Up to this point, we've been focusing on the top and back portions of the instrument. In case you were wondering what was happening to the sides during all this, here's your answer. The sides have had a custom fitted form built around them. Any cracks (there were many) have been repaired, and they've been braced up inside the form so they would hold their shape until we were ready to glue the back and top back on to them.

In this shot you can see the new back braces have been fitted into the slots in the kerfing. No, we couldn't save the original back braces, they were just as water damaged, fragile and cracked as the rest of the instrument. We did manage to get them off intact, however they have very little of their original strength left. We want the braces to actually brace, and support the beautiful wood of the back. We did however pattern the shape and curve of them directly from the originals.