Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Quote: What happens when the greenies stop all logging everywhere? Well... first we have a huge party! Then, once we are over the hangover, we get stuck back into climate change, sustainable fisheries and a host of other issues. As for tonewoods, I don't see a time when small companies and individu...

I think you guys should all get together and make a Monty Python style movie about guitar building.

James

Hi Allen First… great looking guitars! I love the clean classic look and that head shape works so well with it. I was wondering how you found building for someone who had firm ideas on what they wanted compared to building when you have all the creative power? As someone who only builds for fun an...

I picked up one of these little mujingfang planes on ebay for about $20 with postage. Hard to say a bad thing about it and well worth the few extra bucks more than you would pay for brass Indian made one. It is so good that I'm thinking about buying some of the full size ones. http://www.anzlf.com/p...

I don’t sell but I do the odd repair and get many requests for builds, I also have far too many guitarists taking up my time. For the past several months there has been a bunch of guitars sitting around my desk, Martin dread, Woodtone 14 fret about the size of a classical (is that OM?), old peg he...

Hi Waddy,
Great guitar.... Love the rosette, contrasting timbers and that very nice looking german spruce top (much better grain lines than one I got locally for a small fortune). A very classy classical, well done.

Cheers
James

and here is the missing word "table". Today has been much too long.

Only a guess, but I made a sally wattle coffee and it looked much like that.

I haven’t made many guitars but over the years I’ve repaired a good number. One of the very few bits of organisation in my chaos theory life is the journal I keep notes and sketches in of any instrument I repair. So… after a quick flick through it I can tell you that… of the 23 guitars I’v...

Isn't that what all banjo players look like?

I was and mostly still am, very happy thicknessing with a plane, I have a few most are old English or Japanese ones I’ve picked up over the years so I can’t be much help with brand names. But there are times when a plane is a pain, like my first attempt at thinning down a very pretty almost whit...

I'm still using a couple of chunks of steel pipe (60mm and 100MM) with a metho burner for heat... I keep thinking about building something better but as the old saying goes ' If it ain't broken don't fix it'. I loved the one Taff made with the old bar heater element.

James

Thanks Bob
That's pretty much what I was worried about and the set I have has a good bit of runout. I think I'll save it for a nylon string or lap harp. I want to use native timbers on this build so I'll see if I can find a nice quartered bit of Australian red cedar for the top.

cheers
James

Hi All I'm planning my next couple of builds and one that I'm considering is a dreaded Dreadnought - Blackwood with a King Billy top. I love the sound of the little guitar (about Martin 00 Size) I built for my lady with the messy King Billy top, but it is about as far as I'd want to go in terms of s...

Hi Michael Looks great! One of my first posts on this forum was about Australian weed woods and their possible use as guitar timbers. Camphor Laurel was on my hot list as a very beautiful timber that seemed likely to work, but I couldn't find a single example of anyone using it on an acoustic. In te...

Hi Allen
They are looking great... I like the color of the bindings with the Cocobolo what have you used?

Would it work to hit them with steel wool or wet and dry to tone down that shine?

Hi Dom I've sent a few with Australian Air Express (http://www.aae.com.au/) never had a problem yet and only one was in a hard case, the others were in cardboard guitar boxes. I had my little sister send my old flamenco up from Melbourne with them a few weeks ago. She wrapped it in bubble wrap and s...

Hi Liam Just so you know that it's not you, tonight I broke 8 off quarter PNG rosewood bindings to get 4 good ones. The only other timber I've had this much trouble with is South American rosewood. In both cases it was offcuts from sides that bent really well. I bend on a hot pipe and success came f...

Well it has been over 20 years between guitars and has taken a while, but sitting on my bench is the little guitar I made for my better half. Flamed maple back and sides, messy KB pine top, silky oak trimming. Neck is laminated waratah, maple and silky oak. I don't like the fretboard, but the better...

I recently got some beautiful raw Paua/Abalone Shell Pieces from guy who sells it on ebay. 100grms (3.5oz) was a tad less than $20 and was here within a week. He has an Australian bank account so direct deposit is ok, which is great for people like me who have never got around to getting a paypal ac...

I watched a classical with a fancy back being built when I was in Sevilla. They used acoustic veneer (thin maple veneer with a thicker veneer of spruce glued with the grain at 90 deg) the fancy work on the outside of the back was veneer of almond wood, spanish cedar and ebony. Ebony octagon in the c...

Hi All I got some timber from this mob once, it was great but the AUD to euro exchange rate made it very expensive. But the point of this post is that they have a bunch of free guitar plans you can download in PDF format. Probably not much there for the more experienced luthiers but thought it could...

Hi All I have an old Simon and Patric dred that I want to make playable again. It has a number of minor problems like a cracked brace and a couple of cracks in the top near the edge of the upper bout. But the main issue with playability is that the strings have worn groves in the frets two to five a...

Hi All I don't seem to be able to pass up B, C maybe even D grade tops with interesting grains or colours. Recently I got a couple of nasty $20 sitka spruce tops that seem to have sap wood in the tight grain side and I guess what people are calling bear claw marks. They seem to tap much like the muc...

I already have more wood than I have time or projects to use it on, but It's an addiction so I'd be interested... I really need to see about getting some shock treatment.