Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

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.

I'm with Mark. Let the instrument settle down for a few weeks and then reassess.

How have you built the guitar? Spanish method with a foot supported by the back or with a neck bolted to body?

Lovely looking instrument Trent....

LOL....was waiting for Taff to chime in!!

The internal spacers - keep 'em simple. Ideally they need to stay in until both back and top are on. That means they should be small enough to be pulled out through the soundhole.

Some people get carried away with moulds...to the point where their moulds look better than their guitars

Nice set up Taff.

To make the little positioning pins I drill a hole in a card scraper and then hammer a matchstick through the hole

Thanks for the tip Matthew...will give it a go.

Info on the product here: https://diggersaustralia.com.au/product ... t-cleanup/

Stewmac......TaffMac

This is a group reply So you guys are telling me if I went through bunnings and found a really straight grain piece for an acoustic guitar it would already be dry and stable enough to use, for back and sides or neck? And people would still buy a guitar with bunnings supplied tasmainian oak back and...

Cutters I use the most in my shop: - straight and ball end cutters for doing truss rod slots - double flute cutters with bearing guides (top, bottom, top and bottom bearings) for use with trimming up to templates. - a 45 degree bevel cutter for classical bridges (ramped backside of saddle slot). - a...

A router table one of the best tools I made up for my workshop. I got my hands on a Unilift router lifter and made up the table myself. At the time the Unilift was the bees knees of lifters but these days there are other makes available that do an adequate job. As far as router safety goes.....learn...