Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I also bought my 5W/square in. 240V blanket from John Hall, it works well.

Sebastiaan, I did not get your PM (you think much too highly of me, Serge!), but I will second everything the real mando expert here, Graham, has said. I use both the pipe and a heat blanket to bend sides too BTW, I'd really hate to lose either one of them.

Hey, that looks familiar! Good job, your jig should work well. Martin has some good suggestions, here are a couple of additional thoughts: In your jig, the movable 'shoe' (the vertical plywood part that the bearings are attached to) has a pretty small contact area with the horizontal plywood base pl...

Yep Edd's OK to deal with, a lot of his stuff is very well quartered and the sets are huge and he sells at a good price. But generally speaking, the grain is wide and I think it comes from fast gown coffee plantation windrow stuff. Lots of water, lots of nutrient and lots of light, not too much dar...

That's him! Thanks Dennis.

Hesh1956 wrote:While I was working on this top I thought that it might make a cool picture to share.

I didn't know you were into ladder braced tops, Hesh! Nice woods and tools, though...

Definitely flat sawn. I have not bought anything from that seller, but the funny template tracing on the wood looks a lot like the EIR I bought from some Malaysian(?) guys that I met at the 2005 ASIA symposium; their family evidently had a saw mill and they cut a lot of EIR. I wonder if this wood co...

Lovely work, guys! No, have nothing to show, I have not made an instrument from aussie timbers (yet!).

Graham, that is one fine mandolin; so that is tiger myrtle back, yes? It looks faboulous, how do you think it compares to maple?

For what its worth, I only use denatured alcohol ("Red Spirit" up here) to thin epoxy and I have not had any problems with it. I also use it to dissolve shellac, it works fine for that too. I should probably try something more pure, it is not like it is very difficult to fine an "uncle Ebner" in thi...

There I go, typing too slowly again... Glad to see Bob agrees with me, though! About thinning; no I don't thin it at all, it it pretty thin as it is. I have used regular hardware store epoxies (as in glues) as fillers before, and they needed thinning. They also gummed up sand papers like crazy and w...

Hi Sebastiaan, obviously I'm not Kiwigeo, but I have used Z-poxy as a filler on several instruments. I only use it to fill the pores on open pored woods like rosewood and mahogany, and I sand back to bare wood to make sure the epoxy is only in the pores before I continue with the finishing. Non poro...

Hesh don't worry, I'm not going to get all defensive and claim that CA glue is the greatest thing ever for guitar bindings and that you are a so-and-so for challenging it. Actually I have mixed emotions about using it too, I recently had a CA glued end graft pop loose when I was installing a strap j...

Hi!

Hi Graham, welcome!

We "have met" briefly over on the Mandolin Cafe, where I have enjoyed reading your posts for a long time. I am another fan of your work, and your online string calculator is the best one I have found. Looking forward to your input here as well!

Alain, if you decide to use CA, remember to seal the binding rabbet with shellac. If not, the CA will soak into the end grain of the plates (especially the spruce) and you may end up with a weak joint and possible discoloration.

Yes, I have done everything separate (including the side purflings) now for last few instruments. I seem to get better results this way; I especially like the ease with which I can adjust purflings and bindings independently until I'm satisfied. This is with the really thin BWB plastic / fiber purfs...

I think it easier to keep everything separate, just tape all the components up before bending, install them dry on the guitar, tape up, adjust any gaps or misaligned miters, then hit the whole thing lightly with CA.

You know the sound of playing the violin “pizzicatoâ€

I have played a few of these guitars, both some of the hand made ones and a few of the Asian made ones. I met Jeff Babicz at the 2005 ASIA symposium, where he had a table displaying some of his hand made "Signature" guitars. Even though I did present myself a a hobby builder he was very willing to "...

Thanks for the tutorial, Hesh! Er.....! :roll: I have one question Hesh Buddy! Why is the bridge showing sanding witness at the outside ears? Shouldn't it be on the inside first? There must be a heck of a warp in the bridge! Ight? I'm guessing those bridges come from John Watkins with a radius alrea...

Fantastic! Talk about clean interior, oh man.

Here's an another, from a few years back.

Oh, you mean guitars! I like the radius between the heel and neck shaft to be smallish, so the neck shaft holds it shape as far as possible before it transforms to the heel. I also like the taper of the heel to be pretty straight, not too much of that "S"-curve where the heel meets the sides. http:/...

Here's one, let's see if I can manage to upload a picture here...

It's beautiful, gotta love those 12-fretters...

Who was the Ebay seller that you got the Euro spruce from? Do you know exactly where in Europe it came from? I'm working on a similar guitar now; 12 fret but my own take on the 000 shape.