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Hello,

My 1st kit (Blues Creek, D18 style) is coming along nicely but I have a 1st question. Great forum, btw!

My blocks are glued and rim roughly sanded flat. Next step is to glue in cloth side strips and lining but as I look as my sanded mahogany sides, I see they are much lighter in color than insides of finished guitars. My goal is old style D18 so wondering if I should sand sides only then glue in strips/lining or perhaps more prep is needed?

Maybe the guitars I've looked at had varnish applied inside or age darkens the sides but just wanted to check in. I'm not concerned about final color but just not seeming like this will match what I see in other guitars.

thanks.

Overthinking. Seems ready to go.

martin never finished the inside that is just age. Sounds like you got the beginning down. Just feel free to keep asking questions and dont be afraid to post pics

Ok, got thru a few actual gluing steps. Looking good to me. The strips could be a little more evenly placed but oh well. Time to setup the bus. :D . ( no, back is not glued on. ha )

back braces?

Ha. Back not glued on. Just gazing at the beautiful grain. Next up: gluing braces.

Your side struts look very nice.

Wow, nice clean work!

looks very nice and neat good work

When you get it all glued, you may want to apply a coat of shellac to the inside to seal it and (in theory) make it less susceptible to changes in humidity.

If you decide to do that, assuming you glue the back on first, a problem arises when you want to seal the inside of the top. You can't get at it after it's glued on, so you have to put on the shellac before you glue the top on. BUT DON'T APPLY SHELLAC AT THE EDGE WHERE THE GLUE JOINT IS GOING TO BE. Leave a bare strip around the edge for the glue joint.

Since you'll need to allow a bit of extra space to ensure you don;'t get shellac on the glue area, the sealing of the top will have a bit of a gap around the edge, but it's the best you can do.