Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I am absolutely with Steve on this. The surfaces with titebond on them will not reglue properly. You are at an early stage with this soundboard. Cut down the line with the finest kerf saw/bandsaw you can find and just maybe the rosette can be fudged a little to look OK. It is my experience as an ama...

Yes it's been a seriously dull period this winter but at least the snow has now gone. Yes, 100-150 mm of snow in mid March! Still makes the warmish, dry workshop all the more attractive. Finished the reworking of my binding jig today and, along with the much higher quality DeWalt router I am expecti...

When I built my binding ledge cutting jig I couldn't source the big plastic hinges that Trevor used (in the UK) but ended up with smaller ones. I have been reworking the jig to fit a different router and discovered that one of these hinges is very nearly broken through at the hinge point. This could...

Yes I always like using it. This one was strung up a few days ago and I am dead chuffed with it.

Allen quite. I didn't want to frighten Michael too much by admitting just how many routers I have stashed around the workshop! Including the ones that go in the makeshift router table. Also jigging is such a huge area there are books on it. However for someone starting out it is worth knowing that w...

As an amateur guitar builder I sympathise - I have made rather more necks than I have guitars! It is also a truth that there is rarely one 'best' way to do things. Depending on tooling and skill levels, what suits one person doesn't work for another. Routers. These are incredibly useful tools for wo...

This is probably a bit trivial but I'll throw it up anyway... I have previously used various hand methods for increasing the width of the kerfs in linings to go round the tighter bends - wider handsaws and so on. This week I had to make some new linings so had my jig set up on the bandsaw. This made...

Bender 3 small.jpg Bender 2 small.jpg Thanks for all the responses. Alex you certainly went for it! As it happens I got nearly to success the next day. I am using this contraption: This is nothing new, I think Mike Doolin was one of the first to discus it. As usual I changed several things: Increas...

I am still struggling to bend my figured maple into the sort of sharp cutaway shape that Trevor uses. Having done the usual search of that sometimes useful store of knowledge I came across John Bogdanavich again. (I had forgotten that he uses three veneers) He is however using a pretty simple classi...

I put up a pic of my lathe based drum sander some time ago but during my current build I realised it is a really good tool for creating the scooped side of the head block for a cutaway sided model. You can do it at the front of the lathe as the block is fully supported by the table and with careful ...

I am using an Icicle pre amp with the Shure mic which provides the USB link to the PC. It works fine, was fairly cheap and I have had no trouble with the (Dell desktop) PC recognizing it. You do have to play with levels a bit and learn how to drive your spectrum analysis software properly. I use VA ...

Allen yes thanks I am leaning towards masking just inside the bridge outline then scribing round it and removing the last mm or so as per John Parchem's suggestion. Allan thanks for taking the trouble to share your experience. Those are things I am trying to implement - particularly the speed and ov...

Thanks everyone, there are some great ideas there. I realise it is a question without a straightforward answer, but I am trying to tease out the pros and cons. As a really quite poor sprayer (of nitro) I have to do a lot of sanding and I can see that having that obstruction in the middle of the soun...

I am finish sanding a build - slightly finicky but satisfying because it means you are nearly there. And I keep seeing pictures on this forum and others of the bridge glueing area masked off. Now I know that G and G don't do this but I also know that the process of removing the finish is fraught wit...

I think the other way to fix problem 1) is to change the permissions on the file that VA writes back to: By setting the security on the folder in which VA sits, in the case of Win 8 C:programfiles/VA2011, in Win7 C:programfiles(x86)/VA2011 such that users had write access as well as system and admin...

+1 for AP. I love the large display. And being free is quite nice.

It has a quirk that when first loaded it has a rather poor display. It is only when you expand the window that you get the proper meter display. At least this is what I have found with the version I run on a win 7 or 8 machine.

I notice that the actual tool he's using is pretty cheap. However I have no feel for what the compressor required would cost and the tooling.

Are air tools worth thinking about in more general terms...?

Thanks Martin As I said in the post I don't think it is a crack ( the ring shake that you mentioned) It just looks like a discoloration. I do try to avoid it when building necks if only because it looks like a fault in the final product. Perhaps you guys don't use Cedrela too much given your choice ...

I quite often find this sort of discoloration in neck blanks in Cedrela. Close examination shows they are not cracks even though they look like it. It is some sort of discontinuity and a darker colour. Do people think this is a problem with the timber? Is it a weakness or just cosmetic?

Thanks guys I shall give it a go.

56 I am interested in how you are using CA glue. Do you cover the two surfaces with masking tape then use the CA to glue these together?

I ask because some double sided tape does indeed leave a lot of residue for clean up so if there is a better way...

I was glueing the ladder bracing to a back today when this little niggle that has been around in the brain came back. I have kept the RH down for a few days as per what every serious maker says. However. If you are using a water based glue such as Titebond, as soon as that liquid hits the great wide...

Martin you're dead right. Proper curved laminations, and you can be sure it has the right main resonant frequency!

It now has a falcate braced guitar proudly displayed on it.

In terms of a software tuner I use AP Tuner on Windows which is free. A nice big display makes it easy to use when messing with a guitar.

It has a small quirk in that it is only when you expand the window that it gives you a proper meter display.

Yes consciousness, concentration, focus, call it what you will, you simply can't just coast along. I would add that working to specific dimensions is also crucial. I have made a fair bit of furniture but although you need to be in the right area of overall size it generally doesn't matter about a fe...