Preparing and gluing the blocks

I prepared the blocks and glued them on today. For the corner blocks I had some smaller stock which I just planed square on two sides and the ends. The top and bottom blocks I split from a larger bit of wood. The third photo shows clearly how differently the wood might be sawn. This was the problem I had with the first cello. I just used the wood as it was sawn and glued it on place. As I hadn't thought about the grain orientation, it was going in just the wrong way for the neck mortice. The grain was running into the cello and not out of it, which made it difficult to make the mortice as the grain was driving the chisels deeper into the wood than I wanted. This time I split the wood and before glueing the blocks on, I also made a test to ensure the grain is running in the right direction. The photo is taken with the front on the table top so the grain is indeed running out of the cello from the front towards the back.