Building Gallery
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