Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Compliments of the season to you Dave. Thanks for that - I enjoyed your playing. The crisp bell-like tone of that guitar in DADGAD is just great.
cheers
Mark

Well it does look really pretty! Among the more normal soundboard species I would have guessed Bunya Pine because of the pink colouring and the prominent grain. You are giving us a pretty strong clue that this is not a rarefied, instrument-uses-only type of timber. Something as common as mud but tur...

Interesting concepts. I am starting to realize the importance of the appropriate transfer of the forces delivered to the box through the neck block. It is not just a compressive force - also rotational as the entire neck wants to pitch forward and fold the instrument in half. There is an obvious adv...

That certainly is a very elegant looking soundboard. Great colour and urique grain.
I can see why it is hard to get a decent sized board out of them - they seem to grow as a thousand trunks, even in the one tree. Nice uke!
cheers
Mark

I have got to admit that I don't understand the purpose of the flying buttress. Is it just to stiffen the sides, or does that have some effect on the geometry and physics of the soundboard too?

Well, the Ken Parker design has been filed under "maybe one day". But (to hijack my own thread for a moment) his website did lead me to this Youtube video of amazing playing by Julian Lage (on a Parker archtop) and Frank Vignola. Check it out if you want to experience a blissful 5:29 http://www.yout...

Thanks Craig (and Graham, by proxy) - that is right on the money. I think I can hear the cogs starting to turn in my head. I will also email Graham to buy a copy of his bouzouki book. Love your teardrop instrument BTW.
cheers
m

Jim, that certainly is an option that I could manage, and I could lighted it up a fair bit. You are right Allen - a standard X would be fine for the lower body. I wondered what to do in place of the traditional upper transverse brace since the holes definitely sit in that zone. But more on that in a...

A while ago I was in Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island, New York - one of the world's great guitar shops. I admit that I was actually there to buy a banjo :oops:, but anyway - on with the story. It was 5 minutes from closing time and I was waiting for a cab to take me (and my very patient wife) bac...

That is the coolest thing I have seen in ages. And the music you make is might fine also. Inspirational stuff Luke
Mark

You have got it Frank. Cover the whole lot to be clamped with the red rubbery mask and then suck it all down. Fourteen lbs per sq. inch of clamping pressure. I am jealous of the whole device.

Nice work Christian. You put that fancy kit to really good use.
cheers
Mark

And for the scarf joint? Check out William Cumpiano's video here (you need to go through the series for the whole set of tricks):
http://luthiertube.com/video/H4XMUHUGO2 ... -scarf-cut

m

Last weekend I bought three Qld Maple neck and heel blanks from Gerard Gilet. He has a lot of them in stock right now - some plain and some quite figured. Nicely seasoned and quartersawn. http://www.giletguitars.com.au/ Which tuners is a very open question. It depends very much on the style of the g...

Thanks Bob. It is a Gibson L-00 size and the plans only have one finger brace. But, as you can see, I copied your lattice bracing so I have departed from the plan already. Maybe another finger brace would be appropriate. It is interesting that with an increase in RH to around 60% today the plates ar...

Have a top or back turn inside out just once and you never take short cuts again. [...] Yes, this is certainly the most solid learning method - maybe the only one that really works. :roll: I am the latest member of the learn-this-the-hard-way-club. I work in a poorly sealed, unlined external shed w...

Hi Steve It would be great to have a local producer of replacement pickguards. I don't know what rules apply but some overseas makers offer designs to replicate lots of brands, including out of production ones (eg this mob - http://www.terrapinguitars.com). I am sure they are not paying for use of t...

You have got to wonder what sort of nasty hardware is being hidden under those three MOP dots? This thing has really had its face punched in at some stage.

I get mine from here: http://www.stringsandbeyond.com Their site also says that they won't ship Elixirs outside the US - but if you order them they send them. Their shipping rates are good. At the moment they have some packs of 3 sets of Elixirs (limited gagues) for $22 (electrics) to $32 (acoustic)...

That is another stunner Allen. The zircote, under that finish, is amazing.
I also love the spalted maple pickguard. Who is your supplier for that stuff?
Congratulations!

Mark

Craig, thanks for the reminder about the "chisel porn" thread. I now remember seeing it before but it had slipped my mind. You have both given me a few good pointers about what to look out for in used chisels and I have put a few speculative bids out on E-Bay. I'll see how that works out. Compulsive...

I have been carving braces with a set of Irwin general woodworking chisels that I got from Bunning's. They get the job done, but they are not ideal. So now I have been looking around E-Bay for vintage chisels that might be good for the job - as well as having good workshop mojo. What should I look o...

OK Captain. I'll give it a go.
I presume that they are butting the X-brace? And you notch the underside to sit them on the bridgeplate?

Is this your own invention or does it have a history elsewhere?

cheers

Mark

Paul Tru-oil certainly isn't bullet-proof. Any oil finish is going to be kind of soft. If you put that over a notoriously soft wood like WRC it will be a bit delicate. I have Tru-oil on 2 guitars - one of them with a WRC top. In my experience you could still smell the stuff for weeks, and it actuall...

Bob I am getting on with this build now. The neck block and extension is sorted out. Now I am interested in the lattice bracing that you show in that photo. How has that worked out on the instruments that you have tried it on? I am building a L-00 size guitar - do you think it is suitable to a small...

Jonathan Taylor make a line of nylon string guitars that are based on the same body shapes as their steel-strings. They are pitching them at a market of steel-string players who want another guitar with the nylon sound but which play and feel more like a steel-string than a classical. They have narr...