So, I bought the circa-1976 1619-4 BFLG from TJR.

The top is pretty beat up and there's a trapazoid-shaped hole in the back. The ultimate plan is to route out the top leaving the purfling and binding in place, then replace the top with new wood using forward-shifted X-bracing. Since I've already got an A-braced 1710-1 CL, I don't need another one and I really like the lively sound of X-braced guitars.

The top sits on a shelf of kerfing that will make it pretty easy to glue a new top in its place.

It was also missing the carved walnut bridge and abalone rosette. Luckily, I was able to obtain these from JB at the Mothership. I also got a complete OP-Pro setup including pickup and jack.

The first order of business will be to do a 3D scan on the TR cover and bridge, then 3D print them so I can use a duplicating machine to make wooden copes of them.

I was thrilled to learnTJR was including an unmolested, modern, hand-laid bowl in the deal as well as some scraps of the 8.5 oz. 2x2 twill cloth used by the factory to lay up the bowls.

Short-term plans are to use it to lay up a patch for the hole in the back using the scraps TJR included. Long-term plans are to splash a mold off of it so I can lay up more bowls.

I recently did a neck-reset for a friend of mine. One think I didn't like was the excessive amount of glue the factory used to attach the top. But, compared to this one, the modern workers were quite frugal.

"Do you think you used enough glue there, Butch?"

The photos don't do justice to the quantity of glue squeezed out of these top joints. They are almost 1/4" thick and nearly 1/2" wide.

Even the rosette had a copious amount of glue.

After these pics were taken I pulled up another couple of inches on either side of what you can see here, so almost the whole lower bout is free from the top. The epoxy glue globs that squeezed out of the joint fracture and separate cleanly from the kerfing. In a couple of spots the clear finish has come off the abalone and it's real purty. The old finish leaves it looking dull and yellowed.

As far as getting the top off without pulling the neck, here's my plan of action.

It's kind of hard to see here, but there's a gap between the top of the neck block and bottom of the top wood. The factory filled this space with epoxy. (naturally)

Once the top is off the body and the sides of the neck block are exposed, I'm going to use a Zona saw to cut the top free from the neck block.

To separate the fingerboard extension from the top, I'm going to use my trim seal iron (on the right) to heat the ebony and soften the glue between it and the top.

It's small and narrow enough to get between the frets so I don't melt the glue holding the fret markers or the binding.

I could cut the patch from the spare bowl, but I'd rather keep that in pristine condition. Or, at least long enough to know I'm able to make usable duplicates of it from my own molds.

Making a patch off the bowl is an idea borrowd from my model airplane experience. This is the same principle as molding landing gear doors on the bottom of the wing so the finished pieces match the bottom profile of the wing perfectly.

What I'm going to do is to tape some thin plastic visqueen to the back of the bowl so it smooth and wrinkle free. Then, lay up the patch over the visqueen. Lastly, lay more visqueen over the patch pulling it taut so it's also smooth and wrinkle-free.

When the epoxy is fully cured, The visqueen is pulled free of the patch. The visqueen leaves the fiberglass patch glassy smooth with no print-through or pin holes.

Then, I just place the patch over the hole matching it to the shape of the bowl and trace out the outline of the hole onto the patch for a perfect fit. I may or may not add a reinforcement. I'm planning to use Hysol, which is an aerospace-quality epoxy to edge-glue the patch. If I think it needs reinforcement, I'll add a thin strip of cloth and resin to the inside of the bowl around the outline of the patch.

Here's what the lower bout looks like after 10 minutes of work. Top is coming cleanly out of the pocket.

I'm probably going to hold off doing any more until I get the 3D models of the TR cover and bridge done.

Pics to follow.

Here's a pic from Stewart-MacDonald's web site showing how purfling and binding are normally installed:

Normally, the top is routed so the purfling is glued to it and the binding is glued to the outer edge of the top and sides.

But, Ovation routed the entire thickness of the top so the purfling edge-glued to it and to the top of the kerfing.

Had they followed traditional techniques, I would not have been able to pull the top up without also pulling up the purfling/binding.

I don't know if all Ovations are built this way, but the non-tradtional construction technique they used here makes re-topping this guitar much easier. 

While I'm gathering the parts I need to build a new top I thought I'd make the patch for the back.

The first task is the knock off the high spots on the mold so the new piece is smooth.

Next, I cut a piece of visqueen (aka Saran Wrap) that's oversize to the patch.

Stretch it down over the 'mold' using Gorilla tape. I've used masking tape in the past, but sometimes it comes up, so this time I thought I'd use Gorilla tape because I know it won't come up. It didn't.

Cut out an oversized piece of cloth.

I wasn't sure if the bowls are one layer of cloth or two. I've read from other sources that they are 'two-ply', so I decided to make this patch two layers. I'll know for sure once I cut the patch to size. If it's too thick, I'll lay up another patch using only one layer of cloth.

I added some graphite powder to color the resin black so it will be easier to finish later. (it will take less black paint)

I mold my parts using MGS epoxy. It's an aerospace-grade epoxy from Germany. It is used on numerous full-size composite airplanes and kit planes. First, I mix the powder with the hardener to make sure the powder is completely mixed in, then add the resin and stir.

Paint on a layer of resin.

Lay on the first layer of cloth and wet it out. Then, paint  on more resin and add the second layer of cloth and wet it out, too.

Once the cloth is uniformly wet, cut out and tape down the top Saran Wrap, er, visqueen.

Use a thin credit card to squeeze out all the trapped air bubbles and let it dry overnight.

Patch is done. Test fit and it matches the contour of the bowl perfectly.

Trim the rough edges.

Next step will be to trace the outline of the hole and cut the patch. Pics to follow.

Dan, thanks for taking the time and effort to post all the steps of this project...its incredibly interesting and also for your continued work on "History of the Bowl". 

Well...I would like to get my order in first. I would like a 1967 DanSavage Classical Re-Issue.  Which brings me to...the shiny bowl. What did they actually do differently to shine it up.  And I guess that process was ditched because of efficiencies (which Fender masterfully used to eventually snuff out Ovation)? 

I've never actually held a shiny bowl, so it's difficult for me to say whether the shine was in the fiberglass itself or paint layer that was applied later.

In the parts I mold, I achieve a glossy smooth finish by using two different weights of glass. The layer closest to the final surface is a lighter weight, i.e.: finer weave. The order of the layers depends on whether I'm laying up over a male or female mold.

When laying up in a female mold, the light weight cloth goes on first, followed by the heavier cloth. Laying up over a male mold is just the opposite.

If you look closely at the pics of the patch, you can see the print-through of the fabric weave where the resin shrunk as it cured. The cloth bowl I got from TJR also has a fair amount of weave in the final surface.

Print-through is easier to control when laying up parts in a female mold because as the resin shrinks, it shrinks to the surface of the mold.

Here's a pic of a part I molded in 2003. It's an inlet duct for a ducted fan model of the Su-27 I designed. The part is laid up over a male mold. It's shiny inside and rough on the outside. I added titanium white dry artists pigment to the MGS epoxy to get the white color seen below.

.

The 1st gen Ovation bowls were also laid up over male molds, but to get the outside smooth, they laid a plastic sheet over the wetted cloth just like I did, and then applied vacuum to suck the visqueen down.

Because the photos TJR sent of the 1st gen bowl show the fabric weave as well as the wrinkles and folds of the visqueen vacuum bag, I suspect that Ovation actually sanded, filled, primed and painted the shiny bowls.

It would be much easier to add black pigment to the resin and lay up the bowl in a female mold. Then, the bowl would come out of the mold black and glassy smooth.

Progress continues.

First thing was to trim the patch to size. I traced the hole using a Sharpie, but the black line on the black part was nearly impossible to see. No surprises, here. So, I taped off the part instead.

My handy-dandy Dremel and fiberglass cut-off wheel made short work of cutting out the part.

Checking the thickness of the patch compared to the bowl shows that the factory did use two layers of cloth.

Test fit. Not perfect, but good enough. The part is taped to the inside using masking tape.

I'll probably use my favorite method of edge-gluing fiberglass parts to assure perfect alignment. First, I'll tack-glue the corners with C/A. Next, apply a fiberglass reinforcement strip and resin to the inside.

Next up, removing the rest of the top.

Before proceeding I made a template for the new top. Yes, that's made from a voting booth. I worked at the local precinct a few years ago and snagged all the unused cardboard booths. :D



Mostly, it went pretty smooth. I only had two small hitches. When pulling up the top from the treble bout, it split all the way up and pulled some of the inner binding away from the purfling. And, when pulling up the upper bass bout top, some of the purfling got separated from the kerfing. Both are minor and easily fixable.

The last step, getting the top out from between the fingerboard extension and the neck block was the hardest. As always seems to be the case, the last 10% of the job takes 90% of the time and this was no exception.

The Zona saw worked okay, but with such fine pitch teeth it was taking forever to cut through the epoxy between the neck block and the bottom of the top wood. I needed to go to Lowe's anyway to buy more propane so I could grill some chicken, so I hit the tool aisle and bought a few different kinds of saws. In the end the Japanese-style double-sided, flexible pull saw was what worked the best.

It allowed me to cut all the way to the 15th free before encountering interference from the curvature of the upper bout.

The trim irons worked okay separating the fingerboard extension from the top wood up until I got to the neck block. Then, it was back to the pull saw. I needed to split the wood into small sections and break them out of the tight space between the fingerboard extension and the neck block.

So, I'll have to notch the new top, but it should be okay. And, no, I WILL NOT be slathering on the epoxy to glue the top to the neck block or to the fingerboard extension.

Speaking of neck blocks, the factory standards for centering the neck block on the body were pretty loose.

While waiting for my top parts to arrive, I decided to verify the neck angle.

I'd planned to put a 28-foot radius top on it. Since the top wood is kind of expensive, I didn't want to glue up all the braces only to find out that the neck geometry was off.

So, I broke out my CAD program and drew up a 28-foot radius circle, then added to it the thickness of the top (9/32") and placed the bridge in the proper location, spray glued the plans to cardboard and cut them out to make a top plate simulator.

Laying a straightedge on the neck showed that it would hit the bridge about 1/4" too low. Not good.

I did a little research online to see if I could find the top radius of these guitars, but could find nothing. So, I checked the top radius my other Ovations. Essentially, they were all flat. Or, at least they started out that way. The pull of the strings over time had caused all of them to develop the characteristic hill behind the bridge and valley in front of it. On some, like my 1719, this was more pronounced and others, like the 2078, less so.

I found a video online where the owner of Blues Creek Guitars was talking about how he sets up the geometry when building for a 28-foot radius top. He said that he liked to have 1/2" space between the top and the bottom of the straight edge.

He also said that this usually requires a neck angle of about 1-1/2 degrees. I broke out a level and my trusty incidence meter and measured the neck angle of the Ovations. These are about 1/2 a degree.

So, I cut out a section of the top plate simulator I built to simulate a true flat top, and the straightedge is now above the top of the bridge by about 1/16" or so. Much better.

Ovations having, more or less, flat tops makes sense. In the factory tour video one of the workers is shown routing the top for the binding. On a wood box guitar this is done with the body in a jig, face-up on the workbench.

But, the Ovation was being routed face-down. This would difficult to do if the top had any kind of radius to it because the top would wobble around and the router would not cut an even groove.

Since the braces I ordered are made to work on a 28-foot radus top, I'll need to modify them to work on a flat plate, but that is a minor task.

Disaster averted.

I found out why the neck block was offset. It looks like there was a method to the factory's madness, after all.

It wasn't sloppy building.

The top strap button was screwed into the neck block.

Good job, guys!

The work continues.

First task at hand is to glue the patch into the hole in the back. A short piece of tape on each side to hold the patch in place. Then, each corner is tack-glued with CA.

A reinforcement piece is cut from 3-oz. plain weave cloth which is slightly bigger than the patch and fiberglassed into place. When it's dry, the inside is sanded smooth to blend the edges into the surrounding area.

The outside is also sanded smooth. The laminating resin is mixed with cab-o-sil to make a thick putty. This is smeared over the seams to blend the patch into the back. The body is flipped over and a final, thin coat of resin is painted over the reinforcement piece. The body is left to dry overnight. The inside and outside are sanded smooth in preparation for paint.

Next up, make a template from cardboard for the top that will fit inside the purfling. Fit is pretty good. This will be used to trace the top wood. I'll leave a little bit of extra wood on the outside and will bevel thei top wood so it will be a slight pressure fit. I bought some binding rubber bands from Stewmac which should squeeze the sides into the top wood.

Cut the sound hole for the rosette. Measure and mark the location of the bridge and the locating holes for the alignment pegs glued into the bottom of the bridge.

Looks good, but it has the dull sound of cardboard.

Check the neck geometry. The ruler just touches the top of the bridge. The cardboard is 3/16" and the top wood will be ~3/32", so this should put the bridge in a perfect position for nice, low action with plenty of room to grow.

Speaking of top wood, I thought that with what this guitar has been through in its life it deserved to have something special. I bought some Master-grade bearclaw spruce from Stewmac. I sprayed some ZIP Kicker on it to highlight the grain and figuring. (mostly naptha)

And, more importantly, it's got a really nice tap-tone. I'm planning to use forward-shifted X brace pattern to give the guitar a nice, bright sound. So, it should make for a nice guitar that sounds as good as it looks.

Next job is to start preparing the braces. Pics to follow.

A side job that needs to be done before gluing the top into place is to replace the missing binding around the end of the fretboard.



I looked at the binding on my 1719 and it was made from one piece. When I bought the top wood, I also bought some .040" x .25" white binding to do this job.

I was able to successfully hand-bend the binding to a reasonable facsimile of the shape, but it took a fair amount of time and effort. When trimming the ends to fit, I cut one end too short. So, that piece was unusable.

Faced with the prospect of bending a new piece and the possibility of cutting that one too short, I decided to make myself a mold to do the bending for me.

I traced the shape of the end of the fingerboard onto 1/4" plywood, then cut it out using my scroll saw. I tried bending the binding cold, but it didn't work too good.

So, I broke out my handy-dandy heat gun. I put the strip of binding into the mold, and heated it up until it got soft, then squeezed the mold halves together using a C-clamp.

Once it cooled, I popped it out of the mold and it retained the correct shape.

And, here's the final piece, trimmed to fit. Actually, this isn't the final piece because the binding I bought is white and the binding on the guitar is ivory-colored. I bought some cream-colored binding from Stewmac, but it's too dark, so I can't really use that, either.

I searched around online and found what looks like the right color binding from a company called, Allparts.com. If it's the right color, I'll make a new patch, glue it into place, then scrape it to match the profile of the fretboard.

Thanks! That's a great story.

Not a special place. Mostly just where they'll fit.

The only stuff having a special place of display is the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling that were built with these types of tools. Even the, they're only there because that's the best place to keep them where they'll stay out of harm's way. (hangar rash)

When I bought my top wood, I bought the bearclaw spruce, which is what I'm planning to use and I bought some cheap spruce I could use as a practice piece.

I'd planned to use hot hide glue (HHG) where ever possible. There are three main reasons for this. First, it's easier to disassemble, should the need arise, secondly, it has a stronger grip on wood/wood joints and lastly because it carries the tone better than any other glue like epoxy or PVA.

One of the first HHG joints was to join the halves of the top wood. I did the practice piece and was very happy with the results, so I did the final wood next.

I found a local furniture shop that was able to thickness sand the two tops for me for $30. As it turns out they do a lot of this type of work for luthiers in my area.

I cut out the practice top and fitted it to the bowl. I wanted to verify the height of the bridge, so I marked the location. Seen in the pic below are the additional notes around the periphery of the top are where I needed to make adjustments when tracing outline of the practice top onto the final top.

I used a 3/16" brad-point bit and drilled the locating pin holes in the pracice top. I'll need to do this with the final top before adding the bracing.

The top is back in the bowl and the bridge is put into place.

A quick check reveals there is a gap of about 1/16" between the straight edge and the top of the bridge, which is perfect. Bridge location on the top is also spot-on.

I traced the top outline to the final top wood, cut it out and started the final fitting. It fits pretty good, but I still need to make a few minor adjustments. Mostly, I'm pretty happy so far.

I've been thinking a lot about what X-bracing pattern I wanted to use. I was originally going to use a forward-shifted X-brace. But, after playing my 2078-TX I've decided to use the Ovation LX bracing.

The LX bracing is very similar to the standard X brace pattern except for minor adjustments to the angle of the X braces. Standard X-braces are layed out with a 98-degree angle and the LX braces have a 95-degree angle.

The 2009 Ovation catalog contains pics of the LX bracing for both the center hole and the epaulet-style tops.

I've imported the photo below into my CAD program and I'm tracing the braces locations with the intention of printing out a full-size plan. Even though the photo below shows a cut-away bowl, the braces are identical with standard bowl except for the to brace above the sound hole. It's been shortened for the cut-away bowl. On the standard bowl it goes all the way across the top.

I'll use this plan to lay out the braces on the top wood.

I took some measurements from my 2078-TX which will help me to scale the plans.

Really interesting and informative thread! Great job Dan  

I've finished the braces for the top.

I was originally going to use a forward-shifted X-brace. Then I decided to use the Ovation LX brace pattern.

But when I started laying out the braces I found that the pre-made dreadnaught braces I bought from StewMac wouldn't fit the LX pattern. They did fit the forward-shifted pattern with a few minor mods to the length, so that's what you see below. For those who are curious about the difference between a standard X-brace pattern and a forward X-brace pattern, StewMac has a page that explains both. See: Banjo Killer? The scoop on forward X bracing for greater guitar volume.

I'm also including the LX brace photo I posted previously for comparison. The primary difference between the Ovation LX braces and the braces I'm using is that while the Ovation braces are scalloped, they are square in cross-section. The braces I'm using are scalloped and tapered to a parabolic cross-section.

I laid out the pattern on my cardboard template for sizing, spacing, etc. I was going to use a cloth patch over the X braces, but after some thought I've decided to make an X-shaped patch out of birch ply and notch the tops of the braces, like what Ovation does on their LX braces.

Once that's done, I'm going to draw the pattern onto the back of my top wood, then start gluing tomorrow. Progress pics to follow.

I glued the braces to the top wood today.

First, get the glue pot started.

Set up the GoBar deck.

Tape visqueen to the base to prevent any accidental gluing of the top to the base.

Clamp the top wood temporarily. These will get removed as I add braces.

I figured it would be best to work from the center outwards. As I add more and more GoBars, they would get in the way of later clamping.

First, the X braces.

Rosewood bridge plate.

Tone bars.

Treble finger braces.

Bass finger braces.

Reinforcement strips.

Transverse brace.

Lastly, the reinforcement strip for the X braces. I was going to use a x-shaped plywood piece, but I did a little reading on the subject and a lot of builders just use a simple strip like this. Once the glue has dried, I'll shape it to match the cross-section of the braces.

Progress continues. The reason for the spaces of time between my posts is that I need to gather either tools, materials or both.

As I noted previously, the fretboard extension is warped downward which interferes with taking the braced top in and out. I knew this was going to cause problems when I get ready to glue the top into place and I would run the risk of scratching the top.

After a little thought, I built a tool that pulls the extension up out of the way. Now I can take the top in and out easily. I used a scrap 1/2" hard balsa plank and a 1" piece of triangle stock and a piece of .030" x 1/2" brass strip stock. I glued the triangle stock to the plank using CA and the brass strip using 5-minute epoxy.

The rosette is not an exact fit to the extension, so I put it into place and used masking tape to mark where I'm going to need to trim it.

Before gluing the top, I need to seal the wood to prevent the glue squeeze-out from staining the edges. Because I'm planning to use hide glue for the bridge and extension, so these areas need to remain bare wood.

First, use tape to mark the boundaries of these areas.

Fill the area inside with tape and remove the boundary areas.

Open up the bridge alignment pin holes.

 Put the bridge into place.

Carefully cut through the tape around the bridge making sure to not cut too deep..

Perfect bridge mask.

This next photo deserves a little explanation. I'm using dewaxed shellac to seal the wood because it provides a barrior between the wood and the glue and is an excellent base for subsequent finish coats. It also provides a nice color to enhance the grain of the wood.

I will be putting a lacquer finish onto the top. But, shortcomings of bare nitrocelluouse lacquer are well-documented. In short, it's delicate and requires careful handling.

In the aviation world, nitrocelluouse lacquer is known as nitrate dope. It is an excellent base coat because it sticks to most anything, including wood, fabric and metal. And, everything used as a finish coat will stick to it. While it makes an excellent primer, it's never used as a finish coat because of its lack of chemical resistence.

That's where butyrate dope comes in. It's extremely durable as a finish coat because it's resistent to most chemicals, including gasoline, oil, nitromentane, alcohols, etc. In fact, only extremely harsh chemicals like MEK, acetone, touluene, etc. will dissolve it. But, butyrate's shortcoming is that nothing else will stick to it, but more butyrate. So, it's a terrible primer, but a fantastic finish coat.

In addition nitrate and butyrate are available in two formulations: tautening and non-tautening. Tautening dope is used on natural fabrics like linen, muslim, etc. to shrink the fabric. Non-tautening dope has plasticizers added to it which weaken the shrinking. They will still shrink over time, just not as much as tautening. Non-tautening is used on synthetic fabrics like polyster, which are shrunk with heat.

So, I'll be usng the nitrate dope for the build layers. Then, once the top is smooth, I'll switch to butyrate for the finish layers. In the end, I'll have all the benefits of a lacquer finish and none of the shortcomings.

I would love to use hide glue to fix the top to the body, but the kerfing is plastic and hide glue doesn't stick to plastic. So, I'm pretty much stuck with using epoxy. I did a quick review of the different formulations of Hysol and decided to use 0151. It's optically clear, but more importantly it's temperature range is -35°F - +160°F and it has a 60-minute working time.

If ever the time comes where I need to remove the top, I just need to heat the glue to anything over 160°F and it'll soften enough to break the bond. Of course, this also means I'll need to take care not the leave the guitar in a hot car, but that's already a given with almost any guitar.

I painted the top with a coat of shellac to start the process. I let this layer dry overnight. I sanded it with 180-grit, then 320-grit and applied a second layer. I will leave this layer alone until the top is glued into place, then I'll sand it smooth and start adding the nitrate build layers. 

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

I've learned a lot about guitars while working on this project. My background in model aviation has definitely helped because a lot of the materials and tools are the same in both areas.

I'me really close to gluing the top into place. One of the small jobs that needed to be done is replace the missing binding from the end of the fretboard extension. I ordered some 'cream' colored binding from StewMac, but it was too dark. I found all kinds of ivoroid binding online, but I didn't want to use that because ivoroid has 'grain' molded in and it wouldn't match the binding already on the guitar.

I ordered some 'cream' colored binding from allparts.com and it's almost a perfect match. I molded it using the binding tool I made and my heat gun. I glued it on yesterday with 5-minute epoxy, then scraped it down.

It's not 100% perfect, but I'm very happy with the results.

Well, the top is on.

First order of business was to prepare the area where the fretboard extension gets glued to the top. I peeled off the tape and applied a coat of hide glue and let it dry. I also applied a coat of glue to the back of the fretboard extension.

After the epoxy holding the top dries, these will get a fresh coat of hot glue to reactivate the dried glue and clamped together.

I made the bridge clamping caul out of two pieces of scrap 1/4" birch ply and glued them together with CA. This will also act as a backstop for when I drill out the pickup wiring hole so it doesn't bust how huge chunks of the rosewood bridge plate.

I applied a bead of Hysol 0151 to the kerfing and at the very top underneath the fretboard extension.

This is the applicator gun. Anyone whose seen the part of the factory tour video where the worker is gluing the rosette into the groove of the Legend top should recognize this tool as it's the same as the one shown here. I'm not sure which Hysol epoxy they used, but it's probably the quick-drying variety. The 0151 definitely takes a full 24 hours to completely harden.

Dropped the top wood into place and wrap the rubber bands around the bowl. Each wrap is a single rubber band looped either two or three times, depending on the location. Lengthwise wraps got two loops and spanwise wraps got three.

I was going to use binding tape, but the top wood warped slightly after the braces were added and parts of the top didn't want to sit flush. The rubber bands applied pressure to these areas to hold the top flat and tightly against the kerfing all the way around the bowl. They also squeezed the bowl slightly against the top. There are a few gaps between the wood and the purfling here and there, but I'll fill these with epoxy so they're level with the surface.

The glue is dry and I removed the rubber bands. I reactivated the glue between the fretboard extension and the top, then clamped them together for about 30 minutes to allow the glue to set.

The rosette has been sanded to fit and it goes into place nicely. I also dropped the bridge into place so I check the neck angle (looks good!) and so I could ogle what the finished product would look like. (looks good!)

Now, it's onto the finishing process. First up will be to mask the entire guitar and start spraying the nitrate dope and leveling the surface.

Tap tests show the top is very resonant. I almost want to glue the bridge down and string it up to hear what it sounds like, but I will resist the temptation and finish it first so that once I finally get the bridge glued down I can just enjoy it from then on.

Fun, fun, fun!

Whoa! I wonder if all Folklore guitars have a hole in the brace? Original X-brace like the one below, right?

Does it look like this bracing pattern? Note that there is no x-reinforcement and the ends of the x-braces aren't scalloped.

I can see how the simple brace pattern would make for a very responsive-sounding guitar. There's nothing there to impede the vibration of the top wood.

Just a quick update.

I put together my little spray booth using a voting booth I acquired a few years ago. I added a visqueen curtain to keep the overspray under control.

I taped down some balsa to keep the guitar from rolling around while it's being sprayed.

The nitrate dope has been applied and leveled. I'm ready to start applying the butyrate finish coats.

I applied the first couple of coats of butyrate tonight. I'll let that dry for a day or so to fully harden, then wet sand it with 320-grit and apply a couple more coats.

At that point I'll decide whether to go through another cycle of sanding/painting or to start the finish sanding process working up from 600-grit, to 1200-grit and 2000-grit and final polish.

Well, it's been over a month since my last post.

It took longer than I expected to spray the dope. I had planned to let it harden for a full two weeks. While the dope was hardening, I refurbished/rewired a pedal box project for a friend. That project ended up taking three weeks, so the dope hardened an extra week.

Here's what the finish looks like after cutting and polishing. Except for being a lot more shiny, it's not too different from the pics of the top with base shellac finish, but that was the plan. I knew the dope was, for the most part, optically clear, which is why I chose it.

What I didn't expect was the weird clouding in certain spots. I did my best to repair these areas, but in the end there wasn't too much I could do except sand the finish down to bare wood and start over. Ther was no way was I going to do that. I don't even know how it's going to sound with the new bracing pattern I used.

In the end I decided this was a learning experience and have decided to avoid using lacquer in the future. First, because it's a pretty tedius process having to spray on so many thin coats and secondly because if the lacquer happens to seep through the base shellac, the solvents in the lacquer melt plastic, as what happened with the bottom binding around the lower bout.

On to removing the bridge masking. First step is to remove the build-up of sanding dust and lacquer from the alignment holes.

Drop the bridge into place, then using a sharp #11 Xacto knife, score the finish around the bridge to ensure a clean separation line.

Peel the tape off, leaving the clean top wood ready for gluing the bridge using hide glue.

Right now I'm staining and sealing the bridge so it matches the TRC. Once that's done I'll glue it down.

"It seems all pics of the post have been deleted"

Thats what I thought too at the very beginning, but they were just slow to load

Astounding! I hope you realize how encouraging your posts are and what hobby shop carnage will ensue by those of us with a lot less patience and skill. It must be time to make some sawdust fly!

Mike, 

My thoughts exactly. John & Co. should be getting a lot of "clean up" jobs from those of us that are thinking "hell, piece of cake"

Cool, er  Glossy!   

The clouding issue and lacquer seepage may be a bit of bummer to ya, but gosh, still an impressive and inspiring job Dan. imho

excellent attitude.

 I've attempted makin' cake... wasn't pretty ... 'n barely edible. 

Thanks for the kind words. Like I say, I've learned my lesson and I'm done with lacquer. I'll stick with petroleum-based finishes from now on. I can get a finish that's just as thin as lacquer, but without all the hassles.

It's bridge-gluin' time...

As it comes from the factory, the bridges have a minor recess milled into the bottom. I have no idea what purpose these serve. It could be this gives a little more gluing surface for the epoxy, or it could be their way of roughing up the wood to give the epoxy some tooth.

Regardless, this wouldn't work with the hide glue because, unlike epoxy, hide glue has poor gap-filling capabilities. So, I sanded off the lip so the bottom of the bridge was completely flat. This did thin the bridge slightly, but only about .001". (~1/128")

Here's a look at the underside of a bridge that still has the recess and the CL bridge.

I wanted my bridge to match the color of the TRC, so I painted on some clear butryrate dope. When the dope was wet, it looked pretty good. After it dried, it went back to the color of the bare walnut. Since I couldn't add stain over the dope, I added some burnt sienna and raw umber dry artists pigment to the clear dope to make a dope stain. In the pic, the TRC looks a lot darker, but in real life they're pretty close to the same color. The bridge looks real nice on the guitar.

I glued together some scrap 1/4" marine ply and 1/2" medium balsa to make a bridge clamping caul. I used the balsa, first, because it's easy to carve and second, because I knew it wouldn't dent the carving on the bridge. It's a pretty crude-looking affair, but it works.

I cut out some scrap 1/8" basswood sheet stock to prevent the clamps from scratching/denting the finish.

I used some binding tape to keep the bridge plate clamping plate in place. Because the hide glue has such a short working time, I wanted to make sure I didn't have to mess around with keeping this plate aligned while putting the clamps in place.

I did a dry run to get the clamps preset and to practice which order they would be applied.

To increase the working time of the glue, I preheated the gluing surfaces of the bridge and top wood with my heat gun.

The bridge is glued and clamped and I got a nice squeeze-out of glue. I wiped this up with a moist paper towel and left the clamps in place for about 4 hours to let the glue harden. Once I took the clamps off I checked the neck geometry and it's still perfect with the top of the frets about 1/16" above the top of the bridge.

The next job is drilling the hole for the pre-amp wire and glue the rosette into place. Pics to follow.

I was always intrigued by these as well. Based on the design of a medieval Lute. In Japan they actually had three models. but these are probably just as difficult to find (I'm also trying to find a Tama TG-190).

Final 'construction' steps:

Drill the bridge for the pick-up wire. First, mark the location.

Transfer the location to the bridge caul. The idea is that I'm going to use the bridge plate clamping plate as a drill backing so I don't blow out the rosewood bridge plate.

Use a spade bit to make a 9/16" hole which will be big enough to allow me to see the pick-up wire location once the bridge caul is clamped into place.

Hole is drilled. It needed a little sanding to enlarge it enough to allow the plug to pass through.

I used 5-minute epoxy out of a pre-mix nozzle to glue the rosette into place.

As of now, the guitar is pretty much done. I'm going to let the glue(s) dry until tomorrow, then install all the hardware and string it up. I can hardly wait. Pics to follow.

Here's a couple of pics of the DY92.

The 1619 sure looks great!  D'ya get them strings on it yet?

ps - that DY92 is neat, all Renaissance looking. But to really show it off, ya gotta play it backwards  ...I ain't that good!!  

You betcha! Got it strung up this afternoon. I was busy all morning and couldn't wait to get home to get the strings on and see how it sounds.

In short, I'm very, very happy with it. The top wood and brace pattern are everything I'd hoped. It's bright, loud and has terrific sustain on all six strings. Plus, it looks real neat, too!

Here's the finished product.

Man! That is beautiful Dan. You should be very proud of what you created. Pretty doggone impressive! I wished I could play it to hear what she has to say. Thanks for sharing your journey with us. 

+1!!! 

Comparing these, it's easy to see the transverse bar and that the spacing on the fan braces is a lot wider on this guitar than on the A brace shown above.

Not to mention the different model numbers are shown next to the pattern that used them.