#1-Closing the Box — tyson hand-did

Closing the Box | Things are really getting exciting now. Time to glue on the top and close the box. I am pretty nervous at this stage. Now that I see what is going to hold the body of the guitar together, it just doesn't seem strong enough to all stay together. We'll see.

The process for the top is essentially the same as the back. Made sure everything fit properly and that the top was properly aligned along the centerline.

Before closing the box it is tradition to sign the top of the guitar and put your label on the back.

Once everything was lined up, glue is applied to the kerfing and everything set in place. Although I failed to take pictures, Sara has been my main "aligning" assistant when gluing on the top and back. It is helpful to have someone looking at the other end of the guitar to make sure everything is lined up. Once everything looked good, the box goes in the GoBar deck upside down. I did it this way because the cedar of the top is so soft and fragile I could see one of the GoBars sliding off and going right through the top.

Once the glue had set, I took the box out of the deck and trimmed down the excess from the top. It is really looking like a guitar now.

The next step is cutting the binding channels and installing the binding.