I’ve had a long-standing hankering to build a steel strung acoustic, and approaching Autumn 2023, this escalated to a burning desire.
After quite a lot of reading (both on the ‘net and in real books), I thought I understood the build process, but was still learning. I had hand tools and a router, etc. but no thickness sander or planer, so would probably order the back / sides & soundboard already thickness sanded.
When I was looking for plans, I came across the drawings on C. Grellier’s website – in particular the OM: (link to pdf) which seemed to fit the bill. The plans are well drawn and seem to be self-consistent. A quick trip to the print shop got a couple of copies printed at A0 – the dimensions came out spot-on.
![](https://misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/21/IMG_5758.jpg)
More significantly, I ordered some wood, expecting it to take a few weeks. It appeared within a couple of days.
Nothing exotic or unconventional: German spruce top, Indian rosewood back and side set, and a mahogany neck from Keystone; and an ebony fingerboard, rosewood bridge and miscellaneous bits of binding, lining and purfling from David Dyke.
![rx107323](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/RX107323-scaled.jpg)
The back, sides and top had all been thickness sanded before despatch. All the wood was the lowest grade on offer, as I didn’t want to butcher anything fancy, but despite that, the sides looked beautiful:
![rx107322](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/RX107322-scaled.jpg)
The back had some worm holes near the join line that needed to be sawn off; a bit of a knot / whorl going on and some residual saw marks – the plates were already down to 2.6/2.7mm thick so there would only be a little bit of material to take off to get to the 2.5mm on the plan.
![rx107319](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/RX107319-scaled.jpg)
![rx107317](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/RX107317-scaled.jpg)
The European spruce top was generally lovely and looked very well quarter sawn. The outlines drawn on the wood were from the supplier, and are a bit bigger than the OM, but even so, I don’t think I’ll be able to avoid the dark grain lines at the edges of the lower bout.
![rx107318](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/RX107318-scaled.jpg)
![img_5892](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/IMG_5892-scaled.jpg)
Not knowing what else to do with it, I just stacked it all back together on the backer boards used for posting, wrapped it loosely and put it in a spare bedroom.
As a bit of a displacement activity, I traced a template from the plan and used it to make an external mould out of MDF. I’d forgotten how much I hated MDF.
![img_5783](https://misterg.org.uk/2021/wp-content/uploads/IMG_5783-scaled.jpg)
It would be a few weeks before I plucked up the courage to try and do anything with it.
(Incidentally, don’t make your mould this deep – 3 layers of 18mm MDF are plenty)