Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I didn't finish it. There is an old feller where I hail from who spent the last 40 years or so making "replicas." So he's pretty good at making them look old. He did it. But as far as I can gather, the tools of the trade are a freezer, a sandblaster and a bottle of bitumen. You'd have to look on the...

Every now and again I make an electric. This one was made right at the end of our spell in Germany - I made it in late 2017. Pine body, maple neck, Bare Knuckle P90s.


youtu.be/Dn6yXpk8NUk

Sadly, it was one of the ones nicked from the workshop about a year ago. Oh well.

Nice guitar though.

Make the time - it'll save you time. I just wheel this outside when I'm using it so the crap doesn't go all over the place. A feller on Gumtree made the rod for me - its a 1" hardened steel rod, just over 1000mm long. I had him turn a RH M20 on one end and a LH M20 thread on the other. M20 Nuts - RH...

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IyAhTzf65iM/XOTjYYP6KWI/AAAAAAAAGA8/n4nVtBDJX5gmeFBzurJTIGYZeltiVk9EgCLcBGAs/s400/guitar%2Bbuffing%2Bmachine.jpeg Done! For about $400 including the buffs and menzerna. Its cheaper buying them from England and shipping it over...I bought a cheap drill press from Bunnings,...

Yep, Nigel you are right. Rosewood guitars sell, other woods are harder to sell. Hopefully this study and the publicity it has received might start to shift that, but it is like shifting the Titanic with a tinny. I have not had the same problem with mandolins. Australian natives sell just as well a...

A more useful study might be to see how easy it is to sell a guitar for decent money if it isn't made from traditional woods. And then to see how easy it is to sell 20 or more guitars a year made with non traditional woods for decent money. Spoiler alert: It's not easy. This experiment, flawed or ot...

If you've never bent sides before, or haven't bent many, you do need to practice first. Practice on any pieces of wood you can get your hands on.

Here are a few videos I made on the subject:



youtu.be/9jf8J6rt6ng

youtu.be/1NMxMO93v8s

youtu.be/nm420mtesnU

www.interparcel.com.au

They will give you a variety of options, and you can pay for additional insurance.

The local Brisbane distributor of 0.55 Kw motor $173 Sourced a 4110 hardened 1" shaft 36" lg, ends threaded, for $120 Bearing supplies $34 for P205 Buff wheels out of Melbourne $50 - $75 ea depending on cloth grade were to much for my hip pocket. So purchased buff wheels & flanges from Stew mac for...

Hiya fellers. Anyone out there got a homemade buffer? I'm looking for an alternative to spending $1000 on a Stewmac one.

Hiscox it is then..

Ta lads.

What cases do you lads recommend here? When I lived in Germany and England I used Hiscox cases unless the customer asked for something different. What's the standard decent case here?

Ta chaps.

Now I've started reading up on this, I've ended up with more questions than answers - anyone out there tried LVLP guns?

Well, my stuff from the UK finally arrived last week - including my Fuji HVLP setup - except I seem not to have packed the gun. Bah. Looking at the price of a new gun here I could probably start from scratch for less. I'm spraying waterborne top coats over brushed epoxy. Waterbourne lacquer tends to...

It only costs Stewmac if you click on the ad. Otherwise, it costs nothing. The ad shows because you've looked at the site in the past, or because you came up in a data list for people similar to other Stewmac customers. If you use remarketing you can choose between remarketing to people who have loo...

It is something called "remarketing" Google have been selling it for some time. You look at a site, Google makes a note of this, then sells this info by allowing advertisers to advertise to people who have already looked at their site. Its good for advertisers as the click-through rates are very hig...

Anyone got a copy of American Lutherie #118, Summer 2014? It's out of print and I'd quite like to read the John Greven article.

Welcome Donny. Something is awry with your calculations, as 5mm forward on the bottom E is way too much. But the overall shape of the curve looks close. You can make the calculations with an accurate tuner and a new set of strings. But the rest of the setup needs to be right first - the nut/zero fre...

Where do you feller s get your fibre glass go-bar rods from?

Yep, the first few hundred are fun! This is a batch of ukes - I'm making them whilst I wait for more of the stuff to arrive. One of the ways I keep myself interested in the job is to keep trying out different ways of doing the same tasks. Doing necks on the lathe is a bit of fun, but yes, it is supe...

I tried this idea out yesterday and it worked a treat - http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/necks-on-lathe-3.jpg A pair of necks done in about 5 minutes flat. It took me longer to make the jig. Now, the jig size, or rather thickness, dictates the end result. I worked it out wi...

If you can find maple or sycamore veneer here, I'd be interested to how from where. But to be honest, I never use either for purflings any more. They can look nice if it goes well, but they are both more prone to getting dark dust in them and bits pulling out during scraping than fibre. "Simple and ...

Thirty years ago I wouldn't have considered any African mahogany. Now they are a little more appealing. Khaya is very nice stuff to work with, it resembles South American stuff (more so than sapele) and it comes in substantial sections. If you buy it from Spain or the UK, it's pretty cheap. I use it...

Anyone out there know of a supplier for traditional uke rope binding?