Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I will be at the National, see you there.

Peter

I really like those tuners. Mandolin tuners are all open tuners, so I am used to open tuners. I just wish Scherter would make mandolin tuners similar to their guitar tuners. Have not had much time to read the Gore/Gilet books properly yet, I have been cherry picking bits and pieces, it is damn inter...

Well here is the proof of the pudding. Short sound clip.

http://petercoombe.com/Guitar%20sound/G ... 2weeks.mp3

Peter

This must be getting monotonous for you guys. Here is my 5th guitar, once again an OM. I do have an 00 in the works just to do something different, but that will be a while. Woods are Carpathian Spruce top, EIR Rosewood back and sides, African Mahogany neck, Blackwood bindings, Myrtle Rosette, Myrtl...

My workshop didn't catch fire...but looks like this thread has Yes it has. I guess glue is something Luthiers will argue about till the cows come home, and there are plenty of cows around where I live. There is no perfect glue. Every one of them has advantages and disadvantages. There are things I ...

The compression is me, with a light touch, not the guitar. The Red Spruce has huge headroom.

I have an MP3 of me dooding on guitar #4 you might like to listen to. It is no great musical performance, it is about all I can manage on guitar, but does give some idea of what it sounds like.

http://www.petercoombe.com/Guitars/Soun ... Doodle.mp3

I have never been a fan of assymetrical bracing. It just doesn't make sense to me. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no treble side or bass side to a guitar, mandolin, or violin, whatever. The top (and the entire instrument) vibrates as a whole. The "bass" side produces the whole range of freque...

The bridge plate and braces are now symmetric.

I got it from the Tuggeranong store in Canberra around 4 years ago. At te time I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but just had to get it. It is 235mm wide and 19mm thick. I have enough to make 5 or 6 guitars from that one board, and you are right, it is flukey good. Quarter sawn, not a si...

Yep done on #4, and thanks for the tip, it works.

Peter

Here is #4. This guitar has a lot of changes that I thought made sense, so is really an experimental guitar. Fortunately the changes seems to have worked since I think this is a better guitar than #3. I did a bit of fooling around with different bridge woods on the saddle of my mandolin to get some ...

Time for me to post some more pictures. First comes my OM guitar #3, very similar to #1, but incorporating everthing I learned from #1 and #2. Also none of the numerous boo boos of #1. Woods are Carpathian Spruce top, Indian Rosewood back and sides, African Mahogany neck, maple bindings, Ebony finge...

I very much doubt it is the capo or differing humidity, there is something fundamentally different about the two guitars that affects the sound. The difference is too big to be capo or humidity. My guess it has something to do with the bridge. Pity we can't see the bridge in the video. Mabe a differ...

This is the view I had from the workshop yesterday around 5-6pm. Taken with a wide angle lense. Was pretty amazing. Double rainbow, full arch. Have not seen that for a long time.

Second picture is our new herd. 10 weeks old. Sadly all but the one on the far left are off to new homes this week.

Mmm, imprinting is a familiar problem (for me) with shellac finishes and is usually easily fixed. The oil and sandpaper method is good if the damage is severe, but with imprinting you don't need to cut back much at all because the damage is mostly surface damage. Depends on how severe the damage is,...

You are right. It is going to very interesting to get the comments before I tell them it is a radiata top, and then after I tell them. That is one reason I made it into a black top, a lot of people listen with their eyes. So many times I have told some one making their first instrument not to waste ...

Wow, nice. My radiata pine mandolin is not so radical after that effort! The recycled Mountain Ash back I used is a tried and proven wood (at least for me it is) in mandolins and I guess I must have fluked a stiff piece of pine since it was heavier but tuned to well within the range of modal frequen...

Trevor, I will be intersted in what you think of the sound of your guitar when it is finished. Now the mandolin has started to settle down, it is surprising the hell out of me. Really nice smooth and clear sounding treble, heaps of volume, big headroom, and nice bite to the sound. A really good soli...

All very puzzling, but to me it smells of scam, and not by Andrew Morrow.

Jeremy, Andrew strongly denied any involvement.

Well here it is finished. Blacktop Pinus radiata , Mountain Ash back and sides, Myrtle bindings, Qld Maple neck, Ebony fingerboard and bridge, Lancewood tuning knobs, Black Walnut pickguard. Sounds good to me. I could easily mistake it for a spruce topped mandolin. Comparing it to another Carpathian...

John wins. It is Pinus radiata from Bunnings, 3 piece top, braced with Oregon from Bunnings. I made it into a black top. More pictures later. I sorted through hundreds of pieces to find something I thought might work, and it does work. It has a nice smooth clear sound. So, don't despair if Spruce be...

OK guys, guess what top wood this mandolin is made from. Picture was taken before varnishing. Back is recycled Ash from CSIRO Forestry, sides Tassie Oak from Bunnings, neck Qld Maple. Just strung it up, sounds great.

I use Jarrah sawdust. It works and is easy to see against Spruce. Tried glitter, it works very well but is horrible stuff to remove, sticks to everything.

Well I am a member of the minority as well. I use Oregon (Douglas Fir) in my mandolins and the first 3 guitars have Oregon bracing. I scored an amazing piece of Oregon from Bunnings years ago. They had no idea what they had. 6m of 6x2" clear tight grain quarter sawn along the whole 6m and little or ...