Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Like you all I have heaps to do in the workshop. There is very little activity outside in Condon Townsville. I think having to vote yesterday was a bit stupid? Lucky I managed to get a phone vote in last Thursday and did not have to line up like some. We have had a few cases here in our city but it ...

Yep I had a similar experience building a mini maton copy. It is 15 fret to the body and I had this mentality of 12th and 14th fret to the body. So I went ahead and built the neck with the 14th fret to the body and the body to suit a neck 15th fret to the body. Big issues with the bridge plate locat...

G'day Laurence,
I have the same model as yours with the same issues and have just bought a conveyor belt motor, a PC board and replaced a broken front roller all available at Carbatec. I had to wait a little time but also sorted in a couple of weeks. Great people to deal with.
Cheers
Alan

Hi to everyone, I would like to give some feedback on the Carbatec 400 mm drum sander issues I posted sometime ago. After talking with Jeremy via a few emails we arrived at the parts that were required to fix the sander. The three parts were the feed belt motor, the PC board and the feed roller. I d...

Very fine work there.
Love the Birds Eye neck.
Congratulations on your patience.
Cheers
Alan

Very nice builds Peter. I also like the classical very much.
The finishes are really first class.
Thanks for sharing
Cheers
Alan

Hi Kim, Adi is traditionally the stiffest of spruce but as you well know no two pieces of wood are the same. Adi is used for guitars where you want some headroom in your sound like in Bluegrass music where you need a guitar with volume. The Adi top can also be very sweet fingerpicked. Sitka is used ...

Hi to you all, I am also still lurking and have a few projects on the go. One I will share with you soon is two OM builds with different top bracings, backs and side materials. I plan to do a sound demo and let you all know what I found that is interesting. I mean you've got to experiment a bit. Tha...

Hi to you all, I am also still lurking and have a few projects on the go. One I will share with you soon is two OM builds with different top bracings and top backs and sides. I plan to do a sound demo and let you all know what I found that is interesting. I mean you've got to experiment a bit. Thank...

Merry Christmas to you all here at the ANZLF.
Such a great community to be a member of.
Thank you to Martin and Jeremy for their tireless work keeping the forum operating.
Look out here comes 2020 have a great one.
Cheers
Alan

Thanks Ken.
I will try them.
I feel the same regard the Carbatec machine.
I know it well now and fitting the paper is not the difficult job it used to be.
Just take it easy and it did the job for me.
Cheers
Alan

I have a Carbatec 400 mm wide drum sander that has been a great work horse for nine years and I have used it carefully especially only taking small thickness passes so not to overload the machine. Early in its life the motor that drives the feed belt stopped operating. Carbatec replaced the motor an...

Hi Dave and thank you for your comments. Your steel string top design looks great and your work is very fine. I haven't ventured into carbon fiber yet but will in the near future. I have received the Jeff Elliot plan and have studied it carefully. I noticed first the top thickness and then as you sa...

Hi Wayne, Thanks mate I like to keep my builds tidy. I was suprised at the tap response. This one is for my long time student. The next builds I will follow plans just to see what the difference is in tone. I seem to think that a bolt on neck seems to be a much better build method than the Spanish H...

Thank you Trent.

Hi everyone, Just a few pics for you to see progress on the classical nylon string guitar. It is a FE19 shape but that's about all there is similar to an original Torres. It is a bolt on the same as I build a steel string, 7 strutt basic bracing slightly rounded and the transverse braces on the top ...

Hi Trent,
Beautiful build mate.
Could you tell me about the friction tuners please? Is there a how to make in th plan.
Could you put me onto the plan please?
It looks like a little smaller size guitar a 7/8th or even smaller.
Love it all.
Cheers
Al

Hi Joseph,
I'm with the red Titebond also.
I use the super strength epoxy follow the instructions and mix it very well to glue down the fingerboard. I also use some on the neck bolt inserts as well.
Looking forward to watching your build.
Cheers
Alan

A very tasty guitar Fisherman.
Congratulations to you for building such a class instrument.
Cheers
Alan

Hi Richard, I'm looking forward to the build. I am also building a few classical guitars at once seen that I have never built one before. The first one has a bolt on neck the same method as I have built all my steel strings. It is at closed box and I am very pleased with the guitar so far. The braci...

Thank you Steve very timely as I am into the top bracing right now.
Cheers
Alan

Thanks Dave I will check it out.
Cheers
Al

Hi Steve, Thanks for your reply. I am not using a live back on the sapele which has good stiffness, is 2.2 mm thick and it will be a bolt on neck. The blackwood also a non live back and it is the same weight as the Sapele back at 2.2 mm thick and very stiff. The Silver Wattle is stiff enough at 2.5 ...

Hi Dave, More good experienced information to take in. Thank you. I have ordered the GAL SE 114 plan but it has been 6 weeks and no sign of it yet. Being economy post from the US it may take some more time to get here. I believe it is very similar in size to the La Suprema FE 19. I am not looking to...

Also the Sapele back is 250 gram, a Blackwood also 250 gram and a Silver Wattle 190 gram. After some research I found that a three ladder torres brace design for the back should be about B1 at the neck end 7 mm x 20 mm, B2 8 mm x 20 mm and B3 9 mm x 20 mm. Do you think they are reasonable sizes to s...