Soundhole

Working with the guitar top is really where all the magic happens. There are a thousand things that affect the voice of the guitar.

I thinned the top on the drum sander to about 0.108 inch, flexing it with my hands after each pass when it got down to about 0.120 inch. The top remained pretty stiff until it got to about 0.110 and then changed pretty rapidly. I cleaned up the sanding scratches with the RO sander and some 320 grit paper.

I trimmed the top to nearly the final shape so it would be a little easier to handle. I marked the top for the brace positions then moved on to the sound hole. This guitar will be somewhat understated, so the sound hole will be pretty simply bound with some rosewood.

I start the sound hole by cutting a 5 inch diameter circle of spruce from some scrap spruce and thinned it to 0.125 inch. I trimmed it to match the x-brace and UTB brace, then glued it on. When the glue was dried I cut out the sound hole using the dremel with a down-cut bit.


With the sound hole cut out, I bent a piece of rosewood binding to match the diameter of the hole using a hot-pipe bender. The cut-out from the hole provides a convenient template while bending. The strip doesn't need to be bent to a perfect circle, but does need to be close enough to the final diameter so it can be glued in without forcing it.



In keeping with the understated theme of this guitar, the sound hole is pretty simple. I used a piece of blue purfling between the rosewood and spruce. I was a little worried that the die from the purfling would stain the spruce, so I put a coat of shellac on the top around the hole before gluing.

I glued the purfling on with Titebond, then went back and filled in a couple of gaps with thick CA glue. Wit the sound hole done, its time to move to the bracing and voicing.