The only guitar in the ongoing batch selected from the waiting room was a European parlor from around 1910. It had a lovely patina with yellowed lacquer on the magnificent pearl rosette. I have seen several similar guitars with the same rosette, they were manufactured and sold to several guitar factories at the time. It had a slightly more figurative maple at the bottom and side and was in good original condition.

The binding around the bottom made of wood was a complication, it is seldom possible to loosen the bottom in the joint as the binding is a little bit wider than the bottom is thick. The best thing you can do, according to previous experience, is to saw loose bottom, which I did. Problems arose at the neck and end block, I had to let go and saw off the top of both as the bottom sloped more than usual and it was difficult to follow the joint with the saw. Got the bottom loose in one piece including the wooden binding around it. I glued new wood on top of both blocks. The bottom had shrunk unusually little.

I thinned out bottom a bit, the top had a good thickness. I glued all the bracing, including the critical one under the fretboard, before I came up with a new way to securely adjust the neck without having to glue in a wedge or grind down the end of the fretboard. With my new jig I can fix the shape on the sides against the shape of the bottom and then find the right angle to the set the neck. With the neck in the right angle, I can see if the brace under the fretboard needs to be curved more or flattened out so that the fretboard can be glued flat to the top. Fortunately, the standard shape of the curvature of the brace under the fretboard happened to fit perfectly against the fretboard 🙂

A replica bridge and a new 16 ″ radius fretboard were made in Madagascar rosewood. With the help of a few clamps, I can adjust the neck angle even without the bottom and with a loose neck and fretboard. I made the round decorations on the tips of the mustache from scratch, I have previously used the top of old string pins, but making new ones is a little easier.

The guitar got a carbon fiber rod in the neck, a K&K pickup and new tuners. The bottom gluing went without problems as the bottom fit well. I used a transverse adjustable pin and a little extra force in the clamps to press the sides exactly to the shape of the bottom. Cutting away excess wood at the edge of the bottom is not possible as you have a binding. This was possible because the bottom had shrunken less than usual and because the sides and kerfing were flexible.

The fretboard was fretted with hard brass-colored EVO frets. I measured for the intonation at the nut and saddle and manufactured a segmented saddle.

The guitar was varnished with one layer of clear spirit varnish, the neck had pits from a medieval capo that was filled with tough superglue, which was then varnished over with several layers of black spirit varnish. It got a distinct sound with good separation and high volume, it will be well suited for finger style playing 🙂