Guitar Construction

The sides are scraped to about 2.5mm thick, soaked in water, then bent using a bending iron at 150C.

The bent sides are clamped into a bending form until dry.

Laurie Guitars have a fixed truss rod - now carbon fibre - to provide stability and accurate tuning.

Having jointed the head to create the correct angle, the head is faced with a veneer before being drilled.

The head is shaped to the trademark shape and inlaid with the Laurie Guitars logo in mother-of-pearl.

Using the traditional Torres one-piece neck method, the heel and inner foot are shaped, with slots for the sides.

Linings of willow are kerfed, then glued using clothes pegs to enable gluing of sides to front and back

The completed neck/sides assembly is ready for the soundboard to be glued in place.

The soundboard is inlaid with a Paua shell rosette, then the soundhole is cut out.

Spruce bracing bars are glued to the soundboard to stiffen and form the correct curvature.

The spruce bars are carved and sculpted to create the desired tone.

The willow linings are cut away to fit the ends of the soundboard bracing.

The back comes as a book-matched pair, which are jointed to give a symmetrical grain pattern.

Spruce bars are glued to the back to create the 3m radius curve of the back.

This is the final view of the inside of the guitar before the back is glued on. The label is fitted at this point.

Large rubber bands are a good tool for applying pressure whilst the soundboard and back are glued.

The end grain of the back/sides joint is covered by rebating and gluing in banding and purfling strips.

The best tool for removing the excess wood from the purfling is a steel hand scraper.

The purfling and banding wood is chosen to match the sides and is mitred at the joints.

Laurie Guitars use side binding on the fingerboard to conceal the ends of the frets. Inlay is Paua or Mother-of-Pearl.

Frets are hammered in place and PVA glue applied to prevent loosening.

Once the fingerboard has been glued on, the neck is shaped using microfiles to achieve the profile.

After final sanding the bridge is masked before lacquering.

The final task is the gluing of the bridge and creation of saddle and nut before set-up.