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Been busy in my little shop lately. I have two guitars in progress, both FB-185s. One is a claro walnut I am building for my brother using a walnut board he sent out to me. The other is of spalted mango. I recently got the box closed on the claro walnut, and it will now sit until he gets his inlays done in the fingerboard. I might be able to get the spalted mango closed up this weekend. The rims are profiled and the top and back are joined. I just need to get a rosette done and some bracing.

First the claro walnut: You can see my shop in the basement has expanded to include the kitchen! Not sure how long until my wife boots me back into my little corner of the world! The top being joined is Port Orford Cedar, which will go on the spalted mango guitar. I've never used this wood and thought I would try it out. The wood has a really strong sort of spicy smell. I joined the top pieces over the weekend and ran them a few passes through my thickness sander, and even today I can still smell the wood when I go into the garage. Ken

If you have some progress pix that aren't elsewhere in the forum, drop them in down below.

Super work Ken. That spalted Mango really has great figure. Bet it's going to look 3-dimensional under finish.
I see you have the same mold I have (that the Mango is in). What technique do you use to clamp and glue the neck block and tail block to the sides with it?
Anything special?
Bob

Yeah, the mango will look cool under finish, but I am little concerned on how structurally sound it will be when done. After I put the rims together, I soaked the inside with CA. After I get the top and back on and before binding, I plan on doing the same to the outside of the rims.

I have done some major modifications to my mold. The mold base warped and was shaped a bit like a dome. The rim supports on each column sort of tilted away from the middle as did the neck and tail supports. I found if I held a square at the neck block that what looked square was really about a degree off. I'm a little anal, and this drove me bonkers. I contacted KMG about a new base, but Ken only sells complete sets, no replacement bases, so I modded mine by adding angle supports to the underside, which squared the base up beautifully. Once I had the base perfectly flat, I added a fixed 90 degree neck block support. I can bolt the neck block to this support when radiusing the sides or gluing on the top and feel 100% confident that the neck block is positioned where it should be. Ken

Man I love that claro walnut! Mine has figure, but not beeswing like yours! Beautiful stuff. And of course great work as always.

Good Grief Ken, that is georgous wood. Where did your brother find that board? I'd love to get some of that.

Kevin

Yeah, Tony and Kevin, my brother found a good one, no doubt. He builds native american flutes and has a few wood suppliers. I'm not exactly sure where he got this board, but I can try to track it down for you. I was a little anxious resawing it as well as bending it. Much relief when those sides came out of the mold in one piece!

Ken