Back Bracing...

(Click to Enlarge)
3mm Abalone for rosette

My rosette material should be arriving soon.  I've ordered cruved 3mm abalone for the rosette from Duke Luthier and it should be here either today or tomorrow.  Once the rosette is installed I can get the bracing for the top glued into place.

(Click to Enlarge)

The X-braces have a slight radius to them on the side that mates with the top plate.  Before gluing the x-bracing I need to form a mold of the radiusing using index cards.  I got the idea from Kenneth Michael Guitars website.  The index card mold was a pretty painless effort and should work great.  I just clamped down the center of the x-bracing and then stacked cards out to the end of the brace.  In the picture below you can get a better idea of the radius on the bottom side of the bracing.

(Click to Enlarge)

While waiting on my abalone, I also got the back braced up and the sides notched out.  The sides are notched out to allow the bracing to fit onto the edge of the sides.  You can see in the picture to the right how the bracing extends beyond the outline of the guitar.  This will be more explanatory when I glue the back plate onto the rim.

Rosette is the next step.  Hopefully, I'll have more to report once that's done.