The Maphis SN 011 - Mike Brown Page 2
Featuring inline 6 heads
The body carve starts with a 'cove' router cut around the plate.
This establishes the binding width on the edge and
a starting point to begin the 'German' carve.
The pencil lines
are my carving guide.
The majority of the "German" carving is done with the 'spoon' plane
at the right.
Mostly roughed out and getting closer to the final shape
with the various finger planes.
With some rough sanding.
Final contour will be established after the underside is carved out
and the plate glued to the rim.
This is how the inside carve starts. Multi drilled with a Forstner bit to
remove the material from the middle flat area to a depth that would leave 1/4" back thickness from the pointed tip of the bit. Followed by a Safety Plane leveling that removes all the individual bit marks.
After the prep as shown in previous frame, once again the time consuming
handwork begins. The spoon plane is put to heavy use in this operation.
The carve is completed with a variety of tools, mainly in the front
areas with an air powered burr cutter, a small disk sander and
plenty of sandpaper. Carving the inside of the body is more
for reducing weight than acoustic gains but the nice hollow
body does give a fuller sound. Once the rim and back are glued
together a light coat of sealer will be applied to the interior.
Rim wood glued up.
Rim cut from glued up pieces of selected curly maple. Bandsaw access
cut through (arrow) and reglued. Sanded smooth on spincle.
Back plate glued to rim.
Top plate ready for the carve. The top is a little more difficult
in that the front upper bout and the lower cutout is taper carved.
Check out some of the previous finished guitars to see what I mean.
Nearly ready to glue to the rim. . . all I need to do is
carve out the backside. . . puff
Interior top plate carve complete with lateral
main neck support truss installed.
Interiors are finish sanded . . . not quite as nice as the exterior
but pretty close. A light coat of sealer is applied before the
top is glued to the rim assembly.
Top plate underside