Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Jim thanks but it is that removal that is a bit tricky. It is a small insect and has been pretty embedded in the finish. I ended up sanding it out but that leaves a fairly big area with finish removed. And OK that's alright I can respray. I felt that trying to use a sharp implememt would likely leav...

I spray just outside my workshop door since I don't have a booth. As it is warming up here the insect population is growing so I do tend to pick up the odd small insect as I did today.

Is there a good way of dealing with this?

Stuart that looks really neat.

I keep facing this issue of the rosette. I would prefer to not use a commercial one but I also don't want to spend what would probably be weeks doing a traditional one. That one looks good.

What are you using for the bridge and saddle?

Those David Fletcher videos are very good. He clearly knows his stuff and explains well. Much is only relevant to the electric neck but there are definitely a few ideas that are useful. What I'd never heard of is anyone making there own marker dots... never heard of polymer clay. It struck me that i...

Thanks Richard, yes I do get there eventually. Also I have stopped using a router on the headstock after blowing one up really badly.

Martin it hasn't happened yet but I'm sure it will sooner or later.

I sometimes think I'll have to follow Nigel Forster's example and head south! However for those of us stuck in the old world I thought I would mention David Charlesworth. He has written books and done DVDs etc and is the expert on tuning up planes and their use in the UK. For anyone starting out wit...

Well there's clearly a diversity of views! Allen it has been said before but I still love the concept of the statue hidden in the block of stone just waiting to be discovered. Steve, not OCD (ya cheeky bugger) but continuously aware that taking too much off is going to mean starting all over again. ...

OK so who else will admit to taking ages to carve their necks? I have a cedrella neck on the bench for a cutaway classical and I have spent hours and hours on it. I keep going back to the section in G&G but I simply can't work up the confidence to take those huge facets out down to very near the fin...

I don't know about a slow build Wayne it seems to be going pretty fast to me! And jolly nice looking too.

It is probably not of any significance but Microsoft's SmartScreen filter doesn't like your photo site for some reason - had to turn it off to look at your PDF's.

Thanks for the detailed reply John. I'm pretty sure, thinking through your points, that my issue has been too thick a top (and also perhaps too thick a nitro finish)

I was thinking of retopping my last one but I will try thinning the top before actually removing and see if I get anywhere.

John that looks great. Photo reproduction doesn't give a very real view but the Osage looks fine. Lovely grain pattern. And As you say, over time any brashness will calm down. The overall aesthetic works well. I like the heel shape. It is a bit of a regret that since I decided to always make cutaway...

Nice crisp work Steve. The blackwood is indeed lovely. I particularly like your heel shape. That is the style that I used to aim for but unfortunately since I now always do cutaways I'm stuck with a rather formless round shape. But I love the access to the upper frets. What bracing are you using? An...

Trevor. Quite.

Dave

As Steve suggests I go down to 1.8 mm for the cutaway side. If this is really your first build it is perhaps worth noting that a cutaway is significantly harder to do than a straight build. Everything from bending the sides, shaping the linings, fitting the bindings, shaping the head block etc are a...

In the latest GAL mag Mark French shows some photos of Charles Fox's workshop and there is a very nifty way of supporting the neck when tapering it on the bandsaw. The problem is that you can only really mark out where the fretboard will sit on the top of the neck. But the heel and headstock means t...

As with John I use spruce and could not bend thick strips so ended up with more, thinner laminations. Even then I wasn't particularly pleased and some snapped during bending but eventually got acceptable results. Hot pipe bend then the primaries clamped to an inside caul for glueing and for the seco...

John I like that you are doing a cutaway classical. I have decided that by default I will always do a cutaway since as a player it is so much nicer to use. As an aside, as you probably know Pernambuco is/was the favoured wood for violin bows. Usually looking darker than your sample. Stlll sticking w...

I saw this idea somewhere but since I can't remember where I can't attribute it.

Since I was doing this job today I thought I would try it and it seems to work really well.

A means of holding the body and resist the push of a couple of go bars.

Wouldn't a couple of coats of shellac seal whatever the problem is?

This is a form of mandolin of course. There is an interesting chapter on it's development in Graham McDonald's book 'The Mandolin a History'

And those pipes are certainly more tuneful than the ones we normally see!

As Jeff said. The bridge rotation test in the book is very useful. It has pinpointed a classical that was overbuilt for me recently.


Dave

I haven’t done this but I guess you could check the situation by laying the falcate braces in the radiused/dished workboard and checking for gaps with feeler gauges.

As you have suggested any small gaps will be filled with the epoxy.

Cheers Dave

I take it you mean shaping the underside to fit the spherically arched top - as we do with the back braces. At some point, and it may have been in this forum rather than in the book, Trevor has stated that the braces will happily sit down into the curve even though they are flat. I guess this is due...

Well I can answer my own question having finally got round to doing a bridge rotation test. I have a very stiff top!

It is falcate braced and I thought it a pretty good, loud guitar with plenty of sustain, but maybe I haven't put it alongside a really responsive guitar.

Most of my generating of Chladnis has been on classical guitars. I was testing a recently completed steel string and was having a bit of difficulty exciting the top. It struck me that perhaps the much stiffer top structure of the SS might need a lot more acoustic energy to get it going. Would people...