Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

That's sad news Allan...thanks for sharing the information and your experiences working with David.

I bought a set of those nut files off eBay for about $100, 6 files in the set I've used them quite a bit and they're still good, they do tend to bind up a bit if you go too deep. It was a few years ago and seemed expensive at the time, now it looks like I got a bargain. Wayne I run my nut files thr...

Trevor Gore wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2023 12:18 pm

kiwigeo wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:12 am

How can this sort of mark up be justified???

Japarts seem to be selling sets of 3 files. Angkor are selling a set of 8 (and they're sold out!)

The Japart sets have 6 files in each set.....files are listed in two columns.

I'm trying to locate some nut files with a rounded profile on the cutting edge of the file. I've got 4 Stewmac files that are like this but they no longer sell them. Was looking at some files made in Hiroshima japan last night....priced at $70 Ca on a a Canadian suppliers site.....$Aus220 on an Aust...

An update on the trouble classical. During the fret redress a couple of frets got more of a dress than I'm comfortable with so have ripped out all the frets so I can take care of a hump in the fretboard around the 2nd and 3rd frets and at the same time do some surgery on the wedge between the upper ...

"I had only played two chords as part of my demo, and they said I’ll have it. "

What chords were they??

I'm a Mac head so ended up buying a cheap laptop from AussiePost Shop a few years back with Windows 8 on it. The machine is a dedicated workshop machine and never gets connected to the internet. I tried running VA on my Macs on top of a Windows emulator. It works but moving data in and out of the vi...

As mentioned earlier I'm using a preamp and it's usually turned up fairly high. You may also see peaks at 50Hz and multiples of same which are AC hum being picked from the preamp and laptop powerpacks. I redid the tap test with preamp turned down and the main peaks are as already reported. I can't s...

Those are fairly nasty looking VA plots, Martin. Lots of background noise or something else going on? I'm running mic output into laptop via a preamp....might have something to do with the background noise. Ive also got smoothing turned off. Guitar was lying on its side with neck on a neck rest so ...

Okay I got the guitar on the bench and looked at the nut and string routing between the nut and the tuner posts. I put a capo on the first fret and all strings sound better although the wolf tone is still there as more of a deadening of the note and with capo on has moved up one fret. Top E was comi...

johnparchem wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2023 12:27 pm

How about a capo on the first fret?

Its on the check list John.

Will get the guitar on the operating table this afternoon and have a nut out session.

Just throwing mud against the wall ... I build both slot head classical guitars and guitars with peg tuners. The headstock angle on my slot heads are 9-10° but I use 15° on the guitars that I use pegs to tune as they terminate the string higher. Headstock/neck angle is 15degrees. Strings leave the ...

Neck relief? Back buzz? Truss rod? Loose neck attachment hardware? Pick-up if fitted? Hi Trevor, Neck relief. I've played with truss rod....there's a modest amount of relief dialed in at present. There were a few frets that were a tad high with truss rod relaxed so I gave the whole fretboard a redr...

Weird, did you check for loose components on the tuning machine? I assume you checked the nut as well? I sometimes temporarily lift the strings with tape at the nut to see if the sound goes away. Hi John, Tuners are planetary geared peg tuners.....nothing loose there. The nut...I tried a bit of pap...

This will most likely be the start of a long thread. I have a falcate braced classical that I finished a few months ago and have been playing a fair bit. The instrument has the following issues: 1. a nasty harsh loud note around B flat 4 on the top three strings. The note is accompanied by what soun...

Looking good Bob....

The correct saddle blanks arrived today.....ALS sent them Express Post.

Last week I ordered some 1/4" thick Tusq saddle blanks from Australian Luthier Supplies and got sent the wrong thickness blanks. I emailed them and let them know about the error and that I'd keep the thinner blanks and re-order the correct ones. I got an email back from Sean at ALS informing me he'd...

Thanks for that. I have used a stainless steel tube with a flood light bulb inside for ten years now. Interesting to hear that you went back to the iron. I might just stick to my tube. Why back to the iron? Lots of reasons. The main reasons...my output isn't huge and I have the time to bend on an i...

I used to use a 110volt silicon heat blanket for bending before I went back to using an iron. I bought myself a whopping great 240/110volt step down transformer. You need to ensure that the output power rating of the transformer is equal to or slightly higher than that of the blanket. From memory my...

Buy me two seats in business class and I'll personally escort your instrument to the US and hand deliver to its new owner

Hi Davy, You mention having finished previously finished instruments with shellac. Have you tried hard shellac...its considerably more durable than straight shellac. Not sure whats available in Christchurch...here theres Ubeaut and Restorers Choice supplying hard shellac. Carbatec usually handle Ube...

I'd go with two back strips and some cleats across the crack. If the crack extends for some length then a third back strip

Persistence sometimes pays off. Good on ya Pete for sticking to your guns.

Basswood and mahogany seem to be most commonly used for commercially made kerfed lining. Ive used poplar..because I had a source of fairly cheap lengths of the stuff. I'm sure there's a wide variety of woods you could use. Ideally it should be flat sawn to make bending easier without splitting. I'd ...