Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I am thinking that If I manage these 3 tests on an existing guitar it might lead me on to doing it on my next build as I will have become a bit familiar with the whole thing...it’s such a prohibitive first book and a shame a spreadsheet isn’t provided with it for those not so tech minded) One thing...

"Trevor recommends King Billy Pine for the main braces but thats really only available in Straya," King Billy pine bends like butter but make sure the KBP youre using is stiff enough.....Ive found this wood varies quite a bit in stiffness and on my first falcate build I ended up ripping off the KBP ...

Steve, do you run a triangular file across your fret slots to create a bevel on the side of the slot before knocking the fret in? This can help reduce tear out when you have to pull a fret. Something else that helps during a fret pull is placing a Stewmac fretboard protector over the fret before goi...

Fretted up today and might have a bit of a problem. The frets felt sort of loose when I was filing off the ends in that I could feel them vibrating when the file ran over them, I don't remember that from last time. I also noticed that a couple of the ends were not holding down in the slots and migh...

Here are pictures of the mitre box. It worked a treat. Much better than I'd managed to do with any other method I could think of! The orange rings were spacers to put under the far ends of the board while it was being cut to stop the whole lot over balancing I use a couple of clamps either side of ...

I generally wouldn't take my sides thinner than 2mm. The only exception would be where I need to work the side around a sharp radius bend such as on horn of a cutaway. In this case I would put in a reinforcement patch on inside of curve once bent. Haha I feel like the bridge is along way down the tr...

The hardest part will be agonizing over whether to do a conventional or pyramid bridge :mrgreen: Hey everyone there may be signs of life hahah I didn't want to waste the timber so Iv successfully disassembled the whole body and as I was making a drednaught there is still a bit of timber in it enough...

How thick are your sides?

The top is Lutz spruce. I bought a lot of this wood off Shane Neiffer back around 2000 and a lot of the sets had these nice red streaks through them.

kpcart wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 3:59 pm

nice red soundboard.

I wouldn't have accepted the commission either. I have to at least tolerate a commission I'm working on.

I'm a long time classical player and have always played with the callouses rather than nails.

Welcome back Steve and thanks for the update. Into year 2 of a no build period here as I finish off a new house build. The workshop is currently a bedroom and the garage is an open plan living space during the house build. Should be back building early in the new year.

I French Polish....and I'm not even French

Thanks Alain!

A thought.......the two necks I assume will be in the same tuning? If so I would expect the strings on the unplayed neck to resonate with the strings on the played neck.....that should be interesting

Thanks for the update pics of the build. How the guitar will sound will be interesting but looking at that massive bridge plate and the low area of unbraced or lightly braced lower bout I wouldn't expect a lot of volume. Main top frequency may also be off optimal value(s). Lets see how she sounds on...

Welcome to the forum Jason and thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself. Pics of your builds as they progress are always welcome.

Jeremy might know.

Thanks Terence....hope youll post up some of your work at some stage

Is that the place down Cuba Street? I popped in there a few years ago when I was doing a building course run by Paddy Burgin and Dave Freeman.

CNCWorksNZ wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2020 5:11 pm

Have you found Alistair's Music Shop yet?

I saw Benson live in Christchurch New Zealand back in the late 70's...was a great show.

Promoters keeping your money when the event has been cancelled...that's called The QANTAS model.

Nice work Trent. That guitar sounds fantastic...

Sharp tools are better than sex!

seeaxe wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:08 am

Lovely. What a great way to start a day. I admire the sharpness of his tools. He knows what he is doing.
Thanks for posting that.

Truss rod adjustment sets neck relief, more or less tension on neck, for different string thickness and tension. It also helps with fine tuning at 12th fret, along with setting the nut, saddle and fret leveling. Neck relief will affect action etc but it's important that neck relief is set up correc...

2. I have adjusted the neck to remove the bow What's the current neck relief? If you adjust truss rod so fretboard is perfectly flat then there's a high chance you'll get fret buzz mid neck. A bit of relief mid neck allows for string excursion without slapping the frets. Without sounding like a sma...