Have spent the last couple of days cutting, routing, shaping and glueing up the plywood structure for my lattice brace guitars. One sheet of top quality plywood (100% solid, no knots) will make 12 frames for 12 guitars on which the soundboard and sides will be glued too. The off cuts go into the support bars that run from the bottom block to the waist to stop any movement or compression in the frame. Cutting and routing 12 support structures in two days is a lot of work. The support structures now need the adjustable neck support and the upper block glued in and the neck cavity routed in. By the end of the week the support structures and bars should all be completed with carbon fibre glued on to strengthen them even further. The final part will be gluing in the inner veneer around the soundhole part of the structure, this completely hides the fact that you have any ply in the guitar at all. Why do I use ply? Take a look at my lattice bracing video on YouTube for an explanation.
I try and get this done in a week, 12 frames in 5 days. It’s a messy job, saw dust everywhere but this lot of frames will see me through to this time next year. All my lattice guitars are built using the same size frame and hence the guitar bodies are all an identical size. This makes a big difference as you get to know an understand how the guitar body works and sounds. Consistency and quality is a massive part of being a quality luthier and by making the same size body I can better manipulate the sound the guitar produces as you have the same set of variables you are dealing with everytime you build.