Gluing the back

I started to work on the back and sides of the guitar this weekend. Here's a pic of the Amazon Rosewood as I received it from the dealer.

The two pieces that will make up the back of the guitar had to be thinned to about .110 inches. I brought the wood to my friend's shop (RolandAdamsFurniture.com) to get this done.

First each piece was sent through the planer.

Then through the jointer to square up the edge for gluing.

Now it's ready for gluing. The two back pieces with a D-28 style checkered maple back strip in between.

I use fish glue to build my guitars which has very similar properties to hot hide glue but fish glue is much easier to work with. Like HHG, fish glue is a collagen glue and dries very hard and crystalline. It grabs the pieces you're gluing fairly quickly but still allows time to make adjustments. The clamp time is 6 hours.

Here's the back pieces all glued and clamped. I'll un-clamp in the morning and glue on the back braces.

Well I started building #4 today. I'm going to try to blog this build as it progresses day to day. This guitar will be a Martin style dreadnought guitar made "old world" style (as much as possible).

The top, or soundboard, of the guitar will be made of Adirondack Spruce harvested in the state of Maine by Dave Smith. The back and sides of the guitar will be made of Amazon Rosewood.

It all starts on day one with a block of Sitka spruce. Referred to as "brace stock" to make the bracing for the guitar. 

From this chunk of quartersawn spruce I cut 4 pieces for the main back braces. Two short and wide for the rear braces and two tall and narrow for the forward braces.

The two extra braces in the above photo were cut for the top which we'll work on down the road. 

The backs of these Martin-style guitars are not flat, they have an arc to add strength and stability. These back braces have to have a 15' radius in order to "pull" the back of the guitar into the proper curve or arc. 

The jig below has the proper 15' radius with sandpaper attached. The braces are sanded, back and forth, on the jig until they attain the 15' foot radius on the bottom side. 

Jigs are from Blues Creek Guitars

That's all I got done on day one. Next weekend I should get the back glued up and these braces glued to the back.