Search found 85 matches

by Nick Payne
Thu Aug 06, 2015 7:05 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: ABC website article on luthiery
Replies: 3
Views: 4518

ABC website article on luthiery

I thought this was quite good. Don't know that I agree about dying art form, though: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-06/s ... rs/6678602
by Nick Payne
Sat May 03, 2014 12:12 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Implications of socketing braces
Replies: 15
Views: 14561

Re: Implications of socketing braces

I would not be keen on feathering out these two ends to nothing before the lining I've actually done that a few times. Doesn't seem to adversely affect either the structural integrity of the guitar or its tone. Here's a photo of one of the back braces on an instrument that I made in 1976 - still in...
by Nick Payne
Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:55 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Road Trip across the Nullarbor
Replies: 10
Views: 10779

Re: Road Trip across the Nullarbor

Actually, there are a couple of timber/pioneer museums worth a look on the way from Perth to Albany. One at Manjimup and one at Pemberton, and both have a fair bit of information about the timber business in pioneer days. And if you're in Pemberton, you might as well go for a quick scamper up the Gl...
by Nick Payne
Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:20 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: They don't make them like this any more
Replies: 9
Views: 9177

They don't make them like this any more

Lumberjacks cutting redwood trees in California:
redwoods.jpg
redwoods.jpg (126.86 KiB) Viewed 9177 times
redwoods2.jpg
redwoods2.jpg (102.62 KiB) Viewed 9177 times
by Nick Payne
Sun Sep 15, 2013 10:12 am
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Road Trip across the Nullarbor
Replies: 10
Views: 10779

Re: Road Trip across the Nullarbor

I've driven across and back several times, and ridden East to West by bicycle once. Everything out there will cost you several times what it does near a city. I'd suggest taking a 20L water container and enough food to get you from Ceduna to Norseman without having to purchase on the way. I can reme...
by Nick Payne
Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:02 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: New Toy
Replies: 19
Views: 17600

Re: New Toy

Here's another interesting use in the field of medicine:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-03/3 ... ts/4666886

The penis enlargement industry will be salivating at the possibilities...
by Nick Payne
Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:02 pm
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: The genesis of Fleta bracing
Replies: 3
Views: 4661

The genesis of Fleta bracing

He must have been a Buster Keaton fan:

Image
by Nick Payne
Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:24 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: 24" Sanding Discs
Replies: 22
Views: 19509

Re: 24" Sanding Discs

At the last Timber & Working with Wood show in Canberra last year, one of the booths was selling fabric-backed sandpaper in 650mm wide rolls of various grits. I bought a couple of metres of 150 grit for about $30, as I recall.
by Nick Payne
Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:44 pm
Forum: Anything Goes
Topic: Willie Nelson's Trigger
Replies: 2
Views: 3993

Willie Nelson's Trigger

Just came across this - Willie Nelson's favourite guitar - a nylon string Martin that he bought in 1969 and is still playing. He named it after Roy Rogers horse. Apparently, he says that when the guitar dies, he'll retire. Looks like he's a bit reticent about getting repairs done on it: http://4.bp....
by Nick Payne
Mon Mar 18, 2013 8:27 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Since when did PU-foam glues get widely available?
Replies: 9
Views: 7809

Re: Since when did PU-foam glues get widely available?

PU glue was first produced in the 1950s, but it certainly wasn't widely used. I did a lot of boatbuilding in the 1960s, and I can't remember PU glue being an option for boatbuilding as it is these days. The choice then was to use either resorcinol or epoxy.
by Nick Payne
Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:03 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Question about planes .... again
Replies: 25
Views: 25154

Re: Questtion about planes .... again

There's a wonderful video shot at a Japanese university showing the effect of the cap iron and its angle and placement on the performance of a plane blade. Well worth watching. I'm pretty sure a link to this video has been posted somewhere on the forum previously, but here it is again: http://vimeo....
by Nick Payne
Fri Mar 08, 2013 12:01 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Coming up with a model? How did you do it?
Replies: 9
Views: 10003

Re: Coming up with a model? How did you do it?

The first classical I built, in 1976, I sat down with a set of French curves and played around until I had what I thought was a pleasing shape for the headstock. It wasn't until a few guitars and quite a few years later that I saw a photo of a Bouchet headstock and realised that the shape I had arri...
by Nick Payne
Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:50 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Shed/ Monitor Speakers
Replies: 28
Views: 21983

Re: Shed/ Monitor Speakers

There's supposed to be an organ music enthusiast somewhere in Canberra whose listening room is designed as an acoustic horn. Here's a couple of pics of someone's home setup in Italy. On the right is the subwoofer acoustic horn under construction (it's under the floor of the listening room), and on t...
by Nick Payne
Fri Feb 15, 2013 2:27 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: What would be your pic out of these two Rimu backs? A or B
Replies: 25
Views: 24119

Re: What would be your pic out of these two Rimu backs? A or

A does it for me...it's a stronger pattern than B.
by Nick Payne
Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:51 pm
Forum: Contemporary Acoustic Guitar Design and Build - Trevor Gore
Topic: Collecting Spectrographic data
Replies: 62
Views: 85988

Re: Collecting Spectrographic data

I had a good look around a few months ago for decent Mac spec analysis software and couldn't find much at all. Audacity is available for Mac. I haven't used it there (don't have a Mac), but I've used the Linux version of Audacity for plotting the spectrum of a tap test. I use either a Zoom H2 recor...
by Nick Payne
Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:40 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Classical machine heads
Replies: 5
Views: 6479

Classical machine heads

I just purchased a couple of pairs of machine heads for $30 each from an eBay seller ( http://stores.ebay.com/Taisamlu-Musical ). When they arrived I was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality. A nice thick sideplate, the posts that hold the shaft for the knobs and worm drive are actually cast as...
by Nick Payne
Sun Dec 02, 2012 3:30 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Tonewood Storage
Replies: 10
Views: 9880

Re: Tonewood Storage

I remember reading somewhere that the old Spanish luthiers would store their timber in the ceiling to expose it to a wider range of temperature and humidity...
by Nick Payne
Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:05 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: A clean, no-binding look
Replies: 12
Views: 13929

Re: A clean, no-binding look

In the first guitar making book I ever bought (Classical Guitar: Design and Construction, by Mcleod and Welford, published about 40 years ago), they say at one point that the bindings improve the sound of a guitar. They base the claim on having strung up and played a guitar without bindings, and the...
by Nick Payne
Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:19 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: First time on TV
Replies: 13
Views: 12566

Re: First time on TV

Congratulations. I'd never listened to mandolin very much until I recently heard some wonderful Bach arranged for the mandolin on ABC FM, and chased down the CD - a Deutsche Grammophon release on which Avi Avital plays his arrangements of some Bach concertos and sonatas. DG have put a trailer for th...
by Nick Payne
Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:49 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Antonio Torres Jurado
Replies: 6
Views: 6875

Re: Antonio Torres Jurado

I've read that Fleta guitars commonly have problems in conditions of low humidity, as Ignacio Fleta built in conditions of reasonably high humidity in Barcelona, and didn't have/use any means of humidity control.
by Nick Payne
Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:38 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: They don't make them like they used to
Replies: 8
Views: 8037

Re: They don't make them like they used to

Don't forget that this instrument was made at a time when the guitar was very popular with both royalty and the aristocracy - Robert de Visée, for example, was one of the favourite musicians of King Louis XIV of France, and another guitarist whose name escapes me held a similar position at the Engli...
by Nick Payne
Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:32 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: They don't make them like they used to
Replies: 8
Views: 8037

They don't make them like they used to

Back in the early 1970s I spent a very happy afternoon in the Victoria & Albert Museum, looking at their musical instrument collection, and came away from the museum shop with a book of photos of their collection, titled "Musical Instruments as Works of Art". One of the most amazing instruments in b...
by Nick Payne
Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:36 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: Shed ideas
Replies: 15
Views: 18490

Re: Shed ideas

Anyone had great success with thermal lining in tin/ steel sheds? I recently saw a garden shed built from Kingspan panels (both walls and roof). Kingspan is panelling made from layers of colorbond steel bonded on a foam core, so no additional insulation is needed. The owner of the shed claimed that...
by Nick Payne
Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:17 pm
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: How to build a humidity room
Replies: 22
Views: 20957

Re: How to build a humidity room

With a bit more hunting I did find a smaller quantity available: http://biomedcafe.com.au/cartpage/viewp ... 20-%20250g.
by Nick Payne
Fri Sep 21, 2012 9:31 am
Forum: Instrument Builders Forum
Topic: How to build a humidity room
Replies: 22
Views: 20957

Re: How to build a humidity room

On a somewhat related topic, I was looking for some potassium carbonate in order to calibrate my hygrometers at something close to the humidity I want to maintain (potassium carbonate is ideal to use for calibration as the saturated salt RH value is 44% at 20C). The smallest quantity I could find wa...