soundboard

Now its time to make the soundboard and finish the soundbox. Back in the beginning before I even made the sides Dad and I glued up a big expanse of sitca spruce about a 1/4 " thick and big enough for several soundboards. The spruce we special ordered from a lumber company in Michigan. Sitca spruce is generally the best for resonating parts of instruments such as guitar or violin or harp fronts, because of its good ... resonating qualities. we then sanded this piece down to a mere 1/8"





Here I traced the shape of the soundbox onto the piece and roughed it out with the bandsaw. then cut it to exact size with the table saw. To make a fragile piece even more fragile I sanded the small end down more to about 3/32. (not fun)







Next I glued on the string ribs which strengthen the soundboard. These are thin stait grained maple strips glued front and
back.