I’ve made another front or back – will decide where to use the panels later. This one is a bit thinner – about 2mm – so maybe it would be a good front with the thicker panel for the back where the instrument is damped by the player’s body.

I’ve started on the neck.

Cutting that scarf joint accurately was a pain. Ended up testing using a straight edge and coarse sandpaper to get rid of the high spots. Pretty flat now.

I added a block for the body joint. This is where the grain won’t look great – it would have been better with a one piece neck here, but it won’t be seen when playing.

Then I cut the head piece down to match the neck – initially with a saw and then with a plane by keeping the nose of the plane on the neck and keeping going until it was flush.

I also experimented with ‘inlay’. I glued the logo onto a spare piece of wood and cut away the logo with a scalpel. I filled the gaps with glue plus darker wood powder and got this:

Not too bad for first attempt particularly given the size of details. Larch doesn’t work very well with this as bits are very hard while other bits are much softer. Conclusion is that I need to find something better.

I need to start ordering bits. I’ve ordered bone for the nut. I’ve already got some bridge blanks. Will need tuning pegs (friction), strings and frets.