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Love the miter box!

I've glued on the back braces, glued the back to the sides, and trimmed off the excess. The neck and tail blocks are undoubtedly way heavier than they need to be.

Here is a proposed layout for the top bracing. It's based on https://www.portlandguitar.com/blogs/fe ... ng-science for whatever that's worth.

One problem is what to do for a bridge plate.

What do you think?

Well, I am totally making this up as I go, so there is a fair chance it will be a disaster, but we'll see.

Here's the current bracing plan. The large braces are glued; the smaller ones aren't yet. There will be a reinforcing ring around the sound hole, which cracked in one spot; hence the clothespin.

I think it looks pretty fancy for sure. A good experiment.
I do believe it would be a good idea to place a few small cross grain pieces along that center glue line to help eliminate any separation down road.

Yeah, I've been Pondering the lack of anything (much) to tie the top together cross-grain.

The curvature of the braces help with potential cracks. You could add 2 very light tone bar-like braces on each side at the waist, if you're very concerned. They could be just reinforcement in this area, so they could be (just throwing a number out) 1/4" wide, and planed down to whisper low veneer height, making each a thin strip. Add 2 small diamond shaped cleats, along the center joint, one in the lower bout, the other half way between that cleat and the bridge plate Again, plane them down to veneer height.

Just call these "insurance". They won't interfere with the vibration or sound, and they'll be symmetrical and look nice.

Sorry the picture is so bad. But, you see what I mean.

Well, I've got the body together. The binding and purfling are somewhat of a disaster, although from 10' away it's not immediately obvious. I think this photo makes the guitar look even worse than it is. I put a coat of shellac on initially to keep sanding dust out of the wood grain. I've partially sanded that off, which makes it look blotchy.

It's developing a real mystique - the bindings and especially the rosette are unique. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out in the end.