A Blonde Guitar - Making a Copy of the FE 19 Guitar by Antonio Torres: Routing the Binding Ledges

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No other instrument - struck, plucked, strummed, bowed, blown - is so strongly bound emotionally with a Spaniard as is the guitar.

Gregory d'Alessio, Guitar Review #46, 1979





I bought a new Bosch router and a very expensive binding routing jig from Luthier Tool just so I could make better, more even binding ledges/rabbets.

I am use to using a Dremel to rout these rabbets, the Bosch is quite a bit bigger and heavier and the router attachment isn't the most comfortable thing to hold onto. The thing about this jig is that the lowest roller bearing must be in contact with the side at all times! I found this out the hard way! Thankfully I was able to rout out the mistake in successive passes. This task of routing was a very scary experience, my heart was in my throat the whole operation!

The jig did work well, one turn of the adjustment knob moves the bit in to or out of the cut exactly 3/32nd's of an inch. Impressive. The downcut spiral router bit produced a smooth and clean cut, but because of arching and bumps of the guitar's top and sides I did spend some cleaning up the rabbet to get a good fit.

Hmm.

I might have to go back to cutting the ledges by hand.



Glueing the binding on the back.




The binding completed on the back, and the wood wiped down with some Naptha to show its colors.





The top all bound and ready for smoothing.

There is still some clean up and scraping to do on the bindings, then comes the fret board and installation of the frets.

Work never ends, nor should it.




Enjoy the YouTube of Iren Arutyunyan!







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