Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Was great to see you, John! Really glad to finally get a go on a couple of falcate braced guitars, too. They both blew me away with their sound and the craftsmanship. Can't wait till I build one as good! Was nice to get some feedback on one of my builds as well. I'm sure it isn't too often The Castl...

Leonhard, The bridge design is great! First "new" thing I've seen on guitars for a while (I'm guessing it must have some antecedent I don't know of). I love the way it seems to be an extension of the fingerboard. Great aesthetics all 'round! Very impressive number 8. Congratulations! :cl That's the ...

Thanks for the advice Nick, I'll try to think of it next time I'll use a router. You may be wrong though regarding my experience, at least the one with routers. I use those screaming dust-throwers only about twice per year. But although I almost hate them they come in quite handy now and then! :) :...

Scary. One more reason than just the noise to not use mines very often. Although, my problem is usually to get the bit out of the collet when I'm done! :lol: I'm sure you're far more experienced than I but that trouble stopped for me when I followed advice and stopped letting the bit "bottom out" i...

Thanks, John, I get it now. I'm really feeling my way in the dark here. I'll get better! So it looks like I worked it out correctly. Which is surprising enough, but even more surprising: It wasn't a totally stupid idea to try the cedar of Lebanon... It sands and carves nicely, it has a decent streng...

Aah, I messed about with the numbers a bit. Was meant to be 70g not 72 (my brain was in bits from trying to understand how to work out fluxural rigidity)... So E = 10.97.... And density of 507g. Still not bad if it's right. I'm frankly amazed that I got so close to being right! ...and the volume is ...

Here's my first attempt at maths from the book. Till now I've just been trying to wrap my head around concepts. I've made a lot more practical use of the construction volume than the design volume up till now. I managed to get some half decent looking quartersawn braces out of the cedar of Lebanon. ...

Until you get epoxy on it. Then it heads for amber very quickly. So test to see what colours you end up with and that the epoxy for the bracing doesn't end up penetrating right through. Darn! I hadn't thought of that. That could be a major problem with a ~2mm top. And I'd have to buy the epoxy befo...

Thanks so much for the reply, Trevor! I don't have a "proper" router table, I was just going to make the one in the book. I like the idea of the adjustable rig but I think the simplest solution will win the day. I'll start doing some drawings and getting my head around how to do it. I was thinking I...

I've been up all night, researching and comparing my options, and I'm wondering if straight grained and knott free "English" cedar of Lebanon may be a usable brace material in this case? http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-identification/softwoods/cedar-of-lebanon/ It's very stable. Used in construc...

This is my first thread here, so hi to everyone! (Actual question in bold below my babbling! :)) I've only made three guitars: one for me, one for m'dad, and one for a mate's daughter, but I have wood for a couple more and I have "the book", so you may well be seeing a lot more of me! :) The great w...

No worries! Just me showing my ignorance, I should have worked that out! Looks good though!

Nice, shame about the $36 delivery charge to the UK!
The top of the one needsmorecowbel posted is pretty cool. Would look sweet under a nice finish with the bridge, pickup and knobs.

That cigar box is of a quality far beyond what I can find. My local tobacconist has had a few boxes for me. Only actually made one of them into a cigarbox guitar though. Would be far more inclined to build a really nice one if I had a box like that! Should be fun!

It really is looking great, John! Can't wait to hear it! Seeing this build makes my carbon fiber lattice guitar even more daunting to me! Still need to get a lot of stuff for it and still need to work out a good router table system for kerfing the lattice elements. If I can get started on it in a mo...

Hi John, My first post on the ANZLF can be congratulating you on your progress so far! Great work!

I'm looking forward to trying this out myself.