Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Thanks for the heads up Trent...hope you make some sales.

I got busy with domestics today....sorry.

Tap testing first job for tomorrow

I have a falcate braced parlour guitar sitting on the bench awaiting re-finishing. I basically followed a plan for a Gibson parlour. I forget where the top and Helmoltz peaks were. I'll give it a tap test tomorrow and return with the data

Nice work Taff. Those meranti bindings look nice..were did you get the wood?

MDF?

My dilemma......how small does a piece of wood have to be before it gets binned?

Nick wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 24, 2025 6:52 am

Damn Allen and his backless chaps dare!

LOL...Allen paid me a visit in Adelaide shortly after that backless chaps business. I recall him threatening to arrive wearing those chaps. Wouldn't have caused even a batted eyelid here in Radelaide

Thanks Robbie.....glad to see there's at least one sane person still living in America

This just posted by William-Grit Laskin on a FB group some of us belong to. Hi Folks--LACEY ACT ALERT! For anyone shipping into the US, the value threshold for Lacey to apply has been $2,500. Just 2 weeks ago, as a result of the new tarrifs, the threshold has been dropped to $250. Wow. Does Trump r...

And what exactly were you doing to stick the pages together?? It happens while you're trying to lay in carbon fibre tow with epoxy resin and trying to read The Books at the same time :) But it's ok....I now have two sets of The Books. One is the working set and the other is the coffee table set.

Trevor...when is the glue proof edition of The Books coming out??

One important comment......before working on the neck tenon make sure the area around the mortise is flat. Nothing worse than trying to get a good tenon cheek fit against a guitar front that isnt flat. Don't ask me how I know this

I do it on my table saw..as described in Trevor and Gerard's books.

1. cut the sides of the tenon.
2. cut 5 degree cheeks with saw blade set at that angle.
3. Final fit using chisel and mortising planes and a sanding block with a 5 degree bevel on it.

Thanks for putting up those clips John. Nice looking 12 banger.

PS: FEED YOUR CAT!!!

Without looking into it in detail I'd hazard a guess that with the flexure test the testing procedure itself introduces some variability in results....more so than for frequency tap tests.

But we shall await the sagely wisdom of Colonel Gore

Sorry to hear that Pete. There must be quiet a few US guitar makers with factories outside the US...eg Gibsons Epiphone factory is in China isn't it? My American customer cancelled so it will be a while before I know what happens when exporting to the USA. I do have another American customer, but th...

LOL.....looks like must have been some serious mind altering substances while designing that headstock!!!

Things are getting serious! The inhabitants of Heard and McDonald islands are protesting the 10% tariff imposed on their exports.

Thanks for the update pics.

One question....you've glued in back braces with the back not trimmed to side outline? Is there a reason for this?

I ask because shaping bracing to fit the dish radius is a bit tricky without trimming to final back shape.

peter.coombe wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 04, 2025 9:41 am

Ha ha ha, Trumpsy's minders did not do their research properly. That really is a silly screw up.

Its an indication of how hurredly this tariff business has been cobbled together.

The separate tariff imposed on Heard and McDonald Islands.....nobody lives there except a bunch of penguins and seals!!

At this stage I don't know much. I would expect that an American customer would need to pay the tariff when the instrument arrives at US customs before they will release it. But isn't the big orange baby saying that the exporting countries will pay the tariffs???? I notice Australia has copped a 10...

Okay Trump has announced a blanket 10% tariff on all good imported into US from Australia.

How will this affect those of our members who export instruments to the US.

Any comments Pete..or others?

Welcome back John..you've been missed. Doesn't look like your build skills have been affected by your time off. Beautiful looking and sounding instrument mate

Abstraction wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 31, 2025 10:14 pm

There's no chance of retrieving the images on this thread, I expect? Great conversation on the topic.

images link to a website that appears to have been hijacked or sold to a Chinese knock off outfit.