Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

After many years of being involved in the repairing and building of stringed instruments, one can imagine the vast number of tools, jigs, and machines I have accumulated, as we all do. This of course can run into many thousands of dollars over time. Unlike my son, who recently took up building guita...

Hi, that's looking really nice. After seeing that finish I can see my spray room being used for storage. Gonna have to try that hard shellac.
Taff

Hi, On my three-piece backs, and two-piece sometimes, I often use little spruce diamonds for the length of the join, with maybe 20mm or so between them. Just to be different and I think it looks classy. I can't find a photo of one, but here's a back I did similarly using heart-shaped reinforcing cle...

Hi, I'm not sure of the acoustical properties of Merbu, but that is what I am using, I am just trying it out on my latest build. I'm also using a modified kerfing as seen in the photos. I was using reversed kerfing but with the timber I was using every so often showed the saw cuts through the kerfin...

Hi, I came across this jig in my photo stash the other day after reading about changing the soundhole size when tuning the body cavity. This aid works for me and I have used it for many years now. Depending on the hole size to start with you don't always need the wedges all around the hole. As can b...

Hi Mark, thanks for your interest. Finishing is the least enjoyable part of a build for me. Although the end product looks nice, it's the journey I hate. I can never get it right without hours of correcting and redoing stages. This guitar, as with most of my builds uses Nitro, but I'm leaning toward...

Hi Al, it was great spending time with you, and thanks for the comments on this 000 build. I have photos of the Chlandni patterns and I'll share them with you next visit. I am just bracing up another 000 using New Guinee Rosewood and Cedar.
Thanks again.
Taff

Hi, here is my latest build finished last month. It was half completed in 2016, body and neck, but due to new customers wanting their own versions of it, I never got to sell it, just sell off of it. Having played it for the last three weeks I think some of those customers would not have turned their...

Hi, that’s a great looking guitar, love the finish. As mentioned well presented too.
Taff.

Hi, as is my way, and yours I suspect, I make many of my own tools, jigs, and machines so I thought I would show a few. I have been doing this for more years than I like to mention and a recently made list is four foolscap pages long. Here is an easy one..... The Gramilshown is one I purchased from ...

Hi, You could call them a set of nail files :D I have many sets also, the last ones being those shown by Martin I have mounted them as in the photo. I find they bind too easily too. I often lay the file on its side and run it down one wall of the slot to give that slight clearance. 1-IMG_0261.JPG Taff

Hi again, I came across this photo. Great NGR stash and all 1/4 cut and found locally. Some of the boards I already sliced up in the foreground. Cheers Taff

Hi Mark, that's a very impressive piece of work, I like that a lot, real classy looking. I use a lot of new Guinee Rosewood on both electric and acoustic guitars. It makes a great-sounding acoustic guitar. Our local timber outlet had a huge pile of NGR, 300mm x 50mm x 2mtr lengths, picked out all th...

Hi Mark, that's a very impressive piece of work, I like that a lot, real classy looking. I use a lot of new Guinee Rosewood on both electric and acoustic guitars. It makes a great-sounding acoustic guitar. Our local timber outlet had a huge pile of NGR, 300mm x 50mm x 2mtr lengths, picked out all th...

Hi Dave, the back and sides are New Guinee Rosewood. Martin, I may have been lucky due to the fact the sides were prepped a bit too thin. In fact, I ended up making them a laminated set with stiffer side braces and kerfing. OOO size. Taff

Hi, yes I've used aluminum for many years now. I got a handyman sheet of aluminum from the local hardware store and cut it to the sizes I needed. I just have to flatten it out after each bending operation.
Taff

Hi Steve, I had some carbon fiber with the same dimensions as a bone saddle blank, so I weighed them. Bone 6 grams, CB 4 grams. Cheers Taff

Hi Jeremy, thanks for your detailed response and suggestions. With the help of other members, I also came to many of the same conclusions you mention. Except, the one about the safety feature regarding zero-ish thickness settings. I should have realized that as it's the same feature employed on my t...

Hey Wayne, thanks for posting that video, it's just what I needed to spur me along. However, I can't offer any comments on the falcate bracing, I know nothing about it, but I will be learning slowly hanging out here.
Cheers Taff

Hi, the other week I pulled a set of sides off the shelf that I had bent up, 000 size, about a year ago ready to start a new build. Whilst preparing for this new build I noticed that both sides were the same bend, not a bass and treble side set. Oops, I wonder who did that? The photos show how I got...

I could not grasp it then, and I still can’t… Since recently returning to the ANZLF forum, after an absence of too many years, quite a few interesting things stood out to me. So many of the people who were contributing back then are still providing interesting posts all these years later, membership...

Hi, yes I have always found them good the deal with over the years. The advice from Glu Boost at that time was not to put opened CA glue back in the fridge, so I followed that advice. I now understand that CA glue can go in the fridge if in an air-tight container, so I will possibly give it another ...

Hi again, not related to your present neck problem, but shown as a matter of interest.

This old Maton cross brace's glue let go and somebody tried to hold it with a screw. I undid the screw and the cross brace fell to the bottom of the guitar. Taff

Hi Alan, without seeing the actual guitar it's hard to give a spot-on answer. But in your description of the high action you mentioned a bowed neck and no truss rod, this led me to think that it is not a resetting of the neck that is required but a leveling of the neck or fingerboard. If the neck is...

Hi Martin, that's truly the sign of a dedicated luthier in my book, I admire your work. I'm procrastinating over rosette designs this week, but nothing even close to your complex design. The trouble with using an off-the-shelf rosette is it's not one of a kind, and I don't feel comfortable building ...