Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Thanks for your reports on this, guys. I have said many times when I have seen your instruments how good your finishes looked, and I have been wanting to try it out out. Hopefully these problems can be worked out, I would really like to knock my nitro habit!

Ooooh.... My first electric (1981 I guess) was a cheap Japanese Les Paul copy, I since owned numerous others, both Gibson and copies. No original '59's though, but I lusted for one for years; who hasn't? One of the best ones I had was a Tokai copy of a '59, but I traded it for a '59 tele which becam...

When I made PayPal payment I noticed that the name also contained Eddie from Pro Sono At least I think that's the name. They sell lot's of plantation grown EIR. That would explain the funny looking template shape I was referring to in the previous post, it looks a lot like the one on the EIR sets I...

I haven't heard anything either, Paul. I have a feeling the road over to the new software was bumpier then expected...

No, I'm fine, no withdrawal symptoms over here

It is going to be a lovely guitar; one of my favorite shapes, built with wonderful woods, what's not to like?

It is a great type of jig if you make the same rosette several times. I seem do something different all the time, so for me the "Wells / Karol" type adjustable base works better. I used to use a fixed plexi base with several holes in it like yours, but if I had my mind set on just a few different ro...

I like! Nothing like a big bottomed girl, all shiny and wet looking, reminds me of... Ooops, wrong forum :oops: Great looking guitar! Good job of covering up the mistakes, the rosette looks great! I can relate to the joy of designing your own instrument, I've never built from a commercial plan.

About the feedback thing; tough one! I guess it depends on how important is it to you to set the record straight with this guy. As you said, it looked nothing like BRW, so you probably wasn't too surprised when it also smelled nothing like it, and it was in fact IRW. If is sounds too good to be true...

Very nice tutorial. Thanks for taking the time to do this. My finishing schedule is similar to yours, but I use nitro. I spray outside, but I have not been able to get away with only two spraying sessions yet, more like 4 or 5. I can't get any of the US brands here, so I use what I can get locally, ...

This isn't the wood that is advertised as "Dalbergia Nigra, a kind of Brazilian Rosewood", by any chance? I've seen it on eBay too, and it didn't look too 'Brazillian' to me either, more like flat sawn IRW. And what's with the weird template shape? Seen it before... Like you, I was puzzled too see t...

I agree that the Waverlys are probably the best light tuners, they may be the best ones period. Go with wood buttons instead of metal ones to keep the weight down. If you like the 510's, you should check out the minis with plastic buttons. Both the reduced size and the button material serve to cut w...

Lovely work; I jsut saw it on the OLF but it looks just as good here!

That hard shellac continues to impress me...

I also make up a lot of rough cut necks, and then store them until needed. Here’s an older picture, I think these necks have now been put on bodies. I make two piece necks because much of the 2â€

I like the Bill James tailpieces. They are cast metal, and the cover is hinged so you won’t lose it, and it won’t rattle or buzz. The o-rings under the strings serve to both secure the cover and dampen the part of the string between the bridge and the tailpiece, so you don’t need the additiona...

It looks great, what a lovely looking wood. I think the type of binding you want to use depends on the rest of the design package; rosette, purfling, neck woods and so on. I'm building a ziricote guitar now, and I’m going with a ‘black and white’ theme. It has a fairly wide white sap wood area...

Jack, that looks great. I'm planning to try solid linings too. What type of wood are yours? Laminated? Dimensions? I have some willow that is pretty flexible that I had planned to use for this. Here’s how I imagine I would go about it: 1) Shape strips into finished profile, about 5 mm wide 2) Bend...

Hesh, we are talking about temperament. Your pictures shows signs of a bad temper!

I'm using Lee Valley fish glue for almost everything now. As has been said, it acts a lot like hide glue, but with longer open time. It also has a longer cure time (the bottle says 12 hours), so it ties up the clamps and go bars, just plan ahead! It is also more difficult to clean up, but with a lit...

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

Lukily it seems I have convinced the customer to go with ordinary frets, whew! i was NOT looking forward to that fret job. I will just give him a really good set up, the guy is an "intonation fanatic" acording to himself...

I posted this over on the OLF, but lets see what you guys think. Craig L, you are a piano tuner, right? I bet you could enlighten us a bit on this. Click on this link: http://www.truetemperament.com/ Does anyone have any experience with this system? My first thoughts were that it sure looks like a w...

Very cool, Ron. It looks like we bought our drum sanders at the same store...

Hearing about everyone overseas using it (did you see that guitar that Lars built out of it?) is getting really friggin old. You mean Lars Rasmussen from Sweden, right? He said that he bought his stash from a cabinet maker's hop that was going out of business. I think he said the pile was 400 kg!!!...

Hi Dave!

Like I said before, if you put the jig in vise and feed the guitar to the tool none of this is a problem. Have you guys tried this method?

My "temperature monitor" is a spray bottle of water! I simply spray the top steel slat and observe how the water behaves; if it bubbles its not hot enough, if it goes up in a cloud its too hot, if it sizzles a while before it disappears it is fine. Some woods like it hotter than others to bend and n...