Two soundholes also makes it better: my first build

[Gilmourisgod]

Are you "helping" the trussrod by pressing down lightly on the headstock while tightening? Modern DA rods are pretty strong IME, but it's risky maxing one out. I do it as a standard procedure, figuring it can't hurt at the least. I've been using (2) 1/8" x 3/8" CF rods either side of the trussrod too, since I tend to carve my necks about as thin as I dare. At first I was worried they'd be TOO stiff, but string tension alone seems to bring them close to the correct relief, and I barely have to touch the rod off neutral.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The X bracing is cool but with the short cross grain I think two parallel stringers from the neck to the heel would serve better. Having said that with a thick enough top and back bracing might not even be required.

I just aped the current Rickenbacker method, which is all CNC, or course, basically hogging away everything that wasn't structure inside the bass out of a solid (2-piece) chunk of maple, which is an insanely wasteful (and dusty) process. Unlike the OP's build, it should be apparent I have no clue what I'm doing on a hollowbody! The top and back are shaved to 1/4" thickness, at best I'm hoping for enough audible sound out of the cat-eye holes to let me hear it in couch-noodler mode, like a Hofner. I could probably shave some height and thickness off the x-braces, but I wouldn't know exactly where to stop. I've long aspired to take an acoustic guitar building course, but never saw one anywhere near me I could afford, so these kind of builds are fascinating (and humbling) for me to watch.

 

[zevv]

Are you "helping" the trussrod by pressing down lightly on the headstock while tightening?

Sure, I wouldn't dare forcing the rod to move the neck itself, it already requires enough force as it is now.

The thing is: my neck is perfectly straight now, it's even about one mm higher around the middle. The problem is simply that I put the neck joint on dead straight: the fingerboard is about 6mm high and the bridge doesn't go much lower than 8mm, so there's just no room to tweak this and make the bottom of the strings go any lower.

I should have put the neck under a slight angle so that I didn't have to hit the bottom stop of the height adjustments on the bridge, simple as that.

 

[zevv]

I've long aspired to take an acoustic guitar building course, but never saw one anywhere near me I could afford, so these kind of builds are fascinating (and humbling) for me to watch.

If you aspire building an acoustic guitar, why not just bite the bullet, what's the worst that could happen? If you are as lucky as I was you might end up with a playable instrument with maybe some blemishes and you can be super proud of yourself. If you botch it up, you'll learn from the process what mistakes to avoid the next time you try: you got a little smarter and experienced. It's always a win.

I had no clue what I got myself into, but there are plenty of videos and books available to help you understand the full build process. What I found very comforting is that every luthier in every video I watched did things different in their own way, and they all explained that their way was the way to do it. This assured me that a lot of details of the process probably do no really matter that much - otherwise they would all agree on what's best?

So, the thickness of your laminates? The wood choice of the soundboard? The shape of the holes? Sure, every choice will have an effect and a professional luthier with tens or hundreds of builds will know what works best for them. But for beginners like you and me, I don't think it matters at all at this stage. You build a real guitar with your own hands. How can that be bad?