Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I have it and I agree with your assessment. Well worth it.

I also bend as hot as my iron goes. I have found as you mentioned the wood becomes plastic relatively quickly with a very hot iron. I have also found it possible to cook the the wood such that it takes a rather brittle set. There is a lot of gluing service so you may be able to use CA. A fix might n...

Adding the bridge to my falcate braced classical guitars without a lower transverse brace raises the top frequency (T(1,1)2) nearly 10 Hz. My bridges are generally around 18 grams. So the bridge in this case has added enough stiffness to the top to more than make up for the added mass. I haven't use...

Robbie has a French Polish online course; it is much like the Milburn method but optimised. The best FP finishes I have seen are not really French Polished. It is the slow application of shellac with a FP like pad (no oil) over some weeks. The surface is leveled every day or couple of days. When the...

A respirator, good ventilation and lacquer thinner or stripper?

kiwigeo wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 11:33 am

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBM5r5WnPOs[/youtube]

You still need to to it like this



youtu.be/JBM5r5WnPOs

Hello folks. I'm probably going to be shot down for this long and complicated post, but that's OK, if perhaps even a small part of what follows might be useful to someone. Perhaps I should post it elsewhere. I'll preface what follows with the statement that I have spent my previous long working lif...

If I am not saving the bindings I just pretend they are not there and recut the binding channels with my binding jig. If I want to save the bindings I start at one end and use a heat gun and a spatula to gently work the bind off. I just work along the binding heating and removing.

Careful with the methanol it is very toxic, even the fumes. In the US cheap denatured alcohol is about half methanol. I avoid it for pure ethanol as I do not want to wear a mask through all the time it takes to French Polish. Methanol is highly flammable and toxic. Direct ingestion of more than 10mL...

The guitar looks good. I also wonder about the consistent lack of T(1,1)1 on your plots. I just wonder in you setup something is filtering out the lower frequencies. It should be showing up very clear. You can hum into the box around the frequency you think it is an hear where it resonates. I have f...

I had a very good Flamenco guitar in my shop with the back having a lower resonance than the top; a very thin back. I used Spanish cypress and use the same back vibrational stiffness that I use for classicals and pitched the back for semitones from the top. That might not be typical for a flamenco. ...

Just a thought, not my idea as it was posted on this site awhile back. Set things up so that you can install the bolt on neck sans fret board before gluing on the back but after gluing on the top. Then while gluing on the back you can set the forward angle by tilting the bolt on neck to the correct ...

Am I right in thinking that the 'wedge' for the BOBO classical neck might not be required for a flamenco, where the desirable saddle height is 7-8mm, rather than 10-11mm for a classical? I think you still need the wedge. Just imagine flat, no neck angle, with a 6 mm fretboard 2.5 mm of action will ...

Can anyone explain why a Ukulele should be tapered? Is there any Acoustical reasoning behind this, or is it just traditional? . They do not need to be and many traditional ukulele's are not. I think the tapered sides on a tenor looks better. It matters less to me with a soprano or true ukulele. I m...

This all looks normal to me. Agree with taper the sides, the block and the heel cap until all is in plane.

I have just gone through the video published by Robbie O’Brien of Trevor going through the whole process of analysing a guitar’s responses. It is incredibly useful. It is not a criticism of the book to say that a video of many of the processes involved is very powerful. Words can only take you so f...

Thanks John. My bracing is going to be more or less the same as the steel string layout. I drafted my own but will amend it slightly. Im intending to put the lower TB in. 20200403_133723.jpg ... The lower transverse brace even an open will make a big difference when determining the height of the fa...

After my actually quite nice results with a steel string falcate braced 000 style guitar I thought I can easily adapt a classical guitar to falcate bracing. Little did I know :) I should have believed John Parchem build description and stayed with the bracing height for steel strings. What I did wa...

They look sort of noisy to me, like maybe your mic is clipping. You might turn down the gain. Because of the extra peaks I can not tell what the back might be.

I think both of your guitars that came in around 195 Hz had a good chance of hitting 180 Hz once finished. It would have depended on the mass of the bridge and how much the bridge lowers the top's resonance. On the steel strings I have been seeing <-10 Hz adding the bridge and another <-5 adding the...

Thinning the edges is a good way to Lower T(1,1)2 Lowering the braces is a real good way to Lower T(1,1)2 Having A thinner top is a good way to Lower T(1,1)2 The tops resonance is based on both stiffness and mass. In all the above three cases you are lowering the stiffness more than you are lowering...

I do not think changing the tone bars will do anything for you. The belly is from the nut side of the bridge rotating in. One fix I might try if I did not want to remove the top would be to sister taller braces on the over carved x-braces from the X to the finger braces on each side. Having said tha...

Ok, old top off, new top on. Actually easier than I thought. Thanks the advice Jim. New values after binding and sanding: T(1,1)1= 90Hz T(1,1)2=195Hz T(1,1)3= 244Hz I had been wondering why the T(1,1)1 is so low until I checked the diameter of the soundhole... Great! Instead of 85mm I have just 79m...

I was taught not to start the scallop before the bridge plate for structural reasons. When I shift the braces toward the sound hole I am thinking about just the X not the entire scallop pattern. The low part of the braces are right where you need structural support.

Richard thanks for your reply, I had not thought about the creep factor over time. On many of my guitars I use a 2 way truss rod so I can dial it out. But for many of my classical guitars without a truss rod it is worth a thought.