Thanks, John. This has been on my bucket list for years.

I went to glue up the braces on the soundboard. I'm using hot hide glue. Once the glue was hot, I applied it to the X brace joint and found it gummy. It wasn't hot enough. Then it hit me. I FORGOT TO PUT WATER IN THE KETTLE!!! That dumb move cost me one heater. A new one is on the way.

In the meantime, why not glue the back braces with PVA? They usually don't need to be replaced.


Next is doing some shaping on the braces and pinging the board to see how it sounds. My homemade pinger is at the top right. It seems to get better results than a fingertip or knuckle.


Pinging it resulted in some notes but pretty much no sustain. If the soundboard is similar, this may be a guitar for hard playing.