The Blue Ridge Luthiers
Meeting at Pat Dewar's shop in Wirtz, VA
July 12, 2025
Main Event
Pat explains his week at the Robbie O'Brien 6 Day Guitar Build course
Day 1 - full 8 hours
- Cutting sides to width
- Thickness sides with the safety planer
- Thickness back with the safety planer
- Finish Back/Sides with a drum sander
- Side layout
- Pre-tapering the sides
- Bending a side and bindings
- Making the end block
- Making the heel block
- Sanding and sealing the heel block
- Bending the other side
- Joining the soundboard
- Joining the back
- Scarf joint on the neck
- Slotting the fretboard
- Tapering the fretboard
- Cutting sides to length
- Gluing blocks to the sides
- Roughing out braces
- Lunch
- AFTERNOON
- Radiusing the rims
- Installing kerfing
- Preparing soundboard for the rosette
- Installing the rosette
- Thickness peghead
- Scale layout
- The truss rod slot
- Gluing veneers and blocks
- Final thickness of back
- Back reinforcement
- The end wedge
- Sanding rosette flush
- Thickness the top
- Cutting out the soundhole
- Cutting top to shape
- Scraping end wedge
- Driving the bus
Day 1 - 5 pm
Day 2 - full 8 hours
- Bracing discussion
- Marking bracing pattern on top
- Radiusing braces
- X brace lap joint
- 1st glue stage
- Upper transverse brace and tongue
- depressor
- Bridge patch and other braces
- 2nd glue stage
- Radiusing back braces
- Planing reinforcement strip
- Cutting back to shape
- 3rd glue stage
- Fitting braces to back
- Tapering brace ends
- Gluing back braces
- Voicing discussion
- Voicing
- Fitting top to rims
- Shaping back braces
- Fitting back to rims
- Closing the box
- AFTERNOON
- Flush trimming back and top
- Binding cutter setup
- Cutting binding channels
- Channel cleanup
- Prepping bindings
- Installing top bindings
- Installing back bindings
- Cutting veneers at nut
- The volute
- Peghead shape
- Tuner holes
- Neck prep
- Body prep
- Body mortise cavity
- Neck tenon
- Setting the neck
- Attaching the fretboard
- The heel cap
- END OF DAY 2
Day 2 - 5 pm
Day 3 - less than full day
- Scraping bindings
- Scraping side bindings
- Neck carving step
- Leveling and radiusing the fretboard
- Fret markers
- Side markers
- Prepping for frets
- Installing frets
- Fretwork
- Sanding the neck
- AFTERNOON
- Sanding the body
- Pore filling the neck
- Masking bridge location
- Sealing the soundboard
- First polishing session on top
- First epoxy pore fill
- END OF DAY 3 (3pm)
Day 3 - Working
Day 3 - End of day, 3pm
Day 4 - half day
- Sanding epoxy pore fill
- Leveling the finish
- Second polishing session on top
- Bridge thickness
- Rough bridge shape
- Third polishing session on top
- Slotting and final shaping of bridge
- Spiriting off
- Second epxoy pore fill
- Sanding second epoxy pore fill
- END OF DAY 4 (noon)
Day 5 - half day
- Attaching the bridge
- Sealing the side
- Removing the bridge clamp
- Polishing the sides
- Polishing the neck and back
- Leveling and more polish on sides
- Leveling and more polish on back and neck
- END OF DAY 5 (noon)
Day 6
- Cleaning the fretboard
- Fitting and shaping the nut
- Slotting the nut
- Oiling the fretboard
- Bridge pin holes
- The saddle
- Installing tuners
- The label
- Strings
- Neck relief
- Action at the nut
- Action at the 12th fret
- Intonation
- Test drive
- END OF DAY 6 (11am)
Day 6 - Saturday afternnon flight home
Other stuff
Justin's finishing tests
Pat's Jointer/planer
This Hammer A3 41 jointer/planer combo machine will joint and plane pieces 16" wide - great for solid guitar bodies.
In Pat's workshop
