This is going to become a grand concert guitar. It will have black walnut for the sides, back, and neck, and a cypress top. To date, I have built 2 cypress top instruments. The first one was for me, and the second one is in Albq., NM. Now those are 2 extremely different climates. Our humidity is high in Louisiana, and I can see that this cypress top is going to continue to serve me well. I feel safe about building this present one, because it is for a man who lives locally. Now the one in NM – well, I’m still keeping my eye on that one. I usually build four or five instruments at a time, but I don’t have time to document each one on this site. I’m choosing this one, because it will be wired with my standard wiring package. Soon, we will have a new section on my site called “Options.” Instead of re-explaining to everyone how I put the pick-ups in my acoustic guitars, I intend to use the picture from the inside of this top that I’m going to build on the section called “Options.” And since cypress is a very white wood, it will be easy for folks to see the pick-up placement.
All right, here’s where I always begin. I cut the sides to the right length, height, and thickness, and then soak them for about 3 hours. Now that sounds sort of counterproductive, especially since I spend years curing my wood to get the moisture out. But when wood is wet, the grain relaxes, and with the use of my bending iron, I am able to shape the sides. Now not always, but nearly always, the sides on my acoustic instruments are made from one continuous piece of wood, and the only seam is under where the neck attaches to the body. Once the sides have dried for a couple of days, then I start framing that thing up just the way you would a house. And the framing, or bracing, is the strength of an acoustic instrument. I glued in the head block, tail block, and kerfing.
