Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Bruce, check out this post: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3626#p43983 . The error is small and fixed in the second edition.

I find that the fastest way to remove bulk wood from figured panels is to plane cross grain with a curved edge standard angle plane. Then finish in line with a high angle plane. See pages 6-3 and 6-5 in Build.

Appologies all but just to move slightly off topic. I've just made a high angle Bailey No4 using Trevors method with the 12mm round bar. I'm waiting for an A2 blade and a honing guide to appear in the mail before I try it out. My question is what angle should the micro bevel be? I was thinking abou...

Omitting the CF makes for easier assembly but you lose out on some cold creep resistance in the middle of the guitar. I routinely use the CF as it also makes the area pretty well split proof.

I bought some veneer softener from Carbatec years ago (price on my bottle $22, vs. $42 for what looks like the identical bottle now). I found it didn't work nearly as well as the fabric softener I was using. Maybe the formulation has changed???

Dave M wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:03 am

Some of Michael Bashkins other podcasts are also worth seeking out.

Definitely!

When I was over in the USA in July presenting the Modal Tuning Course at Robbie O'Brien's , one of the participants was Michael Bashkin . Michael periodically contributes a podcast called Luthier on Luthier to the Fretboad Journal where he interviews other guitar makers and he was kind enough to inv...

The darker patches look like a water stain - the sort you get under varnish when wood has been left in damp conditions for a long while. So that makes me wonder if some sort of re-hydration was attempted with water spilling inside the guitar. I don't know of any finish that fails with white dots lik...

Looks very weird!

Has a soldering iron been used to try to steam out dings?

The +/- 0.05 is practical for me, using planes. On the occasions that I've used Gerard's wide belt sander, the variation is a lot more than that, though, as it also is on the (few) typical-style cantilevered drum sanders I've had experience with. In order to get good tolerance with a plane, you need...

I've used between 550 and 650 kg/m^3. Black walnut has a wide spread in density, but 730Kg/m^3 is on the high side. Bootle (a wood reference) quotes 600 kg/m^3 for American Black walnut; the Wood database quotes 610 kg/m^3 as an average.

I suppose that's why they want you you rock up at a desk. THEN they tell you you need 100 point ID. So then that's another 2 hour round trip....

Has anyone had the courtesy to tell you why we need this extra red tape and how it benefits the SME?

Makes you wonder if the people who think this stuff up have any idea how a SME really works.

Good to hear that the suggested fix worked for you!

VA 9.0.6 doesn't save files that are re-openable in VA. It just saves a .txt file that can be used in Excel (or similar) and a .wmf file which is just a picture of whatever was on your screen when you hit save. The files cannot be re-loaded into VA and be zoomed etc. so you can read peaks. If you wa...

The biggest resonance by a long way is at 98Hz.... The main issue I had was the G on the 6th string and the open G string notes not sustaining.... That was because the the G on the 6th string is at 98Hz, matching the T(1,1)1 resonance. For a 180Hz T(1,1)2, ideally you'd want the T(1,1)3 at 226Hz an...

The usual problem when trying to shoot panel edges and having trouble is that the plane sole is not flat enough. The usual out-of-flatness is that the sole is concave and I would say that ~90% of Stanley/Bailey pattern planes have this problem. A secondary problem is that even if you flatten the sol...

The falcate steel string in the book is "medium" size, about the same size as a Martin 000 and quite a bit smaller than a J45, J200 or Dread. A standard classical is very similar in size to a Martin 00. The amount of bass you get out of a guitar is related to where you position the T(1,1)1 and the T...

That looks like staining due to a mix of iron and carbonate ions in your water reacting with the tannins in the wood (i.e. hard water plus iron plus tannins). A certain fix for that is to wash it down with a mild solution of oxalic acid in pure (de-ionised) water. Oxalic acid is available in crystal...

You write that when you talk about characteristic frequencies T(1,1)1, T(1,1)2 and T(1,1)3 you mean the fully coupled frequencies. So I have to look at the unplugged spectrum. Yes. The "air" and back peaks easy to identify because they disappear in the plugged spectrum. In the unplugged spectrum I ...

When I built my side bender it was really hard to find ceramic globe holders for a decent price. What I ended up doing was buying 3 sets of security lights (with photo/movements sensors etc.) which had ceramic globe holders for PAR 38 globes (rated at 250w, iirc). This (crazily) was a lot cheaper op...

As I interpret those charts I see a T(1,1)1 at ~100Hz, a T(1,1)2 at ~167Hz and a T(1,1)3 at ~215Hz. Stiffening the back will repel the top down less, hopefully bringing it up to ~170Hz. Alternatively, a lower mass bridge would bring the T(1,1)2 up to ~170Hz and by repulsion push up the T(1,1)3 a bit...

Btw. just to be sure: when you talk about the target frequencies you talk about the values I determined by comparing the spectra with and without soundhole plug and not the peak positions in the "unplugged" spectrum? When I reference the T(1,1)1 and T(1,1)2 etc. I am always referring to the fully c...

I think your interpretations are all correct, Jurgen. Regarding the "shakey" tap on Audacity, I don't know what that specifically means in Audacity. However, if you get a plot like that in VA it means you captured two taps in one buffer (rather than just the one). Regarding the spectrum plots, if it...

With the MOR would guess one needs a good statistic to get a meaningful result. As I´m not a professional luthier with unlimited supply of material I think I will have to take cut a piece from the wood I want to use for braces and do the test every time again. Unless you're using unusual materials ...