Fretting up

I've now tied the frets and glued on the small frets on the body.  Here are some pics of the finished lute.

Now that I have a playable instrument (whew!) I can spend more time focusing on details and making a nice instrument with the foresight I've gained from this project. 

I have already selected the woods for the shell of the next lute.  It will not have spacers between the ribs but will have alternating zebra wood and wenge (pictured below).  I also plan on using the extended pegbox design instead of a bass rider for this instrument.  I will keep a much more detailed blog on the progress of that instrument.

Finishing pegs and stringing up

I have finished turning all the pegs and fitting them to their proper spots.  The nuts have been completed and strings have been put on.  It will take several days for the strings to stretch out and keep tune but so far it seems to be working well.  Just need to add the frets which will be the last post, coming soon...

Some photos.

Need to clip the excess off these strings.