Great Progress on Aaron's Arena OM

Progress on Aaron's European spruce and cocobolo Arena Cutaway has been excellent and I have two photo galleries to share. In the first gallery you can see that I've completed assembly of the rim, and in the second gallery you can see the braced top being assembled to the rim. In both galleries you can see a few details of construction that go into the Ryan armrest bevel. Next I'll be bracing the back and preparing the back of the rim for assembly. This particular set of cocobolo is the heaviest and stiffest wood I've worked with, including the instruments I've made of different varieties of ebony. Out of curiosity I put an offcut from the back into a sink full of water and it immediately sunk like a stone! I'll be sanding the back of this guitar thinner than I've done on any instrument yet. The grain lines near the center of the top are litterally too close to tell them apart, and I have good eyes. The cross-grain stiffness of this top is remarkable, and so I made the top a little thinner too, and lightened up on some elements of the bracing. After the soundbox is assmebled I thin perimeter of the top as an additional means of voicing the instrument. This will be an important step on this instrument. More soon! :)