Charles A. Hoffman Hancrafted Guitars

Current Production -- General

The photos on this page are of my current production batch (I generally make 8 to 12 guitars in a batch) This page will have the photos that are generic to all of the guitars (such as making the rosettes.) At the bottom of the page are links to the page showing the entire batch and to each of the pages for the guitars.

This is the first of the "General" pages for this batch - it shows pictures of steps that are generic for every guitar in the batch. There are several such pages. See also PAGE 2; PAGE 3; PAGE 4; .

The photos are thumbnails. Click on the photo and you will automatically go to the full image.

After selecting the wood the first step is making/installing the soundhole rosette. Here I have glued in place the koa for one of my new wood/abalone rosettes.

I cut the rosette grooves in the top with this fly cutter

Leaving this.

Then the appropriate purfling is inlayed - all this is done with traditional hot hide glue which is (these days) all I use on my tops. There is some reason to think that this makes them sound better - tho of course there is no scientific test to prove this.

After the rosette is inlayed I final thickness sand the top on my drum sander.

I use a variety of Plexiglas templates to lay out the top and the bracing.

X brace is glued in place first.

After the X is installed (I forgot to take a photo of that), the next brace installed is the bridge plate.

More braces being glued in place.

After that, I carve the braces for best tone. (I hope)

More brace gluing has been done and hopefully when fully carved this will be a lovely guitar.

this jig

and this router

cut slots in back center strip for the back braces - like this.

Leaving this

Wood burning my logo in the back center strip.

Like this

A pile of back braces.

Gluing back braces in place

Leaving this

Side bending jig - a combination of moisture and heat is the way to bend wood. Really it is one of the easiest parts of the process.

Bent ribs (sides)

Sides are held in the mold

End blocks are in

Getting ready to use the sanding dome (which rotates on the pipe in the middle of the guitar and puts the dome shape in the sides.

The sanding disc.

Notching the ribs/linings to accept the braces

Clamping the sides to the back.

Back is on and trimmed to size

From the other side

Clamping on the special support for the bevel edge

Another view of this

And without the clamps. This looks quite heavy but after the bevel is cut, the amount of wood contacting the top (and the sides) is exactly the same as for the regular linings.

Clamping on the top

Top is on and trimmed to size

Another guitar

If you look closely at this photo you can see that most of the bodies have a # in the dovetail pocket. This is done after the top is in place.