Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Great video. I love that little trick with the sandpaper on the inside of a tape roll.

That’s a heckuva knife, Taff! Martin, I feel the same way about shapers. It’s the ‘turbine spinning up’ noise when you switch them on that makes me nervous.

Cheers guys! Have you ever tried knives to carve the heel or volute etc?

Of all the different approaches to carving a neck, what have you settled on and why? Rasp, faceting, spokeshave, router templates, CNC, something else?

A couple more progress shots. I spent all day Saturday working on the body bindings, and I still didn’t get them finished. I’m continuing the back strip and tail wedge around into the binding, which is ebony with white and black purfling. Getting the white purfling to line up perfectly where it join...

These are some great-sounding classes. One day!

I’m sorta surprised you don’t hear about people blowing themselves up spraying nitro, to be honest.

Good point about the insurance, Nigel. There’s a number of fire resistant panels on the market, thankfully.

Thanks Mark! Yeah, I thought #0001 might be a bit ambitious :lol: . Re the humidity, I’ve been building it in Jim Cargill’s very nicely set up workshop, which is well insulated and (reasonably) climate controlled. The timber has mostly come from his stash stored in the workshop, so it’s about as acc...

Thanks very much guys!

Yes, I’d looked at full-on SIPs, but I haven’t found someone that builds simple buildings with them. One of the local manufacturers makes SIPs with fibro sheet on the outside and OSB on the inside, which would be ideal for screwing things onto walls. Re climate control, I want to install a split sys...

I'm a little nervous about posting progress photos of my current, and very first, acoustic build, given my very beginner skill level, but here goes. I'm building this at Jim Cargill's workshop with his guidance. It's a lefty J45-ish body, but with a 25.4" scale length. The back and sides is spalted ...

Nice one Dean! Very cool to see this one progress after spotting that side mold when I popped over to grab that lovely Queensland maple carve top from you a few months back.

I'm following this one with interest. I'm currently trying to get a 5x5.5m workshop built, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting a tradie to do it. I want to build it out of insulated panels - think what coolrooms are built of. The basic version is two sheets of Colorbond with 50mm of polystyrene ...

You easily spend four weeks seeing the sights in WA if you’re willing to do some driving. Make sure you visit Rock Inn while you’re in Perth - great guitar shop, and they’ve usually got plenty of stock from our big local guitar brands, Maton, Cole Clark, Fenech and Pratley.

Oh there's no judgement from me, that just was an expression of lust.

kiwigeo wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 17, 2025 8:22 pm

600kg of tonewood

Dave - Perth itself isn’t terribly exciting, I agree, but it’s a good jumping off point to the rest of WA, which has some amazing places to visit. Go down to the south coast, Albany-Esperance sort of way, for amazing beaches with nobody on them, Margaret River if you like wine, Karijini National Par...

Hi Jurgen, from a guitar building perspective, I’d recommend the factory tours at Cole Clark and Maton Guitars in Melbourne - I reckon you’d find them very interesting. There’s also several tonewood suppliers scattered around the country who you could visit. If you’re into country music, the Tamwort...

Glyn, I’ve listened to a few podcast episodes you’ve been on - the Guitar Builders Collective and Guitar Speak ones, from memory. You’re always a pleasure to listen to on my morning commute.

Lee, greetings from another time-poor but enthusiastic dad/wood butcherer!

As a recent blow-in, thanks for everyone who has built this place and those who continue to support it.

I'm no engineer by any means and really could use a "Dummies Guide to Modal Tuning". I have a lot of info provided by Mr. Gore but I'm now even sure where to start. Hi Papatar16, have you come across “The Book”, Trevor Gore and Gerard Gilet’s two-part textbook? I’ve just bought a copy and I’m start...

Pratley Guitars use Queensland maple as a top wood quite a bit in combination with Queensland maple back and sides (and interchangeably with maple silkwood, which is very similar). I had a brief chat with Martin Pratley at the Melbourne Guitar Show earlier in the year and asked him about it, and he ...

I recently used Pack and Send to get about 20kg of wood from Queensland to Victoria. I think they farm it out to local couriers, so your mileage may vary, but I had a good experience with them.

Welcome to the forum Tom and thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. A nice looking stash of wood there.........it will only get larger regardless of how many guitars you make :mrgreen: Thanks Martin! I’ve made peace with the fact that my motivation for getting into guitar building is an ...