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The idea was to fix up my old Stella Harmony guitar THEN order a kit. But Blues Creek Guitars had a sweet D18, 12-fret I could not pass up so starting up both at once giving me the old beater to practice on along the way. I ordered the kit along with their form as mine isn't quite perfect. Not bad and the sides seem to stand up straight. The turnbuckles were fun to make on the bandsaw.

Next step is to remove the top, braces, and clean the lining. I'm tempted to remove it and re-glue it. I could probably repair this top but my mind is made up to replace it and the back with Birch which John Hall is gluing up for me as well.

Just thought I'd post. I'll update down the line.

Great forum. Thanks!

your wood got here and will be gluing this week

It looks great.

Just be sure you will be able to get that big turnbuckle out through the soundhole after you glue on the back!

Yes, what mainegeezer just said!. I think you'll find that you can remove the upper and lower bout spreaders now.

yep! Thanks! That pic is actually the original top that I removed which I why I went the route of making a form. I feel a lil guilty for not trying to repair this top but it's not that nice and found some nice Birch replacements. The hole is only 3.5" so yeah, going to be taking those blocks out before sealing it up.

I was able to steam the braces off. They appear to be cedar or similar. This guitar will have a floating bridge so not sure if I need to put the bridge plate back in. You can see how it the bridge pin holes were filled in. I prob will just to try to keep the bracing in the original configuration.

Don't feel guilty. This is a great project guitar and you can learn a lot from her.

You can certainly shave down the braces, quite a bit. I did a similar exercise on a Harmony Sovereign (See viewtopic.php?f=48&t=8319&hilit=harmony+sovereign ). The braces in original form were akin to 2x4s.

Ooh. thank for that. I'll post an update when some more things happen.