Euro Spruce/Madagasgan Rosewood FE19, with a twist.

Bit of a break from building as my new long awaited Pip Bickerstaffe Longbow arrived and arrows had to be made and new toys played with, but back to it now. It's time to start the bracing, don't you just love bracing!

Starting with the back.



I then carve the bracing and add the centre reinforcement strip, the linings are relieved for the bracing and the side supports added and the back dry fitted to the rims.



The top bracing is cut, I'm still using my violin top Euro spruce.



Colin

Bracing the top is a four session process as some braces have to be carved before others can be fitted, and those of the lower bout go on in the radius dish, while the upper bout on a flat surface.



Unusually for a Torres and thus for me I'm using a small bridge patch on this top, reason being that I'm going to glue on a K&K classical pickup system so I wanted to glue this to a patch rather than directly to the top in case of future replacement being needed.



The rest of the lower bout braces have been added and carved with the three that pass over the patch being notched to fit. The braces are shaped then the lower open harmonic bar added and carved.

Finally the two upper braces are glued on and carved and finally the open upper harmonic bar glued in place, tomorrow that will be carved and the top dry fitted to the rims.



Colin

Perfect, colins. Looks as if it's just been tipped out of a jelly mould.

The label is glued in.



Next a new departure for me, for the first time I'm adding a pickup to a nylon string guitar, luckily K&K make one specifically for fan braced classical guitars.



The saddle position is carefully measured and marked and the two outside transducers are glued in place under the e-E string positions.



And the other two transducers are then glued one on each side of the centre fan brace.



And the top can then be glued on in the go bar, using fish glue.



Colin

On with the binding, this will have mosaic with red and Madagascan rosewood purfling on the top and mosaic and red on the back and sides, with pear binding. I first rout the binding and purfling channels then install the top and back purfling. Doing this first allows me to check the fit of the binding and side purfling and make any minor adjustments.



When the channels have been checked the pear binding and side purfling are glued in.



A quick tip that some of the newer builders may not know (Dave, Nigel etc look away now, this isn't for you!) To get the mitres at the right angle use the shiny back face of a chisel, when the angle is 90deg, an easy thing to judge, then make your cut.



OK guys you can look again.

The sides are levelled with the binding and the top and back binding/purflings are planed and scraped level and the box given a first sanding.











Lots more sanding to do before finishing, but that's the box for now.

Colin

Looks like very neat sewing - tacking, my mother called it I believe - all around the edges, colins .  Very handsome.  

I've checked the chisel thing, by the way; can't get a reflection out of any of my chisels...