Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Alas, I was hoping to meet Shania there. Sounds like a soap opera. We will try to visit arrowtown. My daughter had the LOR stuff off before we got to NZ. She does have it with her. We had a wild stormy night north in the bay of islands.

Thanks all, after a couple of long flights with one lost bag we are in Auckland. Nick we plan to visit hobbiton, but we also are going to the south island to do quite a bit of hiking including visiting some of the sight where LOR was filmed.

We're backed and ready to go to New Zealand for the holidays. My daughter is a huge Lord of the Ring fan, so we have plans to visit many of the sites where they filmed the movie. At time though I think maybe she is taking things too far. I will be back to building in the New Year.

Happy Holidays!

It is gorgeous with many great details. I love the heal cap inlay into the back. The rosette is very elegant, the spalted scratch plate looks great as well.

The silky oak sure is good looking. Very nice ukuleles

Wow!, What a gorgeous instrument.

The ukulele looks great. I love the back.

Great looking set of ukuleles. How does the fir top sound compare to the blackwood?

Nicely done!

I completed this Martin shaped 14 fret to the body tenor ukulele early last month. Sounds pretty good right now. It is spruce so it will be interesting to see how it sound in a couple of day. I made it for a friend living in Oahu who has taken up the ukulele. Bear Claw sitka top Hawaiian Koa back an...

I just finished two made just the way you describe. One followed the Hana Lima tenor plans the other a Martin Tenor shape but I switched to a bolt on glued butt joint for the neck. I have the Hana Lima manual but mostly followed the their plan. Careful though their plan placed the bridge without com...

This is a falcate braced guitar, ebonized walnut bridge, bolt on bolt off neck. The guitar sounds like Martinish 00. Sounds pretty good but not as good as the Gore Medium Steel String I built before it. I did take to heart the notes on 14 fret to the body and would rather have built a 12 fret to the...

LMI sells them. http://www.lmii.com/products/mostly-woo ... tte-sticks

After taking some suggestions from Jim, he tought the 253 may be the cross-dipole , I took a couple of more spectrum graphics one with the mic pointed at the back. I now think the back is at 238 Hz, so a bit closer to where I want it. I am not sure how active it is though. The first spectrum is meas...

whoops! The Air is at 102, the top is at 184 and the back is 252

Well I strung the guitar up this week. http://www.harvestmoonguitars.com/philip%2000-14/philip%20(501).jpg http://www.harvestmoonguitars.com/philip%2000-14/philip%20(502).jpg http://www.harvestmoonguitars.com/philip%2000-14/philip%20(503).jpg http://www.harvestmoonguitars.com/philip%2000-14/philip%2...

I am close to being able to start finish sanding my latest guitar. It has cocobolo back and top is lutz. The rosette and heel cap are amboyna burl. Bindings and fret board are ebony. I used a bit of african black wood for the end wedge as I did not have a scrap of ebony. I tapped both the top and ba...

Thanks Dave,

I do plan to get a good recording done with a real player. I would be interested in what you learn with your falcate classical as I plan to build one as my next project after I finish another steel string and a couple of ukuleles I am working on.

While at the Guild of American Luthiers Convention last month I met John Ray and picked up a copy of his book The Granada School of Guitar Makers . In the time I have had to go through it I have found that it is gorgeously produced, informative and well researched book on the builders and their guit...

Thank you Pat, I enjoyed meeting you and I really appreciated the opportunity use your table for a day. I had a steady steam of people who heard the instrument in the listening session very interested in falcate bracing. Even Charles Fox acknowledged in his auditorium talk that after starting to rea...

very nice. I also like the burl ring and the cleaner look of not running the marquetry strip through the middle of the burl. It is so nicely framed by the thin dark purfling line.

Thanks Trevor Well I tried to get a good recording, I was hampered by the fact that I can not play very well. As bad as my recording was Youtube or my publishing software still compresses it. At some point I will get a real player and post a less compressed version on sound cloud or have a download ...

On a steel string I shape the rim, generally with a radius dish, such that the top when glued down has the correct angle to match what I needed for my neck neck. Before I glue down the top I clamp it on and run a straight edge where the neck extension will be past the saddle position and look to see...

For me a properly cut tenon is proud of the top at the start of the fit. If it fit in all the way then it would be loose as soon as I removed wood from the cheeks to adjust for center and the neck angle. Also I want to end up with a tight fitting joint. If I tried to route it true to final size I wo...

Thanks Trevor,

I did a tap spectrum all strung up and I ended up with 92, 172, 214. The guitar is really starting to sound good as I get it set up properly. It is very responsive light strings. All of the notes ring clear. All and all I am very excited.