Ladder Braced Birch

[Colin S]

No, don't stain it Joe, I think the whole look now is superb, let the wood be itself. Oh and yes every time I use Gary's jig, I do a little dance of delight, we were very lucky to be in the right place at the right time when he made those.

Keep it up Joe, you know you're one of my heroes.

Colin

[Joe Sustaire]

Thank you Colin, it means a lot!

And I've got a couple more shots....... now that I've got my camera straightend out.





Better shots of Grants great white spruce.




Grants birch and the backstrip.




End wedge.




And another shot from the back.

And yeah, I do believe Colins convinced me to just let the wood shine naturally.....

Thanks for looking!

[charangohabsburg]

Wow Joe, this is just a beauty! If a guitar is blonde it doesn't mean it is stupid. I also would leave it its natural colours. You'll see that daylight will do wonders after finishing it!

[Dennis Leahy]

Thermally modified Birch (at least the pieces that Grant sent through the process for me) end up just a smidge lighter than your back stripe. So, if you ever want to do another Birch guitar but want it darker...

Man, that looks nice, Joe!

[Joe Sustaire]

Thank you Markus, I'm feeling pretty good about how it's coming along. And no, I don't think the guitar will be stupid, just referring to it's driver, in my case, he tends to be a little slow!

And yeah Dennis, that figured birch you had thermo treated crossed my mind when I heard you post about it. I'll have to check it out.

Well, I'm continuing on. I decided to try my first dovetail neck join. So here goes.....






And here's my headplate and tuner choice.




And here is how she's looking so far. I'm going with an ebony fretboard and bridge.




Thanks for watching....


.... And for some reason we're back to small pics. Camera settings are the same, so who knows, it's just magic I guess.....

[johnparchem]

Starting to look like a great guitar!

[Dennis Leahy]

You zoomed right through the creation of the slot head. Howdjadoit? Did you use Haans' trick, bandsawing out the slots then re-gluing the desired pieces?

Looking good, Joe!

[Joe Sustaire]

How'd I do it?

With tightly clenched buttocks is how I did it!

Not Haans method. I just winged it, drilled a 1/2" hole at each end of the slot, then used a trim router with attached fence and routed between the holes in the center of the slot, then carefully (clenched buttock part) kept widening the slot until I got to the right place, or there-a-bouts.....

I'd love to have one of those luthier tools slothead jigs like Colin uses. I think Haans went to using one of those also. Pricey but takes a lot of the tightrope walking out of the job, and gives a very professional result.

I just decided to throw caution to the wind this time and crawl out on all the ledges. The dovetail neck join has always intimidated me, so what the heck I'm giving it a go. I haven't got it fitted all the way yet, just feeling my way thru it, so we'll see how I like doing it this way.

I got the neck rough carved yesterday. Another one of those jobs where you just have to "back your ears" and dive in. I hate eating sawdust, but it's just an up close and personal kind of job where I wind up saturated with mahogany dust....... oh well.......