Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

There has been a lot of discussion about the effect of a substantial transverse brace sitting under the saddle position on the sound of a classical guitar on some other forums - not wishing to mention Delcamp! But I wonder what the effect on the modal performance of the top is...? I would imagine th...

Mike appreciate your post and this completely allays my fears. I think it is great that you and your partner should put in the effort and make it available. As a student of Al Caruth we can be sure you know what you are doing. Having only recently acquired a phone that is big enough for me read I sh...

It's a long story but i have been able to get an approximate weight for a falcate top. This has approx 5 mm extra round the edges and does not have to cutaway removed yet. It is a little less than 3 mm thick Came in at around 230 g.

Cheers Dave

Fun indeed. That looks like a helical cutter rather than a sanding bobbin...? With a bearing at the base?

Having invested the time to make the jigs that certainly makes the tasks quick and perhaps more importantly repeatable.

Deflection testing is a perfectly viable method for measuring the Youngs modulus of a soundboard - I would do it with a series of weights and a dial gauge on a half top board. It would need to be smooth and rectangular. The formula is widely available on the net. However the problem then is to use t...

Love it. D

I don't really think it is going to make a guitar sound more like a Torres!

D

This is a fairly close version of Trevor's medium SS. I think the most important bit as Martin has suggested is to make sure they fit cleanly between the bridge pins.

Thanks people. Time is in short supply just now so was hoping to just buy one. Dave

Does the intonator from Stewmac work with the typical curved arrangement of bridge pins on a Gore bridge do we know?

Dave

Alaska Speciality Woods are up there. They specialise in salvaged and blown down trees. Don’t know exactly where they are but look them up.

Cheers Dave

This is a bit off topic since Talldad is referring to a steel string bridge but it is worth noting that when shaping the underside of a classical bridge you should do this process before finishing the shaping of the wings of the bridge. Particularly if you have a fairly high dome in the lower bout y...

Interesting Trevor. I don’t recall a big add on cost but it was a few years ago. Maybe with our economy slumping for years we are all too poor! However I do hope that the sales have recompensed you and Gerard for the huge amount of work that must have gone into it. As well as the kudos of having pro...

It may seem a bit off target but I wonder if you have a rough breakdown of where your book has sold around the world? Difficult to justify the question but I suppose i’m wondering where in the world there is a curiosity about how guitars work and how to build better ones. I would hope that the U.K. ...

I’ve always thought doing it on the actual guitar is a bit dodgy - too many ways to damage the top. I have a lathe and I have made a mushroom like jig with the radius required, covered with I think 80 grit paper and use that. It is still a lengthy job but not that unreasonable. I use a white pencil ...

I’m wondering if the Delcamp forum might be a good place to look. There is a bit of violin stuff on there. Alan Carruth regularly posts and he started out with violins.

Cheers Dave.

PS am still studying your mandolin book in preparation for the change to a completely different build!

Big improvement. I was only the other day checking your old site and thinking it hadn't changed much!

Dave

I ended up drop filling with lacquer the last time this happened. It took quite a lot of doing but it did work.

Yes we could do with a sort of 'luthiers executor' who could be trusted to get fair value for this stuff. I think for not particularly organized people like me getting the instrument timber recognized for what it is rather than any old stuff would be important given that I have a fair bit of other t...

Nigel that's very interesting. The machining is somewhat easier once set up. You also don't get the issue of end grain glueing. It has the feel of a more secure joint - not that I suppose the GG design isn't. When and if I get round to tackling the BOBO joint I will have to try that out. Cheers Dave

Martin yes that was my first thoughts but they don’t do adverts and don’t ask for personal data. They may be doing some underhand digging. Ah well if logging stuff on a computer is your thing it may be a useful system. I tend to be a paper and pencil operator! Cheers Dave PS Hope the new workshop is...

Nigel I like it. Did you rout out the trough or do it by hand?

And that side wood looks amazing what is it? I would imagine it would be hard to bend without cracking.

This software as referenced by Munchkin looks quite useful if you are a keyboard warrior. However how do they make their money? The application obviously uses other people’s ideas but it does bring things together into a coherent package, and has clearly taken some programming effort. So what’s in i...

And much appreciated they are!

At least it means you're making a living! Cheers Dave