Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

The other bloke in the pics with Mark Swanson is Mike Doolin. a delightful person all round and one of the most innovative builders. Damn good player as well. (and that is me with the little guitar bodied bouzouki) I can heartily recommend the GAL convention for four days of stimulation and ideas. I...

I can totally sympathize. When my kids discovered that they could download US TV shows before they were shown here, it consumed my entire monthly download allowance in the first week and I couldn't work out what was happening until I rang the ISP. I upped the plan and they pay the difference! I thin...

Drinking all the beer at the little cafe/bar/bookshop up the road :D And meeting up with Tim and Alan Warbarton from Albany Of especial interest were the early 19th century style guitars of Jim Buckland. Very tasty building and an awesome player. What was really interesting is that he positions the ...

Looks great, reminds me of a couple of 50s era Framus mandos from Germany. Hope the book was of a little use

cheers

graham

'evening folks GAL all done with and a grand time had by all. A totally recommendable activity for lutherie stimulation and a good time. I am sure Tim S will add his comments in a few days. Staying with some friends on Vashon Island, to the north of Tacoma, overlooking Seattle across the water befor...

'morning all Friday morning here in cold, overcast Tacoma. Made the mistake last night of drinking Guinness with two Irish blokes from Athlone who are starting an instrument building course at the tech college there. Probably a pint too many..... Ran into Alan Warburton from Albany last night, who w...

Just thought I should check in from the GAL convention in Tacoma WA. Met Tim Spittle today with his Oz timbers. It was good to hear a familiar accent, and I am sure he will tell all about his adventures himself The usual fascinating lectures and workshops and a very interesting bunch of people as us...

Hello Larry,

I will certainly come and check out your wood. Between you and Bruce Harvie I am sure I will come home with a suitcase full!

cheers

graham

Swag: These days, a sort of cross between a tent and a sleeping bag, usually made of waterproof canvas and that is rolled up for carrying around. It used to be a more generic term for a roll of blankets that could be slung over the shoulder of an itinerant rural worker - a swaggie. What you would ca...

I don't see any difficulties with Huon at all. I have another set with a vague idea of a flamenco guitar at some point. It is a light weight, resonant wood like cypress and works much the same. For a steel string I would be thinking of making something like a 00-18 or 000 or something like one of th...

It is a 26" scale, the 660mm long classical on the Ibex fret ruler. I tried to keep the weight down as much as possible, so only two bolts through the hollow neck block. The Huon was a bit of an experiemnt, just cause it looks so cool, and smells wonderful through the soundhole I have seen that Iris...

I would very much doubt if it is Gerard's design. I have just spoken to one of his staff who didn't think Gerard would ever design a double cutaway. Everything about the guitar in Germany screams Doolin, except for the slotted headstock. I have sent a link to Mike, if he doesn't already know about i...

The body length and width is almost the same as the teardrop shape, with the upper bouts added. It took a while to get the proportions right (at least in my view) and it does make it easier for the instrument to sit on the leg

Hybrid X/lattice braced

cheers

graham

and a detail of the rosette and bridge

and the huon back

Here is a new zouk I have built to take to the US next week for ZoukFest in Santa Fe NM and the GAL convention.

Sitka soundboard, Huon pine body, Qld maple neck, ebony fretboard and tiger myrtle rosettem bindings and head overlay

Hello Craig An archtop for a first guitar is a brave thing to do. Good luck with it. I trust you have Bennedetto's book, which is really the only thing out there on the subject. Look at as many archtops as you can and try to get a feel for the aesthetics of how they go together. Then start making th...

Wait until you start spraying nitro onto EIR back and sides. The pores became quite obvious

It is worthwhile considering differing spaces between the strings to allow for the thickness of the string itself. Like a .056 bottom E is five times the thickness of the top e and if you adjust the spacing at the nut so the difference between the edges of the string stays the same it looks a little...

Hello Craig. Good to see anotehr Canberran! I have been using NHP 30 minute epoxy from the model plane shop that used to be in Queanbeyan, but seems to have disappeared. There has been discussion over on the Luthier Forum site about this, and several people suggest that a filler/thickener needs to b...

As Bob says, you certainly can't flex a carved soundboard blank. I suppose there are scientific ways of measuring it, but I just start carving and stop when it gets thin enough :? I reckon that is about when I can feel a bit of flex around the edges and the basic tap tone (hold at 10 o'clock, tap at...

Looks good. I think one hand carving of a blackwood back will send you to the tool shop for an Arbortech angle grinder blade real quick

If you get stuck anywhere just drop me a line

graham

'morning all, The Gibson mandocellos used either a big mandolin body, or in the case of the Loar era ones in the early 20s, an L5 guitar body with a standat width (I think) neck and the peghead drilled for mandolin tuners. They used the standard Gibson guitar scale (24.9"?), which meant they had to ...

I have a very simple sled made up of rock maple on a little table saw using one of the thin blades from either StewMac or LMI. The runners sit in the slots in the saw table with a big lump of maple as the piece that guides the fretboard with a cut off 1/8 drill bit that indexes the slots in the temp...

Option 2 as long as it doesn't shift the bridge position too much. You do want the bridge wings to be sitting over the X braces, especially on a 12 string.

Or just a make a new neck and put the first down to experience

cheers

graham