Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I’ve only heard one of the new Taylor’s with this bracing and I much preferred the sound of my own X braced build when I compared them side by side.

To be fair though the Taylor was a Koa top and mine Cedar, so it’s apples to oranges. The Taylor didn’t sound bad though.

The guitar looks great! I’d love to hear/play it in person, I’ve been tempted to build seven string dread, in my mind I was going to simply put a extra brace behind the bridge plate like what some twelve string guitars have.

Thank for posting

I had a big of spare time at the end of today’s word day, so I knocked out the headstock, glued the scarf and started shaping the top bracing by hand.

I have mini clamping cauls that I’ve made similar to that for other jobs, however when I glue the braces I leave the top flat so there’s a surface for the rod to press down on, then I shape after it’s all glued up. Yes I sand the base of them prior on the radius dish so they match the top radius, an...

As everyone knows, there is always “something”, and if this is the biggest “something” that happens during the build I’ll be a happy man! When I clamped the back bracing in the go-bar deck I only used 3 rods pre brace as opposed to the usual 5 that I would do. No particular reason, it’s just what I ...

I was up at my local boozer last Friday and there was a bloke plugging away on a blackwood topped Cole Clarke. I had a brief strum on the instrument and it sounded ok. It was a good thing the guitar sounded half decent because the bloke's singing was atrocious :shock: If you played it side by side ...

Thanks Allan, I was just curious, I've never built a hardwood top guitar. Wayne I’m not sure what is a standard for Blackwood/Koa tops, that’s just what I decided to go with, whatever is s standard wouldn’t matter as this isn’t a standard density top. In saying that I had a Koa Taylor on the setup ...

56nortondomy wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 08, 2018 5:27 pm

What thickness will the top end up Allan? Any specific target?
Wayne

Dressed to 3.5mm and then final hand sanding after that

The customer I had booked in after lunch was a no show, so while I was on a roll I did some pretty shaping and cutting in of the top bracing. I leave just enough flat on the top surface that I can clamp in the go bar deck, but it’s shaoed enough that it saved time when it’s all glued up. 1CC89E49-E7...

I had a little bit of time to fill in after lunch break, so I roughed out the top bracing and used the magic circle cutter thingy to whip up a rosette support ring.

Rosette progress

Flush cut saw doesn’t get used very often, however it is handy at times:
After a bit of scraping and sanding:

I stick tantellones down on the back/top either side of ends of braces to hold them steady. Once the glue is set I chisel the tantellones off. I also use tantellones around the rim of tops and backs to hold them aligned during glue up....they get whipped off during the trimming of the edges with th...

Won’t get much time to spend on this one today, but I wanted to at least get the back bracing clamped down. I do something I’ve never seen anyone else do and use spacers. On one build I did I had a brace move on me after I’d walked away from it and I cane up with this idea so it never happened again...

Gazm... if you’re local enough to visit (Ballarat area), I’ve probably got half a cube of Blackwood here so I’m sure I could find you something if you had cash in hand. Everything from Otways, Tassy, to some VIC that ive cut on my own property.

430 Kg/m3 or 430 AUD? Hahahaha, I couldn’t tell you what I paid for it, it was part of a pile of stuff I bought, so I can’t remember, actually I don’t think I even asked at the time. I just saw it and bought it. The air dried density is 430! It is super light weight Blackwood, cut from much higher ...

kiwigeo wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:58 pm

Allan,

Did you measure density of that Blackwood top? Where is the wood from?

Otways and 430 ADD

Moving fast there Allan. Most of what you've got done in a couple of days takes me a couple of weeks. A man with a mission? That top...how thin are you going to take it? Have you done any sort of tap testing on the wood? A couple weeks? This isn’t even dedicating time to it. It’s just doing a bit h...

In between other jobs I did a little bit more on this one in the arvo, started the Rosette, a single piece of quilted maple. Rosette and recess cut using a spinny fast tool thingy. 912B501C-635B-4F8C-A50B-0F4C0A3B658A.jpeg 6470C897-34ED-43B5-BEFE-A30B6AA9122F.jpeg E2B7836C-167B-4E55-BD09-01D44F1B73E...

I’m in no rush on this build, it will just plod along in the background of other jobs. This morning I cleaned up the top and back, also glued down the back strip. I was going to use Blackwood for the back strip however I noticed some Mahogany strips I had cut and drum sanded last year, so I just use...

Everyone has their preferred way to join plates, various jigs and clamps whatever. I’ve tried many and this is the way I keep going back to. A thick back board so there’s no flex, clamp the first plate down with a spacer in the center (at each end), push the second plate into it and clamp, then remo...

That’s interesting to see and I hope it helped you out.

I’ve never physically weighed it, I just know from working with it, feeling it and the finished products that this is my preferred Mahogany.

After looking through old pics I couldn't find much of the actual workspace (a shed with only three walls, two cars and a heap of junk squeezed in), however I did find these two pics where you can see the bench itself that all my earlier guitars were made on, the bench was given to me and had seen b...

All my earliest builds were done on a bench smaller than that (it was actually longer but half of it was covered in junk) and only power tools I use were a circular saw, a ryobi 12” thicknesser, a makita hand sander, a Bosch jigsaw and a Bosch hand drill. Everything else was hand tools. Oh, also use...

simso wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 03, 2018 8:39 pm

On a side note, I have a commission of 5 for a local store who wants to run a closed box building course

Steve

Sounds like that’ll be a handful!

Hi Allan, I think I'd go with a b/wood bridge it'll be lighter than the gidgee which is pretty heavy, just my thoughts. Wayne That is good advice, my bridge shape tapers quite considerably and isn’t very heavy. In saying that the last guitar I built and strung up yesterday has a Gidgee bridge and a...