After I kept the raw wood in my shop for about 60 days to acclimate, I glued up the body spread.

This (and the other spreads in process - photo above) will cure for 30-60 days prior to the next step.

Here’s the raw Quilted Maple block before I re-sawed it.

Unfortunately, no one was around when I re-sawed the quilt top for 001, but here’s a pic showing the process. The flame top I’m cutting here is for 005.

Here’s the quilt top being glue-up after the resawing. The bricks are on the seam to keep the top from warping under the clamping pressure.

Here’s the bookmatched, quilted top after glue-up.

The top will also cure now for 30 – 60 days.

After curing and thickness planning/sanding to thickness, I bandsaw out the rough perimeter of the body.

Then the top.

Then it’s time to bandsaw the back contour.

Then the top contour.

Next comes the swing sanding of the top contour to blend it into a smooth radius.

Time to make some serious sawdust! Pin-routing the acoustic chambers.

Here’s the top and back ready for glue-up. Note the thin black dyed veneer that will be an accent detail between the top and back.

Applying the glue.

The body assembly in the vacuum bag for glue-up. The bag is critical to suck the top down to match the body contour.

The final glued, rough body, ready for another 30 days of cure before the next series of building operations.