Skip to content 1. The beginning 2. Marking out top and back plates 3. Cutting out top 4. Marking out bracing 5. Routing for rosette 6. Fitting rosette 7. Glueing back reinforcement strip 8. Chiseling out recess for braces 9. More chiseling 10. Glueing back bracing 11. Cleaning up excess glue 12. Inspecting back bracing 13. Scalloping back braces 14. More scalloping 15. Checking thickness of scalloped brace 16. Bending a side by with bending iron 17. Side sandwiched between bending blankets 18. Pushing hot side into mold 19. Clamping side into mold 20. Letting sides cool 21. Bent side 22. Fitting sides to mold 23. Using square to mark off side length 24. Cutting side to length 25. Fine tuning side length on belt sander 26. Fitting butt block 27. Fitting neck heel block 28. Glueing in endblocks 29. All clamped up 30. Cutting endwedge 31. Chiselling recess for endwedge 32. Endwedge in completed guitar 33. Clamping in kerfing 34. More kerfing installation 35. Glue cleanup 36. Kerfing installed 37. Inspection time 38. “Shake and baking” sides 39. Checking progress 40. Getting ready to fit back 41. Marking out for brace mortises 42. Cutting brace mortise 43. Chiselling out brace mortise 44. Filing to fit 45. Checking back fit 46. Back glued up 47. Fitting X brace 48. Clamping in X brace 49. Glueing in the rest of the top braces 50. Scalloping tone bar 51. Scalloping ends of X brace 52. Planing brace height 53. Cathedralizing top braces 54. More cathedralizing 55. Shaping fan braces 56. Demonstrating tap tuning 57. Shaping finger braces 58. Tap tuning top 59. Final brace scalloping 60. Finishing up classical top 61. More tap tuning 62. Finished steel string top 64. Preparing sides to receive top 65. Marking out braces positions 66. Cutting mortises fro top bracing 67. Clamping up top 68. Bodies closed up 69. Routing for top binding 70. Routing for back binding 71. Checking binding fit 72. Preparing to glue binding 73. Taping binding in place 74. Binding taped up 75. Neck wood as we receive it 76. Glueing up neck blanks 77. Fitting neck 78. Routing for truss rod 79. Checking neck fit 80. Truss rod installed 81. Shaping edges of fretboard 82. Installing pearl dots 83. Fitting fretboard on neck 84. Time to trim neck 85. Cutting neck to size 86. Cutting ukulele neck 87. Very important – making notes 88. Trueing up fretboard 89. Demonstrating fret installation 90. Fretting 91. Fretting fretboard overhang 92. Checking level of frets 93. Roughcutting neck heel 94. Rasping heel 95. More rasping 96. Final shaping of heel 97. Rasping profile at nut 98. Checking neck profile 99. Measuring neck thickness 100. Spokeshaving neck 101. More spokeshave action 102. Checking neck 103. Necks all done 104. Sanding body 105. Lots of sanding 106. Applying sealer coat to top 107. Applying sealer coat to sides 108. Applying sealer coat to back 109. Sanding sealer coat 110. Lots more sanding between sealer coats 111. Applying gel varnish 112. Bodies drying 113. A brief moment of celebration 114. Neck installation 115. Tuner installaton 116. Glueing on bridges 117. Stringing up 118. Tuning up 119. Lots of tuning as strings stretch 120. Filing nut grooves 121. Adjusting nut 122. A big moment of celebration 123. Some celebrate more quietly 124. Very proud of how his back looks 125. 12 string all done 126. Guitars #1 & #2 127. Graduation photo 128. See more pics on Graduates Gallery