The Luthier Community

Thanks Dave, yeah the beauty of photography, you "hide" the little gaps in the shadows. Hey we all have to go at these things according to our own temperament, background and tooling, and good, playable instruments can come from all methods. That's what makes following these threads so interesting, seeing how the other guy does it.

Thanks E., we could stand for a peek at what's going on in your shop.

Looks like this is going to wind up with an Engleman top. Most of my funny named lutz tops are too small for this 15 1/2" body. I picked up a batch of 7 for $50 from the "zootman" during the OLF swapmeet that have some slight grey staining, but they're large, tap great and have a little bit of color striping too them. How thick are you going on your 12's now Haans?

Joe, I'm around .170" in the center before sanding. Really depends on how stiff your top is and how you brace it, whether you arch it, etc...

It is too bad that the structure gets covered up when we close up the top. Beautiful!

Memphis Mark

Hey Joe

I'm really enjoying (all) your threads.

I've had a tentative enquiry to build a 12 string so...........Get a move on would ya, i wanna know how this one turns out

Mat

Thanks guys!
Haven't had much time in the shop lately, but finely made a little progress.


Plates joined and thicknessed, inlaid the backstripe, and got the rosette done.


Used some perfling I made up following Grants tute, viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1616" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, which worked great. So I've got black fishpaper/maple/black, and black/mahogany/black.


And in the rosette I have a ring of radial inlaid rosewood that I stole from Haans build. You just cut some stripey wood crossgrain and then it just snaps and breaks as you press it in. I didn't have any of the space saving stewmac stuff so I routed my ring first, pressed in the rosewood, glued it with CA, and then cut the routes for the b/mahogany/b perfing to outline it. Oh yeah and don't forget to seal your routes with shellac if you go the CA route. I used white glue to glue in the perf strips.

Now I'm playing with Haans bracing plan to see how I'm going to brace this one,
Joe

Love all those warm Earth tones dancing together!

Dennis

Joe I like it...!

Thxs
Hugh

Well I seem to be hopping around from project to project these days but got the bracing done on this top.


Very similar to what I just did on the retop 12.


Decided to try putting the top on first this time.


And a view from the inside.

For now,
Joe