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.