Starting #23 OM model

[Kevin Sjostrand]

That's Awesome!
How about a Randall playing his guitar and singing version for us all! 😁

[Tomcat]

Inspired by the Weird Al Yankovic version, right?

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Took a break to spend some time with the grandkids

Side bracing in. Inside back strip on.
I also have the back braces glued in but not yet carved. That I'll do today

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Bracing glued on and carved

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I installed my rosette, a simple 2 ring with the inside abalone with BWB borders and now have all the top braces glued in place.
Next is a whole lot of carving to do!

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Top braces are carved and sanded to look pretty

Back is being glued to the rims in the go bar deck

[Kevin Sjostrand]

"I have the top and back attached now and the overhangs routed off. The sides sanded all nice and flush.

Working on the neck. I hand cut the truss rod slot. I like doing this now as I can better keep it on center versus using my inexpensive router table. I started the fretboard. Cut off excess to use as binding so it will look like an unbound fretboard when done.

Will be gone for about a week so that's all for now."
.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Been a few weeks but I've made progress.
The box is closed and curly maple/bwb purfling is installed and all is scraped down flush. It looks pretty good.
However, I did forget a step in the gluing up the binding that caused heat you see in the close up of the top/ binding. CA creep into the end grain.

I've installed many bindings but fitting and taping them up then wicking in CA. Thus us a great low stress way to install bindings. I always seal the channels with shellac, when using redwood and spruce tops, so the CA won't wick into the endgrain. So this time I dud forget to seal the channel and what you see is what you don't want. Yes it us a ARG moment when scrape things down and this is what you see.

So what to do? On a test on scrap redwood I wicked in CA on the edge and got a similar looking sample. I then wiped on CA over the piece and let it dry, and the result is positive. The CA blends it all together. So that will be my fix.

I'll do it at the start of the finishing process after the area where the bridge will be glued down is masked off...I don't want any super glue on the top there. Then I'll put a coat of shellac over the top to seal it so the nitro I spray will adhere.

Anyway things can happen like thus when you don't refer to a " check off list of steps" like I should be doing. I will return to that practice I the future.

Thanks for looking and stay tuned. Next comes completing the neck.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Today I routed the mortise and tenon and fit the neck.
I did a little work adjusting the neck to bring it on center as it was off about 1/8" with the tail centerline. So that is all good. The headstock is semi cut to shape. I'll finish that up once the fretboard is glued in place. With the fretboard pinned to the neck and a straight edge out over the top I have a skosh under 3/8" at the bridge location. This is what I want. My bridges are 3/8" tall but will come down about a millimeter when I fit it to the dome of the top. Then with frets in place I'll have about 2mm above the bridge. When the string tension pulls the bridge up about 1mm like it usually does I'll have about 1mm over the bridge. Perfect. My saddle will end up about 3/16" above the slot.

I also made up and glued on a heel cap.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Some progress today
I glued on the fretboard, yes the truss rod is instslled.). It is radiused to 16ft but I'll go over it again mounted on the guitar to guarantee it's flat before fretting.
I did some carving on the heel after gluing on the heel cap then I fit the neck to the body. It's pretty close but will need a bit of work after I put in my fretboard extension screw down set up.

I finished carving/shaping the headstock as I planed and scraped the neck shaft flush with the fretboard. So that looks good. The. I drilled the tuner holes.
Because of the flared out shape of my peghead I always have close touching strings or very close at the middle post for the top post string, this using 1/2" spacing from the peghead edge to the center of the posts.
So this time, first time in 23 guitars to try it, I varied the spacing of the tuners. The middle ones are at the 1/2" from the edge. But the lower holes are 1/16" closer and the top post holes are 1/16" farther from the edge.
I know the look will change with amount of stem out the sides of the peghead (and hoping it looks okay) but also this should keep strings from touching posts.
Oh and the walnut bridge is made too.

Next, the rest of the neck carving!