Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Stu, In Melb. i use Mathews timber a bitfor rock maple,spruce ,blackwood, Figian mahogany, wenge, walnut, jarrah. I've also used Stumac for maple. Got some timber on order from Tim spittle, also Shane at Mountain tonewoods

Stu,,, I've purchased Maple back and sides and ebony and rosewood bridges and fingerboards from Stumac, sometimes customs open everything to have a look and other times not. But no real dramas. Just had a load delivered, no timber, but they still went through it. Cheers Rod.

Mathew, the glass scraper sounds interesting, is normal window glass ok , say about 3mm thick? and doyou just cut an edge with a glass cutter?
Cheers ,,,Rod

A number5 Stanley jack plane, great for jointing plates, when the blade has a fine edge i love to hear that timber sing with each stroke of that plane, spruce especially, then the Ibex finger plane, great for arching a plate, the blades in these little planes seem to hold their edge for a long time....

Alan, i have the same model from Carbatech FM-300, does the job well, got it connected to drum sander and band saw, gets most dust away, very little airborne particles to speak of, very worthwhile purchase i thought. Cheers,, Rod.

Hi Alex, I believe Morgans paints in Knox do supply nitro, i think Deano said he purchased some there. Allboard distributors also supply Morotone laquers suitable for finishing guitars. Hope you find what you want. Cheers Rod. _________________ "Stop mucking around and hit it the thing" it won't hit...

Hey all! Pardon my ignorance but what do you mean by "double top"?

A sweet burst you have there, what about the headstock, it looks great can we get a closeup of that? Very nice unit, Cheers, Rod.
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"Stop mucking around and hit it the thing" it won't hit ya back!!!

Great looking back you have on that there guitar Jeffery, what was it like to carve? predictable or not? Cheers Rod.
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"Stop mucking around and hit it the thing" it won't hit ya back!!!

Frank, i have some blonde shellac if you need some, but at the speed you're working i'd say i'm probably too late to help hey!!! Cheers Rod _________________ "Stop mucking around and hit it the thing" it won't hit ya back!!! In this thread this is the last re-constructed message by the ANZLF helping...

Looks like you're doing very nicely there Aidan, i like the sound hole set out you have too, looking forward to seeing more pics as you progress.
Cheers ,,,Rod.

Does anybody know if there is any visual difference between rock maple and queensland maple?

Cheers ,,, Rod.

Thanks Allan,, yes the back and sides are those from Stu-mac, the spruce is from Mathews melbourne, i did purchase a book matched set of spruce wedges from s/m for a future project, looks very nice too, and while on the subject of spruce, i also purchased some lovely Lutze from Shane Neifer,very tig...

Nicko,, sorry mate i should have answered this earlier.
The belly is parallel braced, with this one i went a tad thinner and used the parallel bracing to compensate.
Cheers,,, Rod

Hi Tim,, a suggestion from a relative novice in this area. What about spraying the whole neck in gloss as normal and the area you want the tru-oil on, instead, rub back with a very fine w/d and then polish with a series of fine polishing cloths. Should turn out very shmooove and a semi gloss. Cheers...

Yeah Mathew, i've seen Jelutong at Mathews timber, yardman said it was nice to carve, didn't say anybody was using it for instruments. They have stacks of maple, what sort of sizes are you talking? Might be able to check it out for you. Maton haunt the place and as soon as a new load comes in they r...

Just finished wiring this, tested, didn't blow up or electrocute me so i'm happy to continue with the build now. A couple of pics for you, criticism or other helpful comments are welcome, this is my first full electric :? Cheers,, Rod. IMG_0924 (Custom).JPG IMG_0925 (Custom).JPG IMG_0926 (Custom).JPG

Aidan,, good on you for having a go, Nick's right, Benedetto's book is a great place to start 8) and this forum is full of people who are very experienced in building many types of instruments and who also are too happy to share info with others, be they experienced or not. Looking forward to some p...

Very simple, but also very helpful, thankyou very much, i'll pst some pics of this with the wiring completed before i gut it and close it up, it would be nice to leave it insitu but i'd rather finish the top without all those chunks of metal sticking out of it, getting the stuff back in later should...

Thanks Mike, there's a bit of a story to how Sam ended up with my instrument in his hands.
My nephew filmed a promo music vid for Hetty Kate and took one of my instruments along for a test run, aparently Sam liked what he was playing too, i haven't been rushed with orders yet though.
Cheers,, Rod.

I wonder if some of you electric builders can help me? I'm buiding a 17" hollow body archtop electric, i've downloaded a couple of wiring plans for two humbuckers, two volume, 1 master tone, one selector switch, both plans show a ground for the bridge or trem, how is this wire usually connected as t...

Great work ther Taff, i think your grand kids are very lucky.
Cheers,, Rod

Thanks for the compliments you lot, but you had better stop now, my head is starting to hurt

Bill , that isn't an endpin jack, that's a strap button, i decided not to put a pickup on this although i did plan to when i started the build. I think that when you are trying to market an instrument it should be one thing or the other, acoustic or electric, if somone buys an acoustic guitar that t...

Hey one of my sons showed me how to post a link from youtube,
this is one of my archtops, blackwood b/s sitka, played by Sam Lemann, check it out.
Cheers rod.


youtu.be/