

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I like the top but I think it would look better with a soundhole.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looking good. I missed these pics somehow.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I was hoping that someone would comment on how crudely my braces were carved, since I don't have a Brace Carving Chisel!
I also need to do something different posting photos, mine seem small and not all that sharp.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

I haven't done much, I've been putting off cutting the binding/purfling channel.
I did get all the frets cut and radiused.

And here's my high-tech equipment for precisely pressing frets.

Naturally, installing the frets induced a back bow of 1/4" or so.

So here it's clamped in the "Proulx bend".

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

What is not to like about that top? I think it looks great and it will look even better under finish. I would not worry about that back bow it's normal when fretting off the neck.

Well, it's not really the top, it's the rosette that looks less than spectacular. I'm hoping the white binding and cutting out the sound hole will improve the appearance.
I'd be worried if it DIDN"T backbow! A couple of days in the "Proulx bend" and it's as flat as my jointer table.

I've cut the binding/purfling channels, and I didn't screw anything up!
I've started preping the surfaces for final finish, I need to get the binding/purfling on this week to have a good chance of completion before the deadline.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Here's a few more photos...
The fingerboard after the Proulx bend, as flat as it was before fretting.

I probably should have come up with some clever jig for this, but I just went ahead and drilled the holes freehand!

Here's the birdseye headplate with the tuners installed.

And the back of the headstock. I nearly went too far south with the tuners.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Nice work! I almost made a tuner mistake on the headstock by leaving the curved area for the volute too close to the tuners so they wouldn't lay flat. Fortunately I did a test fit to check to see if the headstock thickness was correct and caught the other problem - whew.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I shifted the tuners a bit to make room for my "Logo".
I had a few scraps of shell left over from another project, so I cut this out.

Scribed around the shell...

And inlayed it!

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon