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I fitted and glued the herringbone purfling (prebent) for the top and the holly binding. I was starting to feel pretty smug.

Well, two steps forward and one step back. When I went to glue the bindings for the back, they seemed a little too proud. I quickly did some measuring and thinking, and realized I had somehow goofed and made the cuts too shallow. I told myself, you can pull this off and wipe the glue out and cut it deeper, but no, I didn't listen. When the glue was dry I planed and scraped the bindings, and the back binding is a full 1/8" narrower than the top binding. I know I will glare at me forever so I am going to rout it out and cut the ledge deeper. I had to order more holly of course, and I hope it matches (same small supplier). It will be fiddly to make sure the router bits make cuts that match the previous. I don't know if I will have to cut out the B/W purfling too, and perhaps even add something to it and make a new clean cut. And I have to work around the end flash and purfling mitres manually. Ah well. Live and learn!

Sorry to hear about that binding issue. I have made several mistakes building furniture and other woodworking stuff and you’re wise to make it correct. If you don’t it will glare at you forever. I have binding ahead of me on my build and I will remember to double check everything, thanks to your post.

I set up my binding jig and cradle and cut out the badly done bindings and purflings. I thought I might have to cut for wider purflings, but I was surprised at how accurately the router cut to the edges of the first channels, so I got off lightly there. I measured precisely how wide the first set of bindings was, and set the depth for these precisely the same. But somehow, the new set is still a little slimmer than the first. Maybe because of glue? But it's a lot better, and will stay this way. I may try to sand the edges of the top a little to reduce the binding width, but I'm leery about that. I did manage to manually recut the seam with the end flash pretty well.

I've moved on to the neck, which is Khaya. The stock was quite thick so I decided to go with a diamond volute again. They are time-consuming to lay out and carve but I like them and enjoy seeing them come together. And no, I don't have a CNC machine! Headplate is ebony with a thin layer of holly beneath; heel cap will match. I'll refine the headstock and volute when the fretboard is done and I do final shaping of the neck.

This guitar has been put aside for a while (I did start a couple of ukuleles in the meantime). I have a complaining shoulder and was not looking forward to cutting fret slots in the ebony board with my Pax fret saw - it seems to take a lot of effort. So I broke down and ordered the Stew Mac Japanese fret saw. That, as I have come to expect, took its time getting here, and arrived (who knows why) via Malmo, Sweden. But it was worth the wait - it cuts better, and faster too. The fretboard is radiused to 16", and has diamond markers - ebony is so forgiving with inlay! I finished the neck shaping with the fretboard on, and added the ebony/holly heelcap. Yesterday I glued the neck on; I'll finish the fretting next, and then wait for good weather to start spraying lacquer.

Stewmac is 34 miles from me.

So, instead of coming to Parkersburg, WV, my stuff once came by way of Parkersburg, Iowa...go figure.

Working on this guitar and my "Mongrel" cedar/bubinga OM together, things moved more slowly. The other guitar had a truss rod rattle; in this one, I forgot to dab silicon in there. So, remove this fretboard too! I fretted the high end of the fretboard first, having heard that some do this. When I glued the neck on I found I could not get it to sit right, falling away at the soundhole. If the pre-fretting did not cause the problem, it made it more difficult to correct, so I am not sure I will do that again. Finally got it together, after a purfling repair described here:

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=9648

Like the Mongrel, this guitar was delayed by a long cool wet spring (couldn't spray outside), me working away for a time, and house guests. I finally got to the finishing prep stage. This guitar had fewer issues than the Mongrel, including better success with AquaCoat. Finally, today, I sprayed the first three coats of Mohawk Lacquer. And, like the Mongrel, the finish is coming along better than on any other guitars so far. Progress!

This guitar is finally done, but not without incident! I had issues getting the scratches out of the finish and still need to work on my technique there. But it looks really pretty good. When I strung it up around Christmas, I discovered that my earlier neck geometry issues were still there to haunt me. So I removed the neck on this one. The reset went more smoothly than the redcedar/bubinga guitar I was working on at the same time, and did not require any modification to the fretboard extension. Now that it is done, I'm very happy with it. It sounds like a rosewood scalloped-braced dreadnought ought to. During a family visit one of my sons played both this one and my old Larrivée dreadnought which is the only way I could get a good comparison. I am happy enough with this that I am going to finally part with the Larrivée, after more than 32 years. (We have run out of beds to put guitars under . . . ) Bruce W.

Now Bruce this guitar looks great. Can't see scratches in the pictures.
You just can't beat a rosewood dred for powerful ringing tone.
Good job!