Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

For what it’s worth I bought this router table. It’s very small and quite useful.

https://www.axminster.co.uk/ujk-technol ... e-ax978206

This is all U.K. based but I would be surprised if it weren’t available worldwide.

Perfect for a small workshop.

From the North of England to the Gold Coast! Nowhere in your excellent book did it discuss how to factor in the costs of all that suncream you’ll need. Or even how to charge for those minutes where you’ll have to change your sweaty underwear after a hard morning planing. Best wishes for your new ven...

That guitar is lush. Well done.

What are your thoughts on the effects on tonal character when you install a bevel? The reduced surface area must make a negative difference but the increased mass in the sides must make a positive difference. Would you say they balance each other out?

That is simply stunning. Please please please tell me you used a cnc to do all that cut out! I could never even hope to get cuts that neat and tidy.

Way more money in repairing guitars than making them, that is a definite. Steve Lets not be coy about this Steve, your skillset as a repairer of guitars is well in advance of that building them from scratch, we've all seen your excellent How To's. It's reasonable to expect that the reward should be...

I would suggest that you keep a log of every hour you spend working on this new build, include everything such as shopping, consultations, tidying up workshop, sharpening, researching new designs, lunch hours when working full days as well as the cutting, bending, hitting and sticking. When you divi...

Jigs a great idea but..... if this is a serious hobby why not just buy it in bulk, 5m, 10m +++++ rolls? Already curved a treat. Since it’s in a roll you can decide to store it as 30cm 12” diameter or 50cm 16” diameter.

Cracked the issue. It was a humidity problem! Not the back board itself but the bracing, I had mistakenly used spruce kept in the workshop overnight rather than fresh from the house. Once removed the board sprang back to shape the the bracings turned to bananas.

Thanks for all you help guys.

I don’t think that the RH is the issue. Or at least if it is I suspect it is the difference between here and Spain. My dehumidifier is always pumping out water from the workshop and the reading between house and shop are similar. I suspect the issue is more to do with the curvature of the wooden bra...

Unfortunately RH was constant throughout as braces and backs were moved from house to workshop and back again in 2 hours. RH was about 2° different to house around 55% here in U.K.

Humidity is definitely relevant. The boards came from Spain, dry and arrid and arrived in England, home of the raindrop! They’d had three months in the house to acclimatise and were very flat afterwards. Sanding down to 2.5mm showed up slight curvature, I braced against it with pattern as above. The...

I was attempting to make a 'Live Back' All going well fully thicknessed according to guidelines and braced. One week later the 9m radius has inverted as the boards have bowed (concave rather than convex), it still sounds lovely but looks ridiculous. What am I to do to get the curve on the outside of...

So I bought the books, read them, rubbed my head hard, read them again and decided to embark on a live Walnut back for my guitars. I wanted to use Trevor’s equation 4.5-7 to predict the final thickness of each board. So I cut, thicknessed, weighed, tapped and measured my frequencies and entered them...

I have made all manner of contraptions for cutting fret slots in the past all with varying degrees of success, the most successful seem to be a faff to use. Since I only make 6 guitars a year I have resorted to using two blocks of 25mm MDF, the first gets clamped on the cut line, the second gets cla...

Got to say I love bound fretboards, especially when the fret ends have been hidden.

They take for ever to fret up but the result is worth it. Whilst I am there I try to round off the fret ends rather than bevel. Looks great but it’s a day you’ll never get back.

Genius again Steve.

I always radius and flatten my fretboards when they are glued in place. Your method would still allow this to happen.

Ta.

The neck block is only 35mm deep so cutting at 14th fret would be tricky. What if I were to beef up the neck block with an extension piece to mirror the missing fret board? I reckon I could glue it together with a decent enough dovetail joint to give it the stability it required.

I’m in need of replacing a top on a sassafras OM that plays like a Banjo. This has really helped, and as always it’s the little suggestions. In my case the cutting of the fretboard at 14th fret is something I never would have thought about.

Thanks Steve.

2nd vote for Peterson’s strobe tuner for iPhone.

Also does some very limited frequency analysis for looking at fundamentals and overtones.

I had a bolt fail only StewMac jig, the guys were happy to send out two new bolts to the U.K. free of charge.

The free bit was fantastic as customs in the U.K. takes a week to process anything of value.

I love the idea of Braille sized bumps running underneath the lower edge of the fret board. Perhaps alternating too. One bump at 3rd, two at 5th, one at 7th etc etc If Sheoak has great tonal properties I would definitely use Gore to design a live back. The only other thought I had was the finish you...

Agreed with Nigel, marketing, might even buy his book as it’s the one thing I’m simply not motivated to consider, hence clients come thin and slow. Other than that, meditation, being mindful of the whole experience, relaxing into every cut as if it was the finishing touch, being connected and consci...

That was gorgeous. Thank Nigel.

Have you thought of using a cheap set of engineering drills? They come in loads of sizes and are great to use as a rasp to smooth the bed of the nut slot. I admin that the top E drill is a bit flimsy but the others leave a great groove. http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-20Pcs-Mini-HSS-High-Speed-Steel-Twi...

All my planes are Veritas. I can't vouch that they are better than cheaper models but overtime I pick one up I feel inspired to make it do excellent work. There is something immensely satisfying about using quality tools.