Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I'm in the process of building a tenor uke, my 2nd, just closed the box yesterday. The neck is on as this is a Spanish heel build. Laying out the fretboard today I realised I made mistake. :roll: I made the neck for a 14th fret join BUT I have the bridge patch located for a 12th fret join. The diffe...

Apparently not a very well known holiday but, so I've learned today, May 1st is World Guitar Day.



If Jimmy Fallon says so, it must be true.

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback so far. is Tru Oil a type of oil varnish that does not seep into the wood? i am interested in something like this. i see it is on ebay if you cant find it. interesting how it is made for gunstocks on rifles. Hi kpcart. You can find some discussion of what it is and...

I'm ready to put a finish on the uke I recently built . On advice from a forum member, and things I've read here, I'd like to try Tru Oil. I live in Canberra and I'm having trouble finding it, though. I've phoned the gun shops in the ACT and they said "oh, great product but we don't carry it". Too f...

Beautiful work, Jay! It was a blast; I'm glad to have shared this journey with you.

It sounds as good as it looks. I liked this one so much I brought a set of the silver wattle home with me.

Aaron

Wayne, that is a really sweet looking guitar.

I want to try something similar once I've got some more experience under my belt.

What is the scale length? Did you find a plan or make your own?

Thanks,
Aaron

All good things must pass, and so it is for the Ukulelean period. Only one photo today, of the "finished" but not finished instrument. This morning I cleaned up some glue that squeezed out from under the bridge and put a coat of shellac on the top to protect it from fate (as much as possible). strin...

Today was great! A couple people strung up their ukes and started on the intonation process. They sound fantastic: clear and good volume. We also found a fascinating geological record of the AGMS. geologic_record.png We reckon their may be fossilized body parts in there among the strata. I started t...

Thanks for the comments, guys! I hope the internal conflict I accidentally created will lead to a more spirited instrument. It has been a full 5 days so far and Tim has kindly offered us his Sunday morning so we're really aiming for 6.5 days. I think we're doing just about everything. The fretboard ...

Today we glued the top and back to the sides using a Spittlean device, which was fun. Routed the top and back flush with the sides. Then I had an intro to tapping with Tim and Strato. Very educational! And it sounds much better/louder after sanding down the KBP, which was over 3mm thick to begin. No...

Thanks Felix; this bench is getting to be quite familiar to me, too. Today was pleasantly productive. I spent most of the day bracing the top and back, trimming the sides to be flush with the flat top and the curved back, and trimming various things so that the sides and back can now touch. I guess ...

Hi again, Thanks for the welcome, Markus and Mark. Tim has been an awesome host/teacher/entertainer through these first 2 days. It's a very friendly atmosphere. Today I worked on shaping the neck and heel blocks, which took forever, and then glued them to the sides. Cut the soundhole and channels fo...

Hi all, I was bitten by the lutherie bug back in December and have been reading this forum regularly (obsessively) since then. In my day job I'm an astrophysicist at Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. I really appreciate reading the info here and also seeing the amazing work that people are doing....