Fingerboard/soundboard assembly

Now it’s time to shape the fingerboard.  The ends have to be pre-shaped (they’ll be worked on more later), the strumming hollow, er, hollowed out, and the “arches” on the bottom ground in.

Then the fingerboard is glued to the soundboard:

Here’s a shot of the back/sides assembly:

While the fingerboard is drying, the mating surface of the box needs to be sanded straight, flush, and true:

With that done, here’s the top just before cutting to shape:

Here’s the profiled top just sitting on the box:

But before gluing it on, I have to sign the instrument.  Easy to forget!

Real classy, huh?  I need to make some labels…

Not the top is glued on:

And here it is with the edges trimmed more or less flush with the sides.  It’ll be refined in the next step, which is sanding.