I'm going to try and keep track here of the progress on the bouzouki I'm building.
First of all, here's the design I made for the body:
It's based on Graham McDonald's type II bouzouki. The top will have a strong transverse curve, an idea I got from Nigel Forster's guitar bouzouki. That's also why it has the big lattice bracing [NOTE: I just noticed this is a slightly outdated version, I changed the design a bit, bracing pattern will be different from what it shown here] - it needs to be tough The scale length is 65cm, body is 40cm long, 36cm wide, 10cm deep at the tail end and 9cm deep where it meets the neck.
Today I went and bought the materials.
Right in the middle are the two halves of the top, made of 2mm thick cedar. At the top of the picture are the neck (African mahogany) and the fretboard (ebony). The builder who sold me the wood has a very nice jig for making the fret slots, he did that for me. At the top left are the frets (brass, which I think will look fancy), middle left is the bridge (ebony) and bottom left are the nut and saddle (bone).
Shown in the middle here are the two halves of the back, at the top are the two sides, all made out of 2.5mm Indian rosewood. Lying on the sides are a set of bindings, made from mahogany with some fancy purfling.
Tomorrow I'll be making moulds for bending the sides. I hope to be keeping you all informed. Please ask questions if you want to:D
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