Sides Held in Form

Once the veneers are laminated, the full piece is cut in half to create matched sides.  The sides are then places into the body form where they are held tightly against the walls of the form.  The next steps will be to glue the interior blocks and glue "kerfing" which will provide a larger gluing surface at the rims for adhering the top and back plates.

Laminating and Bending Sides

The laminates are plain maple veneers with an outside layer of flamed maple.  Total thickness is approx. .110"

One wide piece of veneered laminate is used, and this is then cut in half to create the two "matched" sides.

Carving a Mold for Pressing Top and Back

This is the mold which will be used for giving the right shape/contour to the top and back plates of the guitar. Four veneers will be "vacuum" pressed onto this mold, once it is completed. >> more on this later.

Top and back will be laminated with 1/16th maple core (spruce center) veneers and a .023 outer flamed maple veneer.  Total plate thickness is .200".

Building a Gibson ES-335 Style Guitar... with 14 strings

This is where we started, some Rhino drawings for design purposes.  And to complicate things just a bit further, it's a lefty guitar.