More Cromwell back braces, and a red herring for the pickguard.

I'm covering a few days of work here.

This brace looks really good, unlike the other two. 

But, looks are deceiving. This brace is loose through the middle, which is an odd place for a brace to be loose. Regardless, it needs to be glued. 

I covered up the label, and put tape down on both sides. 

I used my cutters to make craft sticks with a notched end so that they would stay on the brace. 

A quick test shows that they fit snugly. I didn't get any shots of gluing the brace, but I basically put glue on the tape and worked it in with my bent palette knife. 

The soundhole was right where I need the sticks, so I made a bridge out of one stick to push the brace 

A cotton swap in a needlenose plier cleaned up the mess. 

The next day, it looked pretty good, and it was solid again. 

Now for that last brace, way in the back. That fracture at the end of the brace needed to be glued in the split and glued to the back as well. Luckily, the soundhole on the Cromwell is big enough that I can stick my arm in all the way, and touch this area.  

I started putting down tape. That hole in the bottom of the guitar sure lets in a lot of light! 

As always, I had to cover up the label. 

I made several braces, and test fit them. There is a top brace above the bottom brace, so I notched both ends of the sticks. 

Getting glue back there was going to be a major chore. I started filling pipettes with glue. 

I made six. It wasn't enough. 

This is before I did the cleanup. As you can see, it took a lot of clue, and a lot of mess, to really get things taken care of. This is so deep in the guitar that the mess isn't really a problem, but I wasn't too happy about it. The good news is that I got glue everywhere it needed to be, and the end is really well glued now. 

I decided to start work on regluing the pickguard. 

I traced the pickguard onto blank paper. 

Using a magnet and a pencil, I traced the braces from underneath the pickguard. 

I also used a contour gauge to show how deep the braces and the bridge patch are. 

The next day, the inside of the guitar is messy, but everything is solid. 

I made copies of my tracing, and cut one out. 

I glued the cutout to a stiff piece of particle board. 

Then I looked at the guitar again. 

Do you see the problem? The area the pickguard is going to sit is curved, due to the belly in the top. I can't clamp this flat, it would, at best, distort the guitar, and more likely it would cause some damage. So I stopped making the clamping caul, and I will instead order some adhesive film to reattach the pickguard. I didn't lose too much time to this, and I'm glad I figured this out before going any further.