Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

They're not screw holes. Access holes for machine bolts that hold the neck on in a hollow neck block. The neck is made like a strat, with no heel, with threaded inserts which take the machine bolts. A long allen key tightens up the bolts through the holes, which are lined with short lengths of carbo...

Thanks Sebastiaan for the kind words. I am glad it makes sense to you

It is always a bit worrying when writing something that it can be understood by those reading it.

cheers

graham

Bit hard to tell from the pic, but the first one could be Kauri rather than Redwood. Redwood does tend to have distinctive dark winter growth lines in it. The second might be Kwila, which is related (I think) to Australian red cedar, but I had a plank a couple of years ago with a similar flame to th...

At 17" wide and 1" thick you have 3 one piece archtop guitar soundboards, or if you slice it in half down the middle and then re-saw, it up to 12 bookmatched flat-top guitar soundboards, as long as it is quarter-sawn. A good find!

cheers

graham

Sand a bit and see what it smells like

It would have to be either Californian redwood or WRC from your description, and the smell test should give you some idea. Do you get to keep it or just tell your friend what it is?

cheers

graham

Most likely to be redwood. That was very common in the early years of last century and often used for making doors and other sorts of architechtural moldings, and often asthe borrom of drawers in cupboards and the like. It often can in big sizes like that. I don't think WRC was used much until well ...

A smaller soundhole will lower the air resonance. Seems a bit counter-intuitive, but...

cheers

graham

Back to resonances again. The air resonance (the one you get when you hum into the soundhole) has to relate to the soundboard resonances. Changing the soundhole size by itself might shift the air resonance, but if that is not matched to what the soundboard is doing the instrument is not going to wor...

Have a look at http://www.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/acoucomp/MAGHolography.html#top which shows the body and soundboard resonance of a classic. Although the bottom row of photos shows stuff going on in the upper bout, that is a frequencies that will have effect on the tonal quality, but not whether the ...

As Craig suggests, having the soundhole anywhere else but the middle of the soundboard looks funny, and on guitars at least essentially stops the upper part of the soundboard doing much at all. People who have mapped the vibrational patterns of strung up guitars using holography has shown that in th...

Second Bob's comments Graham sent me some Englemann mandolin tops a few months ago. Arrived very promptly and is really nice light englemann. Just finishing off a mandola at the moment. Good bloke to deal with. Now, I just need some of that Lutz stuff... (Gotta sell a few books first, the bank accou...

Once you have had a read, I would be pleased to have your responses (especially if you like it) There are lots of potential customers out there, and I have to convince them that getting this book is good for them

cheers

graham

An 0 or 00 Martin copy, 12 fret, slot head. They do not come any more elegant

cheers

graham

your dentist. They throw them out after one use

Allen, Avoid getting involved in stripping back old finishes. If you have the time to do the spraying, and that doesn't eat into your building time (which is what you enjoy) , charge them at the same hourly rate you get at work once they have done all the prep work. And really try to talk people out...

No problem to sign copies. Just put a note in the PayPal comments box (or whatever it is called) at the bottom of the page. For our American readers, they should be available there in a couple of months from at least StewMac and LMI, but won't be autographed, unless you come and see me at the GAL co...

It is with some pleasure, and not a little trepidation, that I can announce that the first copies of The Mandolin Project, my new book on building mandolins, will be arriving from the printer tomorrow. It will be available in ring bound (for the workshop) and perfect bound (for the library) formats....

The modes will only really show themselves when the plate is supported along the antinodes and driven in one of the areas of most movement (where the glitter isn't), so you have to have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for before you start. There is much divination of the shape of the mode...

I have been away for the week-end, but I might be able to cast a little light on this. Exciting the chladni patterns is dependant on driving the soundboard in the right position (with the speaker) while supporting at near the edges along the lines of the antinodes (where the lines appear). Using the...

Most people use standard 2mm fret wire on classicals. If the fret slots are in the right positions, the width of the wire should have no effect on the intonation at all. Wider fret wire has the potential for being more out of tune (especially on steel strings) as the frets get worn into a flat spot ...

I suppose what I like about spruce, or king billy is the elegant plainness of it. More or less the one colour and the regular, book-matched annual lines. As someone suggested before Bunya can look like a bit of formica. Just not very elegant, which is my basic criteria when I am looking at or design...

I have used Bunya for a couple of instruments, after some testing by Gerard Gilet suggested its characteristics were very similar to Sitka spuce. Mind you, I have only built bouzoukis with it and they seemed to work OK, not greatly different from a spruce top. I have similarly used kauri and got muc...

Thanks Sebastiaan, but all I need is a junker, something with the head broken off or the bowl well split apart with the soundboard more or less in one piece. It is just for a show and tell. There are thousands of them out there, it is just a matter of laying hands on one.

cheers

graham

The bracing is usually two or three transverse, or slightly angled braces, two above and below the soundhole and the third slightly in front, but not under, the bridge. The bridge usualy sits just in front of the bend/cant/pilage, but I have seen a couple where the bridge is behind the bend. There a...

Thanks Arnt, but I can probably find something locally. We won't ask what you were doing in a pawn shop in Estonia 8) Bent/canted tops are a much ignored approach to instrument soundboards. I have built one for the new book and it is not much more work than a flat-top and a much stronger structure. ...