Ontario Art Council Guitar

I have been kicking up some serious dust in the secret Dagmar lair. The double cutaway prototype is coming along just dandy and I could not be more pleased with the results so far - it's almost as if I know what I'm doing.

I was able to follow my drafting with extreme accuracy and I'm becoming so in tune with the various angles and segmenting the curve that I can now change the blade angle by eye if the shape starts to wonder a bit off course.

I encounter a minor bit of twist with every guitar. It is something that you have to expect when gluing up 86 precision cut segments by hand. If I'm out by 1000th of an inch that mistake multiplies with every segment. With my previous guitars I have been able to sand the twist out. With this guitar rim I discovered a way to correct the twist by popping the rim in the oven at a low temperature with straight edges clamped to it to achieve trueness. The glue softens just a bit and the rim gives and conforms to the straight edge. I leave the clamps on until she cools and the thud sound of the soft glue disappears.

Today I fared the inside using a pneumatic sanding ball and prepped for tomorrows first lamination of carbon fiber. I'm aiming to have this rim ready for shaping by Monday. I'll have my sound plate patterns done too and I'll glue up the Flame Walnut set for the back. I bought a piece of mahogany for the top wood and may start carving it before the weekend.

At this point I start to flip flop between all of the pieces that make up the guitar; the rim, the top, the back and the neck. All of these parts need to stabilize in the right humidity and it's wise to let the glue in the sound plate wood to cure fully before the final glue up.

I revisit the rim a bit each day after the carbon fiber is laminated in. It's a tedious process to fare the inside surface. So instead of doing it all in one shot I spread the task out over time - a bit each day keeps my sanity intact.

The picture shows the rim with temporary squares of MDF glued on here and there. These are protrusions needed to hook the dozens of elastics around for the final glue up. The last keystone slid right into place and it made me naturally high :)