I've made a couple of pretty straight forward instruments so far but have been kinda flying by the seat of my pants. Each time they turn out different and I encounter different problems because I haven't built the same type of instrument twice. In an effort to put some logic to what I do (and so I can remember) I've decided to keep track of my work here. So far I've made 2 3-stringers, a Tenor Guitar, and a 2-String Bass. My current project is upping the game in some respects but not so in others. I'm building a 6-string lap steel (with cigar box body). I bought some red oak that is 1/4"X4"X4'. I figured the old 2" wide wasn't going to cut it for a 6-string. Now came the prospect of cutting that 4" width down a little bit so that I wasn't playing on a hugely wide plank (although playing lap steel it doesn't actually matter). I live in an apartment so I'm a bit constricted in my tool department. I bought a refurbished jig saw because I wanted the compact design of a hand saw with the flexibility of cutting curves. The problem is that its ridiculously difficult to cut straight lines. I like to laminate 3 1/4" boards together for my necks to get a nice, strong result. The problem came in trying to cut any two alike. I decided to cut a reasonably good one and then clamp it to the next and use it as a template and so on. Needless to say, they got bigger each time. I glued them together last night and my plan is to use a hand plane to even out the sides and hopefully get them pretty close to straight. I guess we'll see how that goes today.
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Adam