The bars

I have now started gluing on the bars. These add strength to the belly (which is less than 2mm thick) but also allow it to be 'tuned'. By reducing the thickness and shape of the bars, the stiffness of particular parts of the belly can be changed which will alter the tone and loudness of the instrument. There isn't room to clamp these all at once, so I am doing them a few at a time. I found that putting a small piece of veneer under the middle of the caul (the bit of wood that spreads the clamping pressure) I could get the middle of the bar to stick down properly (I could see the glue squeeze out). You can also see in the photo (most of) the rosette template which I decided not to remove, as I thought it would strengthen the delicate wood a bit.

I took the  dimensions for the bars from the plans, and they looked tall and narrow, compared to what I was expecting. I recently read an interesting article  written by David Hurd (of left-brained lutherie fame) and it seems that the stiffness of a bar is directly proportional to its width, but proportional to the cube of the height. So tall thin bars can be stiff without being too heavy (which would dampen the resonance of the belly).