One of the bigger jobs is to glue the new braces in the top. I use the original bridge and the holes for the stringpins to place the bridgeplate in spruce and all the bracing with it as a starting point. First, all plates and braces are measured and rough-formed and test-mounted loosely.

The bridge plate is glued together first, I use an underestimated cheap planer with razor blades to shape the three parts of the bridge plate. I plan with a coarse sandpaper as a base to firmly hold the piece of wood. Most of the top is then glued in step one in my mountable go-bar. The gluing takes place in two passes to be able to perfectly fit A-frame braces to the upper cross brace and the plate below.

Everything in the top is glued except the top cross brace. I fit it, but wait to glue it until later before the bottom is glued and when I can test the neck angle. With the right radius below in the underside of the brace, no wedge is needed under the fretboard on the top for a straight fretboard.

The large Levine gets an X-bracing. It takes longer to do an X-bracing as it is more complex. The most difficult thing is the cross joint between the two longest braces, it goes better every time! This gluing also takes place in two sessions.

Now all the bottoms and tops have their braces and I can disassemble the go-bar jig again.