Hello everyone.

[Dominic]

Hey, I know a few of you (Kiwigeo told me about this forum) but my bad manners have prevented me from introducing myself before now. Lets hope I can put that behind me.
My name is Dominic. I am currently an economist living in Canberra ACT. I used to live in Margaret River in WA (for 12 years in fact), making surfboards and surfing, growing grapes and helping make wine, and generally having a nice time.
Before that I have a chequered work history including tagging snapper (fish?) in Sharks bay, making teeth for humans in Perth, growing roses for florists, shovelling chicken sh#@ into bags, serving beer to lager louts in London, (slightly more difficult than shovelling sh#@ into bags) plus various other crappy jobs. Oh, how about getting rams ready for export to the Middle East. Rams can be real pricks when you are trying to chemically sterilise them … as you would be.
I went back to Uni while making surfboards and now find myself researching medium term economic trends with a focus on labour market economics. Strangely stimulating.
But my work history suggests a desire to make things. I saw this great show on TV once about a violin maker in SA and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. His mum used to help and she would listen to the sound of the backs as she sanded them and say whether it was to be a good violin or not.

Making surfboards has the same kind of esoteric thing where to get the last 10% of perfection is more about feel than measuring and templates. I believe that kind of magic comes from your hands and a still calm mind.

So. Then a few years ago I started playing guitar again after a hiatus and as I do not play the violin, it seemed natural to want to make a guitar. A bunch of money and lots of time later and I have made a bunch of electrics, and am now finishing my 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th acoustics with more on the way. Totally hooked.
Here are a few pics of my workshop, and tools etc. Ask any questions.
Hi everyone and heres to creating that magic guitar.
Dom

This is my latest curly narra dred. The next 3 are my workshop from various angles.


This is the neck for the narra dred.

[Bob Connor]

G'day Dominic and welcome aboard.

That Narra guitar is a beauty. Any chance of a few more shots?

Bob

[Kim]

Yes welcome Dominic, it is nice to have you with us. The Narra guitar does look beautiful and I am with Bob, more pics please M8.

Cheers

Kim

[Hesh1956]

Hi Dominic and welcome to the ANZLF.

[Dennis Leahy]

Welcome Dominic!

If you find more quartersawn figured Narra, please grab some extra, to use for trading. I love that stuff, and would be willing to trade something equally beautiful.

It looks like more of that same Narra on the headstock, so I assume that neck is for the same body?

Well done!

Dennis

[Ron Wisdom]

Welcome Dominic!! Your shop looks sorta like mine. Good to have you join us.

Ron

[Allen]

Good to have you with us. And though my shop is in the garage as well, it's no where as neat and nicely laid out as yours. I'd love to see some more shots of your work as well.

[sebastiaan56]

Welcome Dominic,

that Narra is very attractive. Look forward to seeing the finished instrument,

Sebastiaan

[Craig]

G'day and welcome Dominic ,

That's some nice Narra . Great looking guitar too. Your workshop looks nice and busy and I can see you have yourself fairly well set up.

I guess your car doesn't get much undercover parking these days . ,Although you could perhaps get one of those micro-cars that might fit between the band saw and workbench Yeah , guitars are much more important !

Good to have you with us mate and we look forward to seeing some more of your work.

Cheers, Craig

[graham mcdonald]

Good to see another Canberran here. Welcome

cheers

graham

[Paul B]

Welcome aboard mate.

[Dominic]

Thanks everyone. I posted some pics of the Narra guitar on the OLF recently. I will take some more and put them up soon.

Yep, the neck goes with the narra guitar. it has a narra neck with Qld Walnut stripe and a Santos RW fingerboard with LMI gold frets.

As soon as i got the first set of this wood from ALS i saved up and bought every set they had. I have another 4 sets with this incredible tight curl. I couldn't believe no-one else was interested as they had it listed for quite a while and it was only around $70 a set.

My shop is getting there. I hate not having things set up properly. It drive me crazy trying to work like that. i am slowly training myself to put tools back in the same place so i can find them again and this makes things more enjoyable.
I need to move my dust extractor under the house and put the ducting through the wall, save space and cut down noise. And I am going to set up a dedicated finishing area that is clean.

I also want to make the centre bench into a long go-bar deck with storage above. Plus I need heaps more draws and places to put small stuff.
Cheers
Dom

[Serge]

Hi Dominic, welcome here mate!

What a nice guitar that will be and quite a nice shop BTW, i see that you're hooked quite well with the calendar that you have, i am now building no 4 but as soon as i'm done with it, i should be starting 3 simultaneous builds so i might be able to follow you closely!

Good to have you here friend!

Serge

[Dave Anderson]

Welcome here Dominic! Yeah I recognize that beauty Narra guitar from the OLF.
Make sure and post pics when your done with it.The head plate looks very good too! Nice Shop.