Shaping Soundboard & Joining back - Day 2

So the next day, being Friday, I went and did a wee bit more.

DAY TWO - (HOURS: 3.25HRS, TOTAL TIME: 5.25HRS)

I started by joining the back together, using the same method as the post below for joining the top, so I won't go into it again!

Here's a picture of the gorgeous Madagascar Rosewood:

Following that, I had the piece of Madagascar Rosewood for the bridge in my hand for some reason, so I said "Why not glue this in the shape I want it!"

- I'll explain later what I'm doing with this piece, and why it's in such an irregular rough shape...

So back to the soundboard.

I Started off work with the top today by tracing a template from the plan I had for the "OOO guitar" I then cut this out and traced around it:

- I should stress at this point you must line up the central line on the template(make sure you trace that too!) with the glued line on the soundboard, this is to keep the grain uniform with the direction of the guitar body. Make sure you stick tape that template to it before you start tracing :)

She went under the saw again for the next step. Leave the cut 3mm proud of the outline:

Be-a-utiful.

The last step for the day was to plane the thickness of the soundboard. It's usually 2-2.5mm for a soundboard. But this is Cedar, which is a softer wood, so 10%-15% is added to that thickness. I hand planed it down to 3mm. It's a little thick still, but I will be sanding down the other side anyway later on in the process. Clamp one end of the board, using a flat piece of scrap wood to avoid clamp marks in the wood.

Here's a couple of pics:

- and that was it for the day.