Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Peter, if you want the definitive discussion of bolt-on methods you will find it in the Gilet-Gore books. If you don’t have them yet you should consider upgrading your information sources. Anyway, they take you through the merits of various approaches. The bottom line is that if you are going to bol...

An alternative to the mortise and tenon design is to do a butt joint with a bolt down fingerboard. I have done a few with a kit system from Luthiers Cool Tools (link below). I would recommend one alteration to this method however. This is to avoid using threaded inserts straight into the end grain o...

Doh indeed!. Looks like a good idea. I will definitely give that a try

I want one too. Going to order it now.
Nice job curating that Graham.

It is an old Suzuki from the tip? So why not go to town with the coptic textas and give it some really outrageous artwork?

A good looking jig!
It must be fun to make your own.

I agree with Martin that the commercially available electric ones are simple to use and, as far as I can see, all pretty much the same - so if you see a bargain anywhere jump in and grab it. It is very satisfying to bend by hand, and actually not difficult to master the skill.

Hi Pat. Which “macrocarpa” species are you referring to? Macrocarpa is latin for “large fruit” so it is used as a descriptive term in the botanical name of many different trees. I Googled it and found a few. There is a Eucalyptus macrocarpa in Australia, or the so-called “Monterey Cypress” in the US...

Well, if that bridge fails it won’t be for lack of clamps.

Nice video Nigel. I always love seeing an expert doing a task to notice the little points of difference to my ham-fisted work. Let me see if I understand your process. Please correct me where wrong: 1. You are doing this at the stage when the guitar is prepped for finish, but not yet sprayed. 2. I n...

Great tip! I have a few old stethoscopes in a drawer and have sometimes used them to track down problems around the house (but, so far, not in guitars). The dowel trick sounds really clever. I presume you place it against the mastoid bone, just behind the ear?

He was a sensational "outside the box" thinker and innovator. I remember some fantastic contributions that he made here on important ideas like adjustable neck designs and flying buttress internal bracing. The bio at Fretboard Journal makes you realize the varied roles he had in luthiery and the mus...

Great work Jim. Looks fantastic. Do you have any photos of the V-joint of the headstock in progress? The end result looks great.

It looks like you are at the exciting stage! Tell us more - what is the neck like and how is it attached? What is the soundboard made of? Some pictures inside the bowl please!

Yep, good point Trevor. The approach that I described is OK for a X-brace or similar design where you have some wriggle room for the bridge placement in order to get the saddle to locate where it needs to be. But I forgot that doesn’t work for a falcate design where you need to place the bridge acco...

“A question to the brains trust, to rout the saddle slot now, or wait till it's been glued on? I can see merit in both ways....... not sure which way I'll go.” I find it easier to rout the slot now, rather than try to work with the router on the top of the assembled guitar. But I know some folks do ...

Hi Steve Looks like great progress, after a long break. One of the really good things about instrument building is that the project can just sit and wait until you have the time to get back to it. My projects certainly tend to be like that. The herringbone and bindings look really good. If you are s...

Lovely instrument Allen.
I really love huon pine when I have used it in various woodworking projects. Lovely colour, nice to work, smells interesting. But I have never tried it in instruments. What are your thoughts of it as a choice for soundboards, and do you have any tips for working with it?

That is a fantastic collection, and really stunning presentation. Did you build the Red Special too? And which one gets played the most?

Yes, the black smudge that gets everywhere. Part of the solution is to keep sandpaper away from the ebony. Use a scraper on it, and then leave it alone. Maybe also seal it with a wipe of shelac while you work on the sensitive pale timbers. I have used ebony bindings and felt your pain, as well as ex...

Nigel - did you build that jig or is it a bought one?

I bet there are big smiles under the masks. Fantastic stuff!

Yep, I endorse what Graham and Richard said. There is actually no need for the heel, very good reasons to eliminate it, and a number of good options to attach the neck in another way. Here is one I made following Graham’s plan, with a hollow neck block (a bouzouki style body, but you could do the sa...

That looks completely awesome - and exhausting. The quality of work that I can see there is fantastic, and it must be really inspiring for the five of them to be there working together (as well as for you, Steve). How is the humidity - down the road from you the RH in my workshop is 88% today and th...

Peter, the usual reason that pictures won’t load is that the file size is too big. You can’t upload the pictures straight from your phone or camera at 2mb per photo. There is a separate thread pinned near the top of the index home page which walks you throu how to post pictures. Give it a go - we wo...