Andyjr1515

First job was to bend the sides and the basis that - as they are matched sets with the back - one major crack would mean the end of the project and therefore may as well get that over with before wasting any more time...

Found my shape mould from Chris's build:

Soaked the sides in warm water with a touch of fabric softener (I'm assured it makes a difference!):

Then started the slightly scary process of hand bending over the electric bending iron:

Once they were relatively close, clamped them into the mould overnight until they fully dried out:

Then trimmed the ends, reassembled the mould and attached the neck and tail mahogany blocks and hey presto - we still have a project!!!!

1 hour ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

We're having trouble with showing pics in posts, Andy. It's a problem that needs to be solved at the source. Charic is on the case.

No problem.  The direct load rather than Imgur link seems to have worked OK

Hmmm - the photo link doesn't appear to be working?  I'll download them directly

Hi

Well - as I've risked life and limb three or four times posting 6-string builds in Basschat, I thought the least I could do is post the first build in Guitarchat

While it would be a hoot if it was a bass, it's actually a 6-string and there is a build diary on Basschat currently live.

If you've been following that, then ignore this but, if you haven't, I'll do a summary thread of the progress.  There's quite a bit of detail in the Basschat version if anyone is interested in building one and, of course, feel free to ask.

So - over three or four posts I'll bring it up to present progress.

First of all - this is my third acoustic build.  

I built this OM size for myself:

I had a go because, although I had discounted ever trying an acoustic as 'too hard', I saw a build thread on one of the other forums and thought 'you never know...'

Spurred on by beginners luck, a few years later I built this dreadnought sized one for a 'special' birthday of our band's vocalist, Chris:

So why a third?  Well - I am mainly a finger-picker and OM's are perfect for that.  Mine turned out to be no exception.  But they are a teeny bit jangly for strumming.

Chris on the other hand is a strummer - so a dread was right for him.

But what surprised me for this one - maybe the woods, maybe just luck - was how good it sounds finger-picked.  As good as my OM.

And - because it was for a special birthday, I bought enough wood to recover from any major building disaster.

And that wood was just lying around in the way and what could I do with it? 

Well....I could always build one for myself. I s'pose 

So I got the wood out, which included lacewood (London Plane tree) back and sides, an offcut of Macassar ebony fretboard and maple neck blank as well as the original mahogany one.  No top wood but I could always get some of that.

And dug out the Elite Guitar Plan I used for Chris's build:

And went down the cellar to start making sawdust 

Hi, folks

Very kind of you to set this up just for little old me (actually an apt and accurate description) 

Andy

Hi

Wasn't aware this was on the way.  I'm sure it's only because I keep posting 6-string electric and acoustic builds on the Build Diaries of Basschat 

Anyway - very grateful

Andy