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I'm having the same internal debate. I'm leaning the other way though. I guess I'll probably spend an inordinate amount of time building some kind of binding jig.

Bindings cut and glued in. I find the gramil leaves compression marks in the wood that takes a lot of work to make go away. I hand rubbed about 4 coats of shellac, giving it a thorough sanding with 150 between coats. Not fast enough. So I started brushing it on, finishing with 220 between coats. This is now about 8 coats total. The grain is almost completely filled and I’m debating cleaning out my old Devillbis spray gun from my automotive painting days and spray it, or just keep brushing, wet sand with 2000 and hand rub.
Also, going to have to make a sheath for the gramil to keep it from damaging the wood. 3/8 ID pex tube maybe?

Doug

Well, it’s done. I made a few mistakes. Most notable, when glueing the fretboard on I forgot to compensate for the bow that installing the fret imparts. So, the neck is not “perfectly” straight. However leveling the frets fixed 90% of the problem albeit there is the slightest buzz around the 8th fret. Shimming the bridge .010 inch should take care of this. Overall, its very bright and “spanky” sounding. Never having played a 000-18 before I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m quite pleased. The intonation is perfect from open to the 12th fret. I will post some sound files as soon as I get a chance.


Doug

Nicely done, congratulations! Did you have only a one way truss rod? If so the string tension will work some of the bow out, otherwise you can adjust the truss rod to take out the bow.