Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Well Martin I nearly said on the F It thread that you are going to be real good at necks. Anyone in South Aus with a problem with necks just go talk to Martin! Tall Dad while it's true the Spruce has been yellowed a bit by the lacquer, the ripple Maple looks grand under a finish. As an (amateur) pla...

I'm with Craig and John on this. A temporary glue joint of some kind is going to give the best simulation of the real thing and not skew your results.

And by the way we would all I think be very interested in your results. Do document them.

Well thanks to both. I now know far more about the subject. Very interesting about the picking technique - I could see the action just as you described it Ross when watching this small group the other week.

And those guitars Craig look superb. I didn't realise this was your stock in trade.

Craig thanks a lot for those insights. I think the Macafferi designs are interesting not so much for the sound they could produce which can be quite harsh, as the approach he took to getting more volume. This might be a useful input to designers today looking to increase loudness. As I understand it...

Wandering the Tube I came across this guitar with a nut thinned down to about half it's thickness in the top half so the strings are only held in short grooves. Not sure If I am allowed a direct link but here goes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN1HiISnOxo&index=12&list=PL5zaYkmnUiZZ3I0Lq51wRxhLvI...

Yes Lapsang souchong is probably the answer. Less of this builders tea!

Just as a holding reply I do have those conditions pretty much nailed down. Foam support, used a more solid bench today, excitation a reasonable distance above the soundhole. I am using VA to provide the sound, through a domestic amplifier into a speaker around 100 mmm diameter in a closed box ... W...

This has been sparked off by the discussion of Simon Ambridge's pictures of a Hauser. And what good eyes you must have Trevor... I have been checking a couple of my boxes and my patterns look just like the top monopole patterns though messier. The air mode certainly isn't out near the sides on eithe...

Well Blimey! First of all it looks like great woodworking skills. But please talk about the sound. And how high are those braces?

And go on give us a sound sample!

Thanks Ross and Martin. These particular guitars would just have had the appearance of Selmacs. But I am very interested in the construction of the originals - so completely different from what we think of as a steel string today. I was thinking that although the big mouth looks pretty big, it's are...

I was enjoying a local gypsy jazz group in the pub the other night when someone asked about the soundhole. The rhythm guitarist had the tiny vertical oval soundhole and the lead the seriously big D shape - Big mouth, Grand Bouche... Anyway I said it was just aesthetic but I bet I'm completely wrong ...

Just to show that we haven't all gone to sleep in the UK's Southwest, this is a build that was badly delayed over the summer due to gardening duties. I have finally reached 320 grit in the great sanding, having found numerous 'topographical defects' as Trevor so nicely puts it. And this time I made ...

I expect everyone else has thought of this but I'll throw it up anyway. I have found the slotting files tend to start jamming once the slot is getting a bit deep. (I take the top surface of the nut down afterwards.) I remembered my can of dry lubricant, PTFE in this case, and it worked a treat. Migh...

Trevor yes it certainly does. It was in the context of reading all about nut intonation (again) that I chose to look at this. And I only have to look at my inexpert left hand fingers to just see all the pushing and stretching as I try to get to the notes! Thanks for the tips about tuners. I have not...

E 1.JPG I was set up for some tap testing into Visual Analyser so in a somewhat casual way looked at some single note spectra. While we rather glibly talk about upper partials shaping the sound of notes it is still a bit of a surprise to see just how many there are and how strong they remain right ...

You could have your work cut out there Steve. Unfortunately I guess we can't count on a manufacturer being consistent.

I seem to remember Trevor G saying that some of them anneal before forming so they would be pretty soft.

I would have expected the required top thickness to be a bit bigger but I guess the spreadsheet never lies! I was looking again at the really useful article by Alan Carruth and Jim Blilie in GAL no 125. Demonstrates completely clearly the overlap in stiffness of the woods we use for tops. With the e...

Jim assuming you are in Oz this won't help but for people in the UK - I struggled to find rubber tips for my wooden rods but eventually found this company: essentracomponents I use their white rubber tips. They don't leave rubber but they do leave greasy marks. Not a problem when you are going to do...

Interesting experience this weekend. A friend has a steel string which I made a while back, which is pretty responsive ie loud. He is learning a piece which uses a lot of harmonics and said that he prefers to play the piece on his other Martin copy which is less responsive. Listening to him playing ...

I have been waiting for someone to point this out but... You don't need an actual go bar deck. A strongly built shelf above a workbench does just the job. Nothing to store, and you get some more storage space on the shelf as well.
I do height adjustment by simply packing under the dish.

Dave

Max, apologies I have only just seen your question. As others have said the material is fed in from the back against the rotation of the drum. You have to be careful of dangling sleeves and so on. If you have the space you could turn the lathe around for better access. I also didn't show that I dang...

Nice looking work John. You seem to turning them out a quite a rate!

What was the sinker redwood like in terms of stiffness?

Now there's funny, I thought you would be talking about the mental approach to guitar building. Like how you need to acquire a pretty zen like feeling to the the work. Like when you have to discard a whole neck that you have spent hours on because it just isn't going to work and you just have to acc...

Think I have said this elsewhere before but... I glued my two dishes back to back to give added stiffness and they are a bit easier to store. Of course I tend to only building one guitar at a time!

Further the sound is good over an Ipad and an Android phone using headphones.

I think you are right about the Buffalo recording. It comes over much better through phones and yes it is probably a lack of that initial attack you get with nails. Cheers Dave