When the finished soundbox of the Boomer came out of clamps this morning, the tap tone was terrific. The sound is tight and big.
I routed off the lip left by the top, and then routed the top and bottom of the guitar with a special bit for binding. The only trick is to make sure you leave the depth set so the binding (oce glued) stands just proud of the surface of the top/bottom. Then it will sand flush. If the binding is lower than the top/bottom and you sand it flush you end up with endgrain showing and it looks like pre-boiled ass.
I used to use a weird contraption to hold the router perfectly perpendicular to the sides while routing, involving hinges and parallelograms and weird bearings. It was too much. I freehand it now. I find that a man, terrified of ruining several weeks of work and/or taking off a finger, can do as good a job holding a router true and steady as a more elaborate contraption. If I start binding curved tops I’ll need the contraption again, but with a flat top, it’s not needed.
I glued the binding on with about 100 pieces of blue tape and now I wait a day.
