Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Kim, you have a real talent for language. I love it.

jeffhigh wrote: This has my adjustable neck angle arrangement , so I should be able to set the bridge to that and adjust the neck for action

Jeff, does this mean that the fingerboard extension isn't going to be glued to the top? Or have I failed to grasp the concept?

Looking good Jeff. Do you know yet the likely height of the bridge?

That is really beautiful wood Jeffrey, we are very envious. I have one question, not too serious. Does the Durian wood smell like the fruit?

Beautiful work.

And I was looking forward to a falcate braced Selmer.

Yes Jeff, I was wondering how you would go with that. Even with laminated sides (4 epoxied laminations of .6mm blackwood veneer), in a vacuum bag and bent to the mould whilst the epoxy was still wet, didn't easily conform to the shape. I finally managed it, after a couple of trys, but not without a ...

I've just had a shed built, a Sidach kit shed 11.5 x 6 metres, with an internal wall which divides it into two, with an access door between. The two areas are "the clean room", which is 3.5 x 6 metres, and the "dirty bit", which is 8 x 6 metres. There's a roller door, 3 personal access doors, and 8 ...

I had a quick look at my Charle/Alexander full size plan for the oval hole, and these were the dimensions:- width of fingerboard at nut/zero fret = 45mm " " 14th fret = 58mm string spacing at bridge = 50.5 mm " " at tailpiece = 55mm I think that these measurements off the plan are pretty accurate (i...

The pliage on the originals was definitely a bend, but slightly radiused rather than really sharp; i.e. not like a Neapolitan mandolin. On the originals, each side of the top was heat bent in a steel jig, prior to joining. As far as I know, rarely, if ever were the tops scored to facilitate bending....

Nick, nothing at all has happened for quite a while, but not through lack of enthusiasm. We decided to move house a bit more than a year ago, so pre-selling renovations fully occupied me for several weeks. and then we moved to a new place, lovely location, but no workshop, and everything had to go i...

As far as tuners are concerned, the open backed Schaller three-in-a-line are used a fair bit by makers, including Dupont, but a few are shifting to Schaller "Golden De-Luxe" Selmer style tuners, which are more expensive, but look more the part, for those who like the aesthetics of the originals. I g...

Sorry I haven't responded before Jeff, but I have been plagued by a very bad internet connection for the last month or so. Like Nick, I am happy to give whatever help I can, but you have much more experience as a builder than I have. My experience is solely that of someone who is building a Selmer/M...

Jeff (or Trevor), if you have the balsa grain vertical, would that solve the shear problem? I have often thought, quite possibly wrongly, that the best orientation for the balsa would be with the grain vertical, because its function is to act as a spacer, and vertical grain balsa is excellent in com...

Thanks Dom. This thread is turning out to be particularly instructive.

That's an interesting method of radiusing the fingerboard Dom. When feeding it through the drum sander, I imagine that you have to be very careful to align the jig at right angles to the drum, so that it sands along the length parallel to the line of the strings, and not skewed.

And there's no nutriment in 'oles.

In Australia, hobby shops usually stock Z-poxy, and I suspect the same may be true in N.Z.

I have some poplar veneer that looks something like that, although with a bit of green in it.

Kim's hairspray suggestion is worth trying. Although I haven't tried it with carbon cloth, I have on many occasions used it with lightweight fibreglass cloth, and it works well. A light dusting with hairspray and it holds together nicely (just like in that photo of Kim, above :) ). You still have to...

There could be a PhD in this Nick.

Same Eucalypt species as Tassie oak.

I have bought a fair bit of veneer from http://www.certainlywood.com in the U.S. They have a pretty extensive range, but what has most attracted me to them is that as well as the standard .6mm veneer, they also stock thick veneers. I have bought mahogany, black walnut, poplar and maple around 1.5mm ...

It certainly doesn't look original. The body shape is way out, particularly the upper bout on the bass side as it approaches the neck, the head stock, the tail-piece and numerous other details are not consistent with a Selmer-Maccaferri, i.e. the Grande Bouche or D shaped sound hole guitar that was ...

I've found that a lint free cloth soaked in shellac and allowed to dry until it's just a bit sticky, makes a really good tack cloth.