Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I have a solution. Turn the heater on. At the risk of blowing up the power bill, I now have the air con on "dry" and the heater on. This is quite an effective dehumidifier. The air con can only remove moisture if it is cooling and the heater forces it to keep cooling. The humidity has dropped to 45%...

A question for the experienced guitar builders. I notice that Rock Maple and Rosewood seem to be the most popular bridge plate woods. These are at opposite ends of the spectrum as far as sound goes - i.e. Maple is high damping, Rosewood is low damping. So, does the bridge plate wood make any differe...

Thanks guys, you confirmed what I was thinking. I will fix it, just need some time. This guitar was only ever really meant to be a prototype - i.e. make all the mistakes in the first one. Well that did happen, but it sounds much too good to be a prototype so I'd better fix everything 100%.

When is it gunna stop raining! Is everyone else in the eastern states experiencing day after day of high humidity? Currently 99% outside and 57% in the workshop with the air con on. I have a guitar top and back, a mandolin top and mandola top all lined up ready to glue the braces. Have not glued a s...

I am sure you have all been there. Working away on your instrument, then - that does not look quite right, wonder what is going on there. After a bit of investigation the red light flashes - Oh NOOOOO!!! How did that happen? Then follows a long string of expletives, and you have to stop and go for a...

Yes, Frank hits the nail on the head fair and square. 10% is not going to make any difference if the item is 50% cheaper overseas and still cheaper even after taking shipping costs into account. For many items, Australian based retailers have an inherant advantage so I find their bleating somewhat d...

I cut the round bits with a forstner bit in the drill press, then cut the rest of the F hole with a power fretsaw. Then I clean it up with an automotive points file and a round file. Doesn't take long if you are very careful with the fretsaw. The thing to watch out for is tearout from the forstner b...

Cutting in half won't be enough. you are not relieving the stresses enough and it will most likely split. You will need to cut the halves in half again so you have 4 pieces, and do it now. That log you have looks fairly typical to me. Looks ok from the outside, but as soon as you cut it in half you ...

No idea if it was a trunk or a branch. I picked out the straightest and most knot free I could find from a batch of smallish logs loaded on a pallet. I believe it was Acacia excelsa, i.e. NSW Ironwood, definately not Cooktown Ironwood. Makes really nice fingerboards.

Delete.

I get this sort of stuff all the time. The delete button gets hit so fast I never noticed the address.

The Ironwood log I seasoned in the log did have heart shakes on the ends, but they did not go far into the log. Most of the log was useable, apart from the knots of course. The first log I cut up while still wet made zero fingerboards because they all split, wheras I got some nice fingerboards out o...

Seal the ends immediately and store in the shade off the ground. Do not remove the sapwood or the bark, you need to slow things down as much as possible. Can't see why not to use the sapwood once it has been dried. I would not cut it up immediately. My experience from two Ironwood logs is that you g...

Yep.

Got my endpins and bridgepins with Paua Abalone dots, about 10 years supply. Gurian instruments package arrived yesterday, package from LMI arrived about a week ago. So they are still getting through US Customs. Get em while it still lasts.

I have used a fair bit of Blackwood, it goes extremely well with King Billy Pine in mandolins. There is a lot of variation in density and hardness. Some of the most beautiful pieces can be really hard and a beast to carve. Never had any problems with Blackwood, but got rid of all my Silky Oak becaus...

Well I watched Gerry Harvey bleating about on line competition last night on the TV. That I thought was a bit rich when you can't buy anything on line from a Harvey Norman store, and he has had a deliberate policy of not offering on line purchases for many years. Now he has been caught with his pant...

Luv it -mammoth ivory is ok but turn up in the US of A with a slice of black coral on a thong around your neck and you'll be treated by customs like Malcolm X at a KKK meeting.

Actually from my undstanding of the rules, mammoth ivory is not ok. It is subject to the same rules.

Peter

Could you take a finished ebony bridge pin and put it in the chuck of a lathe then drill a little hole in the knob-end and glue in a little dot.

Yep that should work. Good idea, did not think of that. Probably would not be perfectly centred, but should be good enough.

Peter

Wow, thanks Bob. Just put in an order. Let's see what happens.

If you'd got shell materials out of the US originally, built an instrument that ended up back in the US, would they still require Paperwork (and serious $) to exchange hands? Yes they do still require the paperwork. Unfortunately I think we have been caught up in the bigger picture. The same rules ...

Hands up those who use endpins and/or bridge pins with a pearl or abalone dot. I would humbly suggest that if you do, get some now. Stew Mac have just stopped exporting anything containing shell, so Stew Mac is out, LMI are still exporting endpins and bridge pins with a shell dot. However, I expect ...

Just uploaded the sound clips. Just something I did in a hurry for a potential customer, so nothing fancy. Hope they work, Frontpage just crashed on me (gggrr). The Tassie Oak mandolin - http://www.petercoombe.com/for_sale/Mandolin131/Sample_131.mp3 The Maple mandolin - http://www.petercoombe.com/fo...

Well I have an MP3 of this mandolin, and also the Tassie Oak mandolin, but looks like the file is too big to download to the forum. I need to download them and set up a link to my web page and that will have to wait until tomorrow. Too late now, is bed time.

Watch this space.

Here is another one of my mandolins recently finished. This one is a little different in that it is from traditional woods, i.e. Spruce and Maple. Radical for me since I have made so many from Aussie woods, and the Maple is stained (yikes!). The sound is good. It is loud and sustains and rings like ...

What is the little black block behind the bridge? Is that just to tie the strings together or does it have some effect on the tone? I've also just noticed some holes at either end of the bridge..Saddle height adjustment? The little black block behind the bridge is an Ebony "wood nymph" made by Soun...