This is my 50th guitar build. I am building this guitar for a friend, Mark, who has spent  time researching and playing guitars to find that perfect size and wood combination for his custom guitar. Mark has decided on my G-45 slope shouldered Dreadnaught. He has picked a beautiful Adirondack top and East Indian Rosewood back and sides.

Below is a picture of the sides before sanding. Mark chose these sides knowing that when they were sanded they would display some awesome coloring. See next picture below:

First side ready to be bent

Bending at 300+ degrees

Both sides in the building form

Heel and tail block glued to sides

Kerfed lining glued to bottom edge of sides

"Driving the bus" -  Sand paper is placed in the radius dish and turned back & forth to sand sides and kerfing to a 15' radius

Top and back of sides & kerfed linings sanded to 30' and 15' radius.

Side reinforcement strips installed

Using a hand plane to true the two sides of the back so they will fit together tightly

I try to take off about 2 one-thousands of an inch of material every pass to work the two pieces of East Indian Rosewood until they fit perfectly

Back pieces and zipper back strip glued together

Back & soundboard joined

Back braced, carved and mated with sides

Sound board rosette: black/white/black outer ring and Pau blue abalone inner ring

Sound board bracing

Top braced and braces shaped

And signed

Top mated with sides & back

Routing binding and purfling ledges

Super gluing and mitering purfling to binding ledges and tail graft cut out.

Binding installation

Sound board binding, abalone inlay and purfling flush sanded.
The next step is to apply 3 coats of sanding sealer to all surfaces and sand between coats. Then 6 coats of clear wood pore filler to smooth out the surface of back and sides (sanding between coats). This will prepare surface for finish sometime after initial neck fit.

Neck blank Glue up

Neck truss rod slot cut

Neck tenon

Neck mortise

Slide show of peg head veneer prep

I built a peg head binding jig. A heat gun is used to soften the white plastic as I form it to the jig.

Peg head veneer ready to install on neck

Initial roughing of neck

First neck fit to body

Fret board glued to neck

Neck with fret board fit to body. Fret board sanded to 16" radius and smoothed using 80, 120 220, 320 & 400 grit sand paper.

Peg head veneer ready to be glued to neck

Neck peg head shaped and sanded to veneer. Tuner holes drilled

Shaping neck

Cutting heel flush for heel cap

Heel cap glued

Fret board Mother-of-Pearl position dots installed

Pressing frets

Fret board side markers

Applying a water based finish

After finish is sanded and buffed, neck is attached to body

Rough bridge blank is shaped to sound board radius

Bridge is hand shaped to finished specs

Bridge location determined

Bridge glued to sound board

Holes are reamed for bridge pins

Frets leveled, crowned and polished

Gotoh 510 mini tuners with black buttons (my favorite) and initial nut fitting

Finished pictures by Jeanne Giltzow