Back view, showing three piece African Blackwood back. I love the look, and there is no difference in sound as compared with a standard two piece back.

Indeed, I have built guitars with five and six piece backs, Martin Simpson’s Brazilian rosewood MS 2 model was one of these.  I was able to use lovely colourful old Brazilian scantlings, 3″ x 2″, and the guitar sounded wonderful.

There is of course a history of multi piece backs. In past centuries, when transport and shipping was not as easy as today, makers used varied woods and sizes as a matter of course.

More recently,  the Martin Guitar company introduced the three piece back D35 in 1965, so as to be able to use the narrower pieces of Brazilian rosewood they had available. It became a popular model and has stayed in their catalogue to this day.

I’ve heard it said that the three piece back gives a different sound to that of the two piece back D28, but I hardly believe this. If there is a different sound, there will be some other change to account for it.

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Today I went on line to find filter refills for my trusty 3M face mask. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but not got around to it.  Today all suppliers were out of stock.

Is this panic buying?  Or have woodworkers and others everywhere suddenly realised their filters need changing?

I find this a really good mask. I get a good fit to the face, and as well as filtering out dust, I can use superglue and acrylic lacquer and not get a hint of fumes through it.

On the subject of panic buying, a large 4X4 was recently seen completely filled with toilet rolls.  Madness.  And selfishly anti-social.

And not just difficult, dangerous for many. Many will be in despair as to how they will manage financially, old and medically vulnerable people are aware that catching this virus could be serious and possibly fatal, and the problems society faces will drastically affect everyone.  It’s a time for pulling together, and doing everything we can to help those around us, in particular those less fortunate than ourselves.

Liz and I are self-isolating, our kind younger neighbour will collect shopping for us.

Because I work alone, I am privileged in that I can continue working. Building guitars has been described, not without some justification, as my occupational therapy.  But I’m not accepting visitors until further notice, for obvious reasons.  However, shipping and courier companies tell me they are continuing to make deliveries, so I will be able to ship instruments out as usual.

In my workshop

Today I fitted back braces to the Verona model I’m building. Left is the back with reinforcement struts cut away to receive braces, right the braces are glued and clamped in the go-bar jig.  The back is placed in a mould which has the same radius as the curve I’ve shaped the braces to.

Incidentally, behind and to the right of the go-bar jig I store some of the different purflings and bindings I use.

Today I fitted cross-grain spruce reinforcements over the two back joins of a three piece back.  These are light weight and sanded to a smooth curve before fitting.

Here they are glued and clamped in the go-bar jig.  The spruce comes from soundboard off-cuts and is never long enough to cover the whole join. So each join is reinforce by two strips, one from the heel to the 4th brace, and the other a much shorter strip from the 4th brace to the tail. The join will be cut away to receive the brace, so even were that area visible through the sound hole, there would be no join to see.

The soundboards, backs and sides are now sanded to their respective thicknesses.

They will be stored on the high shelf in my permanently heated workshop until needed.

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This is the very start of building an instrument. The backs come to me usually in two or three pieces, (though I have made up to six piece backs). Two piece backs are straightforward, but for the three piece backs I have to decide on the best proportion of centre to outside strips and this can depend on what I have to work with.

Here I’m joining five African Blackwood backs, only one of which was wide enough for a two piece, the rest all being three piece. It can take a while to decide which is the best arrangement to make the best possible use of the wood in hand, and no two backs end up identical.

But it’s lovely wood to hold and to work with, and makes wonderful sounding guitars. Having two or three piece backs makes no difference to the sound, this is entirely dependent on the quality of the wood.

I’m also joining five figured Sitka soundboards, all of which are two piece; it’s unusual  for soundboards to be more than two piece.

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Here I’m dressing the joint edges of a soundboard with a router on a specially built jig. Both halves are in the jig, so both are dressed at the same time, ensuring a close joint.

The clamps used below are aluminium. Not designed for heavy use, they are capable of more than enough pressure for this job and their light weight is easy on the joined boards when moving them around.

Sorry,no photos of binding or neck fitting and shaping, but  binding photos can be seen on my earlier News Page 10, items dated 29 and 30 July 2010. Neck fitting and shaping photos can be seen on News Page 12, items dated 24 and 25 April and 2 May 2009.

Despite my age, it appears I’m still innovating.  After 20 years fitting necks using my current technique, today I made a mistake I’ve never made before. Fortunately not too serious.