Well. That is the end of this story. I used sanding sealer and cellulose aerosols to spray the instrument then 400 and 800 grit sandpaper for the elm which gave me a sort of satin finish. I was origin...

Thanks for the comments guys. My philosophy is to imagine how they built instruments 100 years ago using mainly hand tools and an imagination. Also, I am only building one-off instruments as a persona...

And now.The headstock logo. Attachment : template.jpg My "Thistle" logo was adapted to suit the narrower head and transferred onto 1/64th plywood then taped onto the headstock. careful scribing...

More photos for your amusement. Attachment : trussrod.jpg Carbon fibre truss rod. 8mm x 4mm. Dremmel routed a 3mm slot then widened it with sandpaper on a 2,5mm bit of ply. Attachment : fr...

Had a period of not much work (not Covid) but here are some more photos of the slow progress. Attachment : innercarve.jpg Attachment : outsidesdone.jpg Attachment : neck.jpg Thats...

Hi Rocknroller. Without all the right modern piller drills and cnc stuff I had to think of another way to "carve" the plates. The spikey ball technique worked exceptionally well on the "Thistle 2 arch...

Attachment : outsidesdone.jpg That is the outsides of the plates rough planed to the profile lines. quite happy with the results but can't finish the neck area of the top plate until I get the mor...

Attachment : profilecut1.jpg spent some time making the front and back profiles for key points (bridge, waist and longitudinal. Now for the fun bit. I'm carving the profiles into the wood using a ...

Attachment : steppedplates.jpg Today's offering is the front and back (planed to 17mm thick) with the perimeter reduced to 5mm using my router in a stand and carefully running the edge past the bl...

The carbon truss rod is purely a stiffener 4mm wide x 7mm deep as I am unsure of the potential for elm to flex even in a short length. I am thinking about 22mm thickness at the nut as well . Too much ...

Attachment : plates.jpg Progress has been slow. I now have the back and front plates planed and bookmatched as best as I can given the fairly open grain. Attachment : neck.jpg Also the neck...

Attachment : sides1.jpg After a lot of cutting of more bits of the log to get the right grain direction, I cut 3 slices about 6mm thick x 70mm wide to be the sides. I then planed them down to abou...

Attachment : elm.jpg The log. The design was based on lots of looking at you tubes and drawings and photos until I was confident (?) about scale lengths body sizes widths etc. having concluded tha...

I needed a new project for the eternal lockdown, so after a chat with my musical chum and ideas man, I have started on a mandola. The wood for this experiment/instrument comes from an elm tree which g...

Thanks guys. I have been friends with Martin (as have Mark and Carol) for over 20 years and he is just a modest fun loving person who isn,t bad on the guitar.

I have posted the video of martin Taylor and my guitars on "Thistle 2 The archtop if you are interested

This is the video I made of Martin Taylor playing my guitars. Attachment : true4.mp4 Highlight of my "musical" career.

Don't just sit there, buy some wood and get going. i loved every minute of my project. Mind you, patience is required. If you want to see fingerstyle archtop, look at Martin Taylor on you tube.

I have been off line for a while but am still alive and kicking. I refinished the face of the acoustic to get rid of a crazing effect and bothe are sounding good despite my playing abilities. As poste...

Thanks. it took about a year to complete and was finishes one week before lockdown in March 2020 so hasn't been played in public as such but Martin Taylor has recorded it along with my acoustic Thistl...