Making an acoustic bass guitar - "Buachaill Ollmhór"

Shame about the damage, but great recovery - love it - very Dave White!

Keith

An elegant solution indeed! I love the creativity of the luthiers on this forum...nothing seems to faze ‘em.

I imagine some deliberately make mistakes just to see how they can overcome them

The Mahogany side braces are notched into the linings and glued in using hot hide glue:



An extra mahogany block is glued in next to the neck block on the bass side – this is the first step in a "cunning plan" to address the neck/body balance when playing with a strap :



The 6mm carbon fibre rod flying-buttress braces are then glued in:



Here's the completed rim-set:

The European spruce top plates are initially thicknessed, jointed and glued using hot hide glue and the tent method:



The soundhole is going to be “bound” with mahogany similar to the Rpad Trip guitar. Firstly a Cuban Mahogany soundhole patch is cut to shape and glued on using hot hide glue and a caul:



The rosette ring is cut from a piece of Cuban Mahogany using the circle cutting jig:





Then a rosette channel is cut in the top down to the soundhole patch:





The Cuban Mahogany rosette ring and black/ white/ black outer purfling are test fitted and glued in using white pva glue:



Next a step is routed in the inner edge of the rosette and then the soundhole is routed out. This gives the look of a totally bound soundhole and the fingerboard edge will finish at the beginning of the step to give a complete Cuban Mahogany ring around the inner edge of the soundhole:

An inspired choice of quote, there, davewhite

The Cuban Mahogany bindings have had their b/w/b side purflings glued. They are then taped together with the top/back purflings:



They are then bent to shape in the Fox-style bender with this result:



Next the top binding channels are cut using the binding jig to the depth of the bindings plus side purflings. The channels are stopped just short of the end-graft. Purfling pieces are stuck using double-sided tape over the end-graft. The binding channel is then cut over the end graft with the jig riding on these so that the depth cut is just that of the binding. The end graft side purflings can then be mitred using a chisel:



Then the back binding channels were cut using the same process:



Next the router is set to cut the top purfling channels and these are routed out:



The top binding, side and top purflings are then glued in using fish glue:



The back purfling channels are routed out:



The back purflings are then glued in using fish glue:



Finally the back bindings are glued in using fish glue:

I notice that you've added a soundport. What's the the rationale behind soundports? Not just on this instrument but generally.

Thanks