The instrument pictured here was commissioned by John Oster of Davis, California, and completed in March of 2008. The back and sides are made of Ziricote, a dense tropical hardwood that grows in southern Mexico and Central America. The sides are laminated with Alaskan yellow cedar, and the top is very well aged western red cedar. The scale length is 655mm, which I think is an optimum length for the larger of the two body sizes I build. This guitar has acoustic sound ports and is French polished.

Building a guitar involves hundreds of steps, so what I am presenting here must necessarily be condensed. Still it is my hope that seeing these photos will give you an overview of what it takes to go from raw wood, bits of metal and bone, and shellac flakes and alcohol, to the finished product.

 

The ziricote sides have been bent and laminated to another set of sides made of Alaskan yellow cedar.	Four-piece back has been reinforced and braced, ready for shaping and scalloping of the ends to fit into the lining mortices.
After the bottom and neck blocks are glued in, the back is glued to the side assembly. The linings are made of cherry.	Here the body is ready to have the top glued on, after shaping the top edge of the sides and gluing the label in.
The first step in making the MOP rosette. I remove the bulk of ebony with one router bit, then define the lines with a smaller one.	Here the pearl has been inlaid. You can see the lines delineating the eventual inside and outside radii of the ebony ring.
The rosette has been inlaid and scraped flush with the top. Now the top can be turned over and thicknessed and braced.	The top is being braced in the go-deck. Here the second round of fan braces are being clamped.
This is the completed braced top, ready to glue to the body. The treble bar is let into the lower transverse brace.	My main workbench on a typical day. The top is almost done, needing the large transverse braces to be shaped and scalloped.
This is the finished body, ready for the back and sides to be scraped and the binding ledges routed.	The first piece of back binding/purfling is being tied on. When I'm feeling particularly ambitions I will tie both pieces at once.
This is my setup for tying on the bindings. This guitar does not have a back strip, so there are four less miters to cut.	Here the string slots have been routed, and the string ramps chiseled. A bit more chiseling and sanding and the head is done.
The neck/heel assembly is shaped in this jig to match the curvature of the body. You can see the spline slot in the heel.	The guitar has been fretted and the neck shaped, final sanded, and then stained to darken the maple bindings.
The stained ziricote headstock. There is a thin green veneer that you can't see under the ziricote, that is in the bindings and rosette.	The back of the head showing the transition from the neck to the head. The inside edges have a small chamfer.
This shot shows the ziricote heel cap and the ports. The ports do not need a reinforcing veneer because of the laminated sides.	View of the finished guitar showing the mother-of-pearl rosette, acoustic sound ports, and warm color of the maple bindings.
This shot shows the mother-of-pearl rosette, the label, the stamp that I use on the foot, and the twentieth fret.	#110 and its proud owner John Oster of Davis, California.