One step forward, two steps back....

I made my first major mistake. Let me walk you through what I did. I had finished bracing, carving and sanding the sound board and I was high on life and very excited. The next step in the build would be to attach the top to the sides. However, the X-brace and the shoulder brace extend into the kerfing on the side of the guitar and you need to cut little pockets for them to sit in. To do that, you have to put the top onto the rim and mark the locations where the braces hit the rim. Then you carve out the pockets. So I set about following Ken's instructions for attaching the top to the sides with rubber bands attached to the mold (which I did not think would hold it in place well enough, but worked extremely well and reinforced the fact that Ken knows what he is talking about and I am a fool.)

I marked the brace intersections with the sides, and cut little pockets that turned out beautifully and fit the brace ends perfectly. The next day as I was proudly showing my work to someone, I had one of those moments where your heart sinks and you feel like the wind got knocked out of you. I realized I had cut the pockets for the top braces to sit in ON THE BACK OF THE RIM!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!

So stupid!!! The wind was completely taken out of my sails and I could not believe how stupid I had been. I knew the back of the rim was facing up. I knew I had to switch it and flip it over. I just forgot to do that before I started working on the guitar.

I quickly e-mailed Ken to ask him if my potential guitar was now a potential pile of fire wood. Ken assured me that everything was going to be OK. He talked me off of the ledge and told me how to fix what I had done. Its not even that hard of a fix. I simply have to fill the pockets I made by cutting and gluing in some of the kerfing material and then shave it back down to level with the top of the rim. Thankfully, I saved every piece of wood I cut from this kit. Ken said there are lots of things I can screw up and he can still tell me how to fix.

I do not plan on testing him.Notice how in the picture, "back" is clearly written on the mold. I wrote that!!! Idiot.

Once again, as Bill Cory of http://kitguitarforum.com/ said, "It ain't a mistake if you can fix it." The fact that I had cut through the rim was not an issue either since the maple binding I am using was supposed to cover that gap anyway.

Well...I have made some extra work for myself, but it is a learning experience, right? I learned to slow the hell down before I start working. I am now going to make a list of what has to be done on paper instead of in my faulty head. Then I can check things off as I do them instead of wondering if I did them, or thinking I had done something, and in reality I had not done it.

Back to work.