Click here for photos of this build

I am building a left handed St Clair for Joan with East Indian rosewood back and sides and an Engelmann top.

_________________________________________

Jun 15: Each spruce top has a unique weight and stiffness. Therefore, each top needs to be voiced to get the most out of the top and generate a consistent tone. The first step in voicing was to sand enough material from the top to the point that the top is on the edge of losing some of its stiffness and integrity. I did this prior to gluing on the braces. Next, braces were glued to the top to restore some stiffness. The braces I had glued to the top were cut oversize and consequently made the top too stiff. The last step in voicing was to remove material from the braces, slowly loosening up the top, until the top was flexing the way I want. I used a chisel to carve spruce from each of the braces, essentially allowing the braces to flex more. I carved away spruce then tested the flex in the top by tapping on the bridge location and measuring how much the top deflected under a fixed amount of weight. This process continued until the top was moving the way I wanted. I then sanded the braces and top with fine sandpaper, and the top was ready to be glued to the rims.

I reinforced the joint where the two back plates were joined by gluing down a cedar strip. Once the hide glue had cured, I removed a small section of the reinforcement strip to allow the mahogany back brace to pass through. I used a small razor saw and chisel to remove the reinforcement strip. The trick here was to open up the slot just enough for the brace. I don’t like sloppy joints, so I worked slowly until all four back braces fit snugly. I then glued in and clamped the back braces.

Jun 13: Today was bracing day. I took the dog for a walk, then before breakfast, I plugged in my glue pot to start heating up the hide glue I would be using to attach the braces. I dry clamped the X brace in place and used that as a guide for locating the bridge backing plate. Once that was in, I glued down the X brace and followed up with the tone bars and finger braces. I am building the top with a 40′ radius. The bottom of the braces were cut to a 40′ radius, and the top was placed in a large 40′ radius dish prior to gluing and clamping the braces. This ensured the top will have a slight 40′ radius after bracing.

I still needed to glue on the upper transverse brace, which runs across the upper bout and snugs against the end of the fingerboard extension platform on the neck block. I want this brace to fit perfectly against the neck block. To get this snug fit, I made the brace then notched the rims so the brace spanned the upper bout and butted tightly against the neck block. The top was braced with the ends of the X braces extending beyond the sides of the guitar. I located the top on the rims and marked each X brace end on the top of the rim. Using a small saw, my laminate trimmer, and a file, I notched the rims to let through the X braces. I could then fit the top tightly to the rims. With the upper transverse brace and the top in place, I reached through the sound hole, lifted up the upper transverse brace along with the top, marked its location, and glued it in place. The last braces to go on were the sound hole and X brace reinforcements. The top is now ready for voicing.

While waiting for glue to cure on bracing, I glued in some reinforcements along the inside of the rim. Some argue that these can prevent a break from spreading if the guitar is dropped. Maybe they can. I do believe they add a bit of stiffness to the rims, which may help the top and back resonate just a bit better.

Jun 12: Family left today, so I was able to get a couple of hours in the shop. I fired up the CNC and pulled some wood to use for bracing. The CNC is helpful in putting a 40′ radius on the bottom of the braces and cuts the rest of the brace profile a bit oversize. After the braces are on, I use a chisel to remove wood from the braces as I voice the top. The two bigger braces that make up the X brace are notched and glued together prior to gluing to the soundboard. I used a template to layout the location of the braces then marked where the two X braces needed to join. Using a small saw and file, I cut matching openings in each brace. I worked slowly and carefully on this as I like this joint to be nice and tight. Once I liked the fit, I glued the two braces together. Last I could squeeze in today was to make a maple backing plate for the bridge.

Jun 9: I have family arriving today for a few days, but I had some time this morning to run the top through the thickness sander to clean up the rosette. Once the rosette was looking good, I sanded the side of the top with the rosette with my random orbital sander and some fine sandpaper to clean up the scratches left from the thickness sander. I then took the top back to the thickness sander and slowly removed wood from the opposite side of the top until the top was flexing as I wanted. I then used the random orbital and that side of the top. The top is now ready for bracing.

Jun 8: Today I inlaid the rosette. I had already cut out the shell and wood needed for the rosette. I marked the location for the center of the sound hole and mounted the Engelmann top on my CNC table. I first inlaid the rosewood pieces by cutting a pocket with the CNC and gluing in the pieces. I had previously laid out the pieces so the edges of one piece best matched the grain and color of the adjoining piece, so installing was simply a matter of spreading glue in the pocket and pressing in the wood pieces. Once the glue had cured, I used the CNC to mill a pocket for the abalone shell ring. Here as well, I laid out the pieces to get the best match of color and chatoyance. When done carefully, the joints basically disappear. After the glue had dried, I used a fine endmill to cut the pocket for the black/white/black purfling. I do this two rings at a time. Once all the purfling was in, I left the glue to dry.

Saturday, I had glued in the kerfed linings. These needed to be sanded to get them ready for the top and back. The top linings were sanded with a flat bar to provide a nice level surface across the top. To get the proper plane for the fingerboard, I also sanded a drop off from the sound hole to the neck joint. Basically, the drop off is a slope just over a couple of degrees. The back linings were sanded with a 15′ radius sanding bar, which sanded the linings to the same radius I will be building the back.

Jun 6: Glued the linings to the rims today. I used kerfed linings and glue the kerfed edge to the rims, which stiffens and strengthens the rims slightly better than joining the other face. The linings provide a solid gluing surface to attach the top and back. The gluing surfaces need to be sanded and the back linings radiused, but I’ll do that another day after the glue has fully cured.

Joan wants a wood rosette with a single ring of shell running around the center of the wood ring. I like to make these rosettes with the wood grain running radially around the rosette. To get that effect, I cut small pieces with the grain oriented the same way across all pieces. When assembled, the grain will run toward the center of the sound hole. This would be difficult if I didn’t have a CNC ;). While I had the CNC warmed up, I cut the abalone shell needed for the center ring.

Jun 5: After pulling some weeds and getting some more mulch down, I got back to the shop. I made the blocks for the neck and the tail and glued them into the rims. The neck block is a bit tricky as I glue and dowel a support for the fingerboard extension that also butts into the upper transverse brace. The fingerboard extension support is built with a slight angle sloping up from the rim joint. The angle ensures the proper plane of the upper bout, so the fingerboard plane remains flat while providing proper string height above the frets. This little block is key in making a guitar playable.

With the back plates and top plates joined, I ran each of these through the thickness sander to remove the glue and clean up the back and top. I took the thickness for each down a bit, but I will take off more and fine sand once the rosette has been inlaid in the top and inlays completed on the back.

Jun 4: We are now officially underway on Joan’s guitar. I pulled an Engelmann set to use for the top and my nicest East Indian Rosewood to use for the back and sides. I joined the top and back plates and set them aside. I precut the profile of the sides prior to bending, and ran each of the sides through the bender. I have broken enough sides over the years, I always get a bit anxious when bending wood for the rims. East Indian rosewood is typically very cooperative when bending due to all the oils in the wood. That was the case with the sides for Joan’s guitar. They bent without any issue. Yay!

Sep 2025: Joan had some inlay ideas for the headstock of her guitar that I will be building next summer. She wanted to engrave the inlay, so before closing up the shop for the summer, I designed, cut the inlays, and made the laminate for the headstock. I sent the laminate to Joan, and she will have the winter to do her engraving.