Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Having a Japanese wife and speaking the language also helps I have a Japanese/Aussie friend who is also pretty well liked in the country circuit. He has one of Joe Gallachers guitars. He often speaks with a terse military voice in Japanese . When asked he is saying things like 'I love you ' and ' i...

Lovely work and welcome. Dan Koentoep, an American archtop luthier, made a comment in one of his videos :"The light is my friend". Northerly light is the best for seeing imperfections in the carving. You have a nice Northely light coming in but it is at is a right angles to your main bench. Cheers! ...

Most builders avoid any products with silicones in the workshop due to the finishing and refinishing problems they can create

Good point re the silicone, Jeff. I retract my comment! Sili of me!Cheers! Ross

Would there be a bearing on the bottom of the spindle moulder for the carriage to run against? It looks like it would have to be so...-Ross

I had Barry Kerr, who has now retired, cut some Sitka for me and he used a bandsaw with a 'Stellite" tipped blade which did very fine cuts. - Ross

They could value add and market the maple shavings as "Brown Eye Toilet Paper" -R

I use a bit of bar soap in the holes to lubricate. Seems to work...

Soap absorbes water and causes wood to swell and metal to rust...Wax or silicone is much better. When I put screws into timber I wax them first-Ross

So do you have the heat lamp on 24hrs around the time you are doing the braces gluing, and how do you remove moisture etc from the "box"? Do you monitor the humidity in the box and what do you do to maintain it at a constant level? No need to keep the heat lamp on for 24 hours, they are quite hot a...

Maybe a light application of graphite (without dirtying the timber) or some silicone spray might do the trick. I'd measure with calipers first. At least the creaking proves that the box amplifies sound successfully! -Ross

I have an underbench RH control system ie a cupboard with a dehumidifier in it. When the humidity has been high in the workshop, I have made the go bar deck into a sealed space using plastic and a plastic "door" with a bathroom heat lamp inside and use that for my cross brace gluing keeping the humi...

I borrowed the Somoygi book at one stage and he talked about the amount of the bridge touching the braces and the coupling...but now I cant remember what was actually there, but at the time it got me thinking back then about the bridge activating the braces...I think if the outside braces didn't cou...

I'll make these comments from what I know about RH. The most common dehumidifiers work like a refrigerator and use a similar amount of power, at the same time they are also heaters. So add the refrigerator power consumption to the heater power consumption and you have the total power consumption of ...

https://www.johnanthonyguitars.com/building-a-danelectro-style-body.html https://www.google.com/search?q=danelectro+plans&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ee2po7zC-6mWJM%252CO3vLAjQeGlXfMM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQqQKbOf-Fhll5jntlL7nnsQMBPMw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9u6GAtOXrAhVGSX0KHYovA5MQ9...

Thanks for your comments John. One thing I forgot to include in my speculation is that the bridge has quite a lot to do with the impedance/admittance of the string energy into the soundboard and the amount of energy reflected back into the strings to create sustain. This balance could possibly be ex...

On standard X braced guitars, as an example, the bridge consists of a bridge plate, a bridge, and sandwiched in between both is a section of soundboard defined by the area of the bridge. The bridge acts as a brace between the two X braces south of the X and the amount of bridge that contacts these t...

My workshop leaks air so I have an underbench system with a Delonghi C8 dehumidifier installed. I ran a pipe through the floor to the outside of the shed for the condensed water to run, installed some curly wire in the end, like a tea strainer, to stop the mud wasps around here from building their n...

I use a hand plane to get the sides pretty right, then finish with a sanding dish by hand. I first use a pencil in a block of wood, sit the guitar in the sanding dish, run the pencil around the outside of the sides, then plane to that line. Then I install the bindings, sit in the dish again and fine...

Try bending the bindings as a side then use a block of wood, held with double sided tape to your bandsaw, with the top of the block of wood rounded over and the blade cut into the block for supporting the curved liners, then slice them off. I have attached a high fence made from 1/4 inch steel plate...

I’m nearly two metres tall, so a dreadnought looks a bit like a ukulele in my hands! You gotta look good! Nobody, when talking about bridge weight, refers to the weight and stiffness of the bridge plate as well. The soundboard, sandwiched in between the plate and the bridge, act as a single brace w...

I've found the following to be a handy reference, and build to these resonances...it seems to work! I like my T1(2) to be higher, I don't really get excited, as a player, with those boomy dreadnought sounding steel string guitars. They seem to lack clarity between each note with low attack and lack ...

in my limited experience, those monopoles seem rather low...Ross

Go with the FLOW- :Ya just gotta FEEL it ,man! -Ross

I have never had a problem with orange peeling. I have always warmed my thinned lacquer, in the paint pot, in tepid water prior to spraying. As long as the nitro can offgas effectively at ambient temperature. Too thick a coat and it case hardens but is still soft underneath, so drying times increase...

Would you mind listing the T,1 T,2 frequencies please. It might be good on this forum to have a standard for X and Y axis when posting Visual Analyser type images...I usually copy the graph, then use 'paint' to insert text above the peaks so that there is an immediate frequency read for every peak o...

I'm a nitro man! I have tried the sanding sealer from Durobond as I use their nitro. It seems too vinyly for my liking (there's a new word!) I sometimes use either an epoxy fill or plaster of paris which sands off easily, along with a stain which matches to wood. I have also used shellac and hide gl...