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L-00 style acoustic guitar


Second guitar was finished in December 2020. I chose the model purely by outlook and I had no clue before this how hard it is to build an acoustic guitar! This is a L-00 body style guitar, designed originally in 1930's. The guitar has 24,75" scale rosewood fretboard and the neck is made from mahogany. The body has rosewood back, sides and bridge, the top is made of European spruce. Wooden bindings of the body are made of used tabletop from Finnish gospel musician Jaakko Löytty.
The guitar has a gloss polyurethane finish.
 

Click the pictures below for the details.

Rosewood pieces of the build
Mahogany neck plank
L-00 style templates
Brace locations of the top
Brace locations of the back
Crafting of the mould
The sides of the mould fitted
Template tested to mould
Spruce top glued together
Halves of the back glued together
Glued back before thinning
Routing channel for the brace
Routed channel
Brace glued in place
Back after sanding
Rosette jig
Bending bindings and purflings
Bent bindings and purflings
Cutting rosette and the soundhole
Soundhole before thinning the top
Rosette glued in place
Rosette after planing and sanding
Fretboard slotted for 20 frets
Thickness of the back
Thickness of the sides
Rosewood bindings glued in place
Measurements for the inlays
Drilling holes for the inlays
Sanding 12" radius to the fretboard
6000mm radius for the back braces
Bound fretboard with 12" radius
Side dots glued in place
Radiused and bound fretboard
Fitting the X-brace
Braces glued together to X-form
Bending of the rosewood sides
Bent left side of the guitar
And the right side
Maple bridge plate
Example of bolted neck joint
Laminated tail block
The sides are now bent to joint the blocks
Crafting neck and tail blocks
Neck and tail block glued in place
Shaping of the back side
Thinning the top using drum belt sander...
The soundhole appears
Lots of clamps for top kerfings
Top kerfings glued in place
Sanding the top side flat
Back side sanded to 6000mm radius
Raw shapes of the top
Glueing kerfings to the back side
Kerfings ready for the next step
Crafting and installation of side braces
Side braces glued in place
Location of braces of the top
Some sticks to get even pressure
Braces glued and fitted to each other
Braces ready for carving
Stiffener glued to the back
Braces are now pre-fitted to the back
Glueing process
Back braces are ready for carving
Lightening of the back braces
Same procedure for the top
Braces carved and finished
Fitting of the top to the sides
Fitting of the back
Glue and pressure added
The body after gluing the back
Final check before spreading the glue,there's no turning back!
Even clamping pressure is important
Now this can be called as a body
Cutting excessive material off with table router
Some sanding again
Routing of the end strip
Masking tape gives a decent pressure in this case
Fit after gluing and sanding
Routing of the binding channels
Preparation of the binding channels
Same binding material will be used around the body
You just can't have too tape!
The more you cut chips, the less you have to breath dust.
First miter cuts in my life
Routing of tenon
Routing of the mortise
First fitting of the neck
Bolt-on neck makes neck reset easier in the future.
Some sanding to match the fretboard to the top
The end of the fretboard mimics the curve of the soundhole
Fretboard glued in place
Peghead veneer is getting glued
Raw outlines of the peghead
Time to remove excessive wood from the neck
It starts to look like an acoustic guitar!
Thinning of the neck
Rough shapening of the neck profile
Getting closer to the final shape
Determination of the bridge location
Rough shaping of the rosewood bridge
Pre-shaped bone saddle from Finnish moose
Alignment of the bridge
Time to add filler and spray the base coats of lacquer
Filler spread to the back and sides
Spraywork is done
Installation of the frets
The top after polishing
The back after polishing
The bridge is glued in place
Heel cap
Tuning machines getting installed
Grover Midsize Rotomatics
Frets are leveled, crowned and polished
Stringing up for the very first time and adjusting the intonation
Label installed
The guitar fits well to 000-size case
Ready for rock n' roll!
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