Fixing the soundboard to the body and shaping the headstock

Well it's certainly getting there, and this was probably the most nerve wracking bit of the whole project to date - gluing the soundboard to body, there really isn't any going back after this if it's wrong!

Using all the clamps I posses and some bricks to weight it down I glued the soundboard on to the body.

Phew, it's perfect and has a nice acoustic ring when it's tapped, so hopefully this might sound good!  Thankfully I remembered to route the earth wire into the bridge post hole before I glued the top on.

Using a drill mounted drum sander I trimmed the soundboard flush with body and sanded out some of the gouges caused by my wobbly routing, the deeper ones will have to be filled before I apply the finish.

Headstock cut out, I made a paper template and carefully marked out where the tuners will go first.

Off set tuners fitted, I quite like this, it is (as far as I know) a unique  shape which I may adopt to any future project I embark on.

 Bolted the neck on and checked the alignment, seems to be okay

I love these individual neck bolt ferrules, the holes need tidying up and I need to cut the corner off.  I ripped this idea off an old Yamaha RGX that I have, it looks nice and makes accessing the upper frets easier.  I will also be adding a chamfer to the front and back of the cut away.

Routing the pickup and wiring cavities

I didn't get any pictures of this during the process.  After modifying my cheap router to "fix" the broken plunge depth lock (used a small set of mole grips) I successfully routed the cavities using an acrylic humbucker template from Amazon.

It's not the neatest job in the world but again, it's only my fourth time using a router so not too bad for beginner.

 

Then routed out a small wiring channel between the pickup cavities, made openings into the acoustic chamber for the pickup switch and the volume/tone controls.  Looks like I could have gotten away with not adding the bridge post supports but I'm glad I did.

Drilled the hole for the jack socket.

 Test fit to see how everything looks...

 Well, it certainly looks like a guitar now!!!

Cutting the neck socket

Okay, this was a right royal pain in the ass!  First of all as with the acoustic chamber I drilled most of the wood away.  I then managed to securely wedge the neck template at about a 3 degree angle using some of the spruce soundboard off cut and tape however due to me being a skinflint and only having a cheap router the plunge depth lock broke and kept slipping meaning I nearly wrote off the project.

 

After a bit of fannying about with the router I finally managed to get the neck socket cut.  Thankfully I under marked it meaning that when the router slipped and it went too deep I was able to stop it going too deep and writing off the project.

I used a sharp craft knife and cut the neck socket out of the soundboard by hand

Now the neck is fitted I got the exact bridge and pickup positions marked out and the soundboard taped securely to the body.  I will be routing the pickup cavities and drilling the bridge posts before gluing it down to make sure I can sufficiently access the acoustic chamber from the pickup cavity to feed the wiring components through.

Cutting out the f-holes and contols

 Okay, so I got the top cut out roughly a little whiles ago, now I need to mark out where everything's going and cut the f-holes and controller holes.

 Everything marked out, holes drilled for the switch and the volume/tone pots and starter holes for the f-holes

 f-holes cut out, this was done very carefully as the 4mm spruce likes split and break if you're not careful!

I glued some more of the sycamore veneer to support and brace the holes.  This should help to stop the spruce from splitting under vibration and will support it where the control components get fastened.

All done and I'm really liking the look of this, I can't wait to get it glued on to the body...

Neck socket template

 Using a piece of the left over 12mm ply I marked out a router template for the neck socket.

As with the body template, this took only a few minutes to cut out but a good hour or so to sand smooth and square until the neck fit nice and snug but not too tight.

Bracing bits and making the top

Just added a little bit more reinforcement and strength by gluing some sycamore veneer along the joints

 

I also realised that I may not have made the centre block wide enough for the bridge posts so I glued on some small blocks to reinforce them.

4mm thick spruce sound board ordered off eBay, getting glued up.  I did have to plane the edge square first.

 And then cut roughly to shape

Making the body...

I cut the router template out using a jig saw, this took about 10 minutes.  Sanding it smooth and getting the edges square whilst keeping the shape right?  That took about two hours!

I then cut out the middle, this is to form the chamber of the guitar.  The solid block in the middle is for mounting the neck, pickups and bridge.  This should also prevent feedback from occurring.

The body plank ready for rough cutting out.  I don't need to worry about the knot as it doesn't go all the way through and will be removed with the router.

Rough shape cut out, now to screw on the template and let the router do the neat work.

 Template screwed in place, now for the router - this is the first time I've ever used a router...

Drilling out the acoustic chamber, this removes a lot of wood very quickly and makes the routing a lot easier.

Routing done, didn't go exactly to plan.  I got a little bit of tear out and also managed to wobble a bit in a few places.  I future I will probably make two templates, one for the outside and one for inside that way there router will have a bigger surface to sit on and be more stable.  Still it's the first time I've used a router so not too bad, and certainly nothing a little filler wont fix!