After completed the head joint, I made truss rod channeling, head thickness profiling, and veneer install. Sold neck head thickness must be 14.5mm. Late Taku Sakashita who was my guitar making mentor always told me that the most beautiful neck head thickness is 14.5mm. When I make the sold head neck, I always try to make the 14.5mm thickness. This neck has a Madagascar RW top veneer, and a Katalox back veneer. This neck also has a beautiful volute.
Body is closed and the binding channels cut. Now, I move to the neck making. This guitar has 24.9" scale. I will use the 7-ply (Spanish cedar, black dyed maple, Maple, Ebony, Maple, black dyed maple, and Spanish cedar) laminated neck. I use the V-joint between the neck and the head. I also use the laminated head. Material is the Spanish cedar. Although, I do not show the fitting work for the V-joint, I spend a lot of time for the precise fitting.
Next week, I will continue the neck making work. I will make a finger board with binding.
Finally, I closed the box. I usually assemble the back first, because I am able to clean the excess glue. Excess glue will be visible; therefore, I have to clean-up nicely. Before install the top, I applied three coats of shellac to the top. I have to avoid contamination for the glue line on the top. The top shown below is the final voiced top. Side bars have very deep scalloping for the best vibration. Although, the photo does not show the shellac coating in the back, I applied three coats of shellac to the back, before closing the box. The last photo shows the clumping for the top gluing.
Next week, I move to the neck making.
I did the final voicing for the top using scalloped shaping technique. Voicing work is still on going. I need to add scalloped shapes to the four side bars. I am slowly progressing the scalloped bracing work.
I also completed the back brace and center strip fitting work to the side. I also applied couple of coats of shellac to the side. My guitars always have inside sealing using couple of coats of shellac. After glue the back to the side, I will apply couple of coats of shellac to the back also. I will use the spraying technique for the shellac apply to the back, because the lattice bracing requires messy and time consuming brushing work.
