Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I've just checked Drg. #6 (in the envelope, back of the Build vol.) and it seems OK to me. The diagonal braces are drawn in at 105mm long, but even at 115mm (as per Fig. 4.4-22, or Fig 11-33) or as much as 130mm for that matter, starting at 50mm from the centreline, they would still fit inside the l...

That looks pretty neat, Dom. To my eye, it looks like it might be a bit floppy by the time you get to the 19th. Have you got it strung yet? You'll know straight away if you have a problem. If you do, it'll be a case of going "millennium" on the next build, or cutting a pocket into the upper bout so ...

One could certainly argue that. However, with their typical ebony fretboards and a big lump of dense maple underneath, they probably mostly get away with it, though I've played some that don't. You're usually asking different things of an archtop, though, and they are mostly acoustic/electric which ...

There's certainly enough strength and stability in the joint not to have to bolt down the fingerboard extension. You could probably take the top bolt out of the heel, too. The main reason I do bolt it down is the same as the reason there is to glue down a conventional fingerboard extension - to ensu...

Thanks, Colin. Good to know.

Yes, I use steel, but anything cheap and dense can be used. That should leave plenty of opportunity for the wits around here...

I have a mate who gilded a Strat he built, so it was a completely gold body. He did tell me how he did it; he is in that line of business. I have a very sketchy recollection of what he said, as it wasn't something I was going to try in a hurry. Apparently there are two methods, one is water gilding ...

How about a smaller one of these.... Only kidding, but when someone says "purple guitar" this is what comes to mind! (Purpleheart back and sides, but hard to see all that )

Sorry Scott. That should have been 105 resin. Apologies.

Don't use the 206 hardener on pore fills/clear coatings. It has a tendency to bloom down the track, whereas the 207 is formulated to avoid that.

Scott, any "classical" classical guitar body shape will work. The variations in dimensions of particular shapes are quite small. So you could use the classical shape on the full size plans or do one of your own based on Fig. 4.6-32 and Appendix V in the Design volume. Or you could do a neo-classical...

Paul, It sounds like you're not following any specific build process. I would suggest that you have a think about things, all the way through, and come up with one, which is hard if you don't have a lot of experience, or find someone close who can help you out, or get a decent book and stick to its ...

Neat! Well done!

Try this:
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3819

West 106 resin with 206 slow hardener for laying up or 207 special coatings hardener for clear coat/pore fill.

I think that's one for the main forum...

Is it possible to do it at the same place? What would be the cost per student? I charge $500 per person for the 3 day course for which you get the course (of course!) and colour hard copies of all the (hundreds) of slides I use. Any charges for hiring a venue would be on top of that. If Strato was ...

Scott, I don't do a guitar building class, as such, I do a 3 day guitar design class, one of which I held recently and is discussed here: http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4002 . It's a 3 day course and needs about 8 participants to make it worth while. John "woodrat" did a lot of the organis...

I'm getting a change in tension of between approx .21N and .24N on the 1st string Sounds about right....? I'm looking at ~0.5N at fret 12 on the 1st string (action 2mm at 12th). This should be pretty straight forward to check. Doing a quick "reality check", frequency is proportional to sqrt(T), ten...

Hi Martin, Those cold, dark nights are especially suited to messing with intonation problems! Please advise some more of your countrymen/women! For a first shot at k for steel strings, use the formula on the bottom of page 4-109. The Young's modulus for steel is 210GPa, the string cross sectional ar...

It looks like Fibreglass International has changed its name to Nuplex Composites. In Sydney area, they're still at the same place: 14 Clearview Place Brookvale NSW 2100 Postal: PO Box 392 Brookvale NSW 2100 Tel: (02) 9939 1399 Fax: (02) 9938 5826 http://www.nuplexcomposites.com/australia/?q=node/6 G...

First, varnish the dish!

Use 60 or 80 grit paper and stick it down with stick glue (the stuff kids use for sticking stuff into scrap books). When you have to change the paper, which is not very often (~ every 20-30 or so guitars) the old paper comes of with water. Klingspor paper works well.

I've used 9mm and 7mm They are both geared 4:1 but the 7mm gives you greater mechanical advantage because of the smaller diameter post. Otherwise, not much to chose between the two. The ones that feature on my website (and in the book) are all 9mm (I think!).

Ummmmm...humidity. To be honest, I hadn't thought too much about that either. All is ib the laps of the gods, I'm afraid.....All good so far, but time will tell.... Sorry to be the harbinger of woe on that one, Nick. Trouble is, assembling at the wrong RH is one of the few things that is almost imp...

Wes, I've just had a quick look at Open Office Calc and to a first approximation it seems to work in a very similar way to Excel. So for the more straight forward spreadsheets I would expect the coding etc. to be pretty much 1:1 compatible.

Welcome Nick!

Now, err, how's your humidity control going?