Archtop and Other Stuff

If you read this regularly you might remember I started and archtop build with the help of a Vancouver Island luthier Joe Egan but getting back to it with him has proved challenging so local luthier Meredith Coloma (http://www.meredithcoloma.com/) agreed to give me a hand with the last real tricky part, cutting the dovetail neck joint. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend.

Since I had to get the neck for the archtop in shape for this I also glued up the necks for the two parlour guitars I'm currently working on.

So i have a fully roughed out 3 piece Spanish Cedar & Walnut neck for the archtop and a 3 piece Spanish Cedar & Walnut neck for one parlour and a 5 piece Narra, Walnut & Maple neck for the Pacific Parlour. In case you're wondering Narra is also called New Guinea Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus) so it meets the Pacific criterial. Interestingly Narra is the tree that produced the Amboyna Burl, although the regular wood looks nothing like the burl..

I also finished a few more head plates that I will use on the regular parlour guitar and the archtop.

Tenor Archtop neck with it's headplate

Necks for the two parlours...

X-Carve CNC Inlay

OK I've done some tests with the X-Carve for inlay with actual shell and actual parts I'll use on future guitars...

Pretty darn happy, the first one took bit of playing to get the offsets right but after that all pretty quick & easy.