Progress of StewMac Dreadnought Kit Build

[DavisLee]

Have been photographing while building my first guitar (hopefully first of many). Attached are a couple of QuickTime movie files of the first two phases, building of the sides (learned some painful but helpful lessons on separating glued neckblock and crack repair with superglue thanks to John's wonderful experience) and then the inlaying of the rosette purflings and bracing of the soundboard.

Today, will very carefully start carving the soundboard braces before getting ready to fit the top to the sides.

Am trying to take things nice an slow while making steady progress, with the goal of being able to go outside and do the lacquer finishing once our Michigan Spring breaks, probably late April - early May.

Thanks again for eveyone encouraging input!

Great progress. Great videos. Great tunes.
-tommy

[DavisLee]

Thanks Tommy, just trying to take it slow and careful.

Background tunes from Tony Rice's and David Grisman's "Tone Poems" project, one of my favorite CDs.

One of my favorites also. Hard to believe it's almost 20 yrs old.

-tommy

[Mitch]

I'm building the same kit and I'm right behind you (gluing on the kerfing this weekend). I'm following the stew mac directions, but also reading up about other techniques. By reading alternatives, it helps me understand the critical issues for each step.

[DavisLee]

That's a great idea, every little tip helps at this stage, huh?

[Mitch]

When you glued the braces, did you glue them with the top on a flat work board? And did the top end up with the proper curvature? i.e. did the stop assume the curve of the braces when the clamps were removed?

It's a little counter intuitive that it will spring back to the correct curve, after being glued while clamped flat. I've been looking at alternatives such as making a caul trace from the curved brace, the Ken MIchael file card trick, or using a flexible caul on the finished side of the top as described in the Cumpiano book.

Curious about your experience.

Mitch

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Mitch,
I have used the stacked cards for a 30' radius and a 15' radius on 7 guitars and it works just fine. I'm still using the same cards, so they can last too.
A very inexpensive way to accomplish this task.

Kevin