Construction of a Jazz Classical

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Sitka spruce from 1999 joined for the top and behind the American cherry back from 2009 joined with a strip of Nicaraguan cocobolo in the centre.

This is a close up of the American cherry, these temperate timbers are more subtle in there beauty but beautiful nonetheless

Some other pieces, the sides, a cocobolo fingerboard, and a neck with an ebony headplate, I'll likely bind the guitar in ebony but rosewood will also work. The big block is a very old piece of Brazilian rosewood, pre-ban which I will use on the cut-away.

Some small steps but a good start.

Getting ready to glue the rosette.

The rosette inlaid into the sitka top, the top is really beautiful, the cross medullary ray reflection is stunning. The next stage for the top is thicknessing and preparation for bracing.

The cherry back with a cocobolo shard in the centre.

I'm just coming to the last stage on the current guitars, as I make the bridges I'm making yours too.

The Indian rosewood will tie in well with the rest of the rosewood on the guitar and the contrast with the cherry is set to be beautiful.

Final thicknessing of the top using a fine toothed blade to get as flat a surface as possible. This is crucial for bracing.

Once the top is thicknessed I mark out the brace and patch positions using the templates.

Now everything is marked out the first patch is glued. This is where the soundhole will be and offers reinforcement to the hole and the rosette.

Patch carved and the sound hole cut out.

The top is now ready for bracing.

Slowly things are turning towards your guitar. The two I have been working on are all but finished and I'm starting to think more about your guitar.

Hoping to get things moving g in the next week or so.

Here I'm choosing the brace wood for the top and back. European spruce for the top and Brazilian Cedar for the back.

This rosewood will form the horn of the cut-away.

Rosewood and cherry.

I took the rosewood from old dark block gifted to me many years ago. It has a thick scent and colour of chocolate.

Gluing the internal struts in the go-bar press.

Now the various parts are made it's time to put it all together.

All the parts fitting together in the mould.

Fitting the cut-away to the rosewood horn.

I enjoyed the lack of symmetry, guitar making in some sense is about the quest for symmetry, the cut-away is a departure from that, great fun.

Everything glued in place and ready for the back.

The cherry and rosewood back braced and labelled.

The rosewood shard.

The back glued in place using string to apply pressure.

The first sight of a guitar!

The body now ready for binding and purfling.

Fitting the bindings and lines of purfling.

Cutting the thin purfling strips on the table saw.

Fingerboard glued in place.

Ready to plane the fingerboard in preparation for fretting.

Frets in and initial carve of the neck done.

Next stage is to glue on the bridge, once this is done I will do the set-up and string up, then I get a better idea of how the neck feels and can tweak it as necessary.

The bridge clamped in place using string and wooden wedges to apply the pressure.

The bridge is on and almost ready for set up, before that there are some details to soften, edges to round.

The finishing oil is on and almost dry, I just rubbed an extra coat to the neck as it felt a little light, so just waiting for that to cure and I'll string up, the Set up is practically done but there's always some tweaks.

I'm really happy with the colours of all these woods, they follow a warm theme.

The neck goes well with the cherry and even the spruce works well with it's salmon flecks. This all contrasts beautifully with the ebony and the rosewood.

I'm down to the last tweaks, you've set me the challenge of as low an action as possible which I have accepted:) lately I've been trying to set up my guitars with an easier action than standard (which I think of as 4mm on the bass, 3.2mm on the treble, measuring from the top of the 12th fret to the underneath of the string). I've got your guitar to 3mm on the bass and just under 3 (say2.8) on the treble, I’ve made a 2nd saddle that is about 3.5mm on the bass and 3mm on the treble, in case the 1st is too low.

It's conceivable it could go lower but I think it might be too low, you can see what you think. I'm aiming to get the guitar down to you on Monday, I'll update you in due course.

The Finished instrument!