Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

How could we see, all of those clamps got in the way!

I also liked the rosette. Keep posting the pictures, I love watching your process. What height bracing did you use for your falcate braces? As an OM I am assuming this is a 14 fret to the body. I need to work though the geometry to understand the amount to tilt the head stock to achieve the angle yo...

I also use paste wax. A little goes a long way. I refresh my molds every other time I use them.

I hope it is just a top stain. I learned that CA can wick into end grain in spruce and redwood and stain yellow or green. In my case the stain was about as deep as my unsealed channel.

I did not mask on the burst that I did. I am not very good masking and am never happy with the line I get. I built a custom scrapper with a notch just the size of the binding and used it to scrape the white bindings I had on a Les Paul type of guitar that I burst. I was very happy with the results. ...

Interesting post, I understand that altering the head stock resonance stopped the buzzing, did you ever figure out what was buzzing? I just wondered if the original resonance got some other component buzzing. I just racked down some string buzzing on my re-topped 8 string. In my case I was using the...

I remove it as part of the clean up process of removing the dissolved glue. I do not really do anything else to neutralize it other than my normal prep. I have never had any issues with it after it dried.

I use it to clean up glue around braces or linings. It works great. It jell constancy keeps it in place. I let it sit a few minutes and scrape it off.

The treble string on my first falcate classical with the top resonance about 180 the E sting sounds OK, actually really good up to the D. On the 8 string classical that is pitched at a little above 190 the treble is really strong. That guitar is really loud as well, although I am not sure it is as r...

I am also a relaxed builder, before making my first falcate classical I had made 3 Hauser 37 style guitars. I was able to use the falcate brace molds I made for my falcate SS on my classical. In terms of difference. The guitar has strong sonic features, the are loud, but they still turn on or have a...

I strung her up and she sounds pretty good. So far I am using the original nut and saddle unchanged. I need to take about a MM off of the saddle, to nail the action. I think my bridge slot was not quite as deep as the original bridge. I also need to take a bit off of the nut slots. I am going to wai...

Yes thanks for the correction; 249 for the back.

I did a tap test with the finish and the bridge on, although I know in a classical the extra stiffness can actually raise the resonance of the top I was surprised that it went up nearly 10 Hz. With this tap test I ended up with 203.6 Hz for T(1,1)2 up fro 194Hz; T(1,1)1 = 107Hz and T(1,1)3= 149Hz. I...

I am building a falcate nylon at the moment (only 6 strings I am afraid) so I am interested to look at how you executed it. I was not intending to use a bridge plate for a nylon string, but I know that some classicals are made with them, I presume for more cross-grain stability. What was your think...

A player that I know had a very damaged Hippner 8 string guitar. He had two accidents with it and had destroyed the lower bout of the top. He thought it a total loss so I asked him to bring it over. http://harvestmoonguitars.com/barry/barry%20(5).jpg I pulled it apart, all and all it looks very nice...

Dave the guitar looks great. Congratulations!

Before the bridge is put on there is not a lateral brace across the center of the top in the lower bout. So it will flatten. I put a radius on the back of the bridge, so that helps once it is glued on.

I have not noticed that. My guitars held the dome through the build process. I work in a climate controlled shop.

I do not have enough of my own data to say what is average but the Wood Database for red spruce says 435 kg/m^3 for density and 10.76 GPa for Elastic Modulus. This wood is less dense 408 kg/m^3 and a bit stiffer 11.21. I do not know what the pre cooked values are so I do not know what sort of change...

I got a Red spruce Torrified Top from Blues Creek Guitars. I plan on using it for a steel string. It does have an old dark look to it. I also did a 4-60 thickness calculation, and found that it tests as an above average plate for red spruce. Density not bad and stiffness looks goo as well. Here are ...

Jim are you applying the with a small brush, it really neat compared to mine. I been playing around with the 4 degree of freedom model, I changed the model so that it matched my last guitar as best I could. From It does not take that much more stiffness to get my previous 180 to 190, about 8% more t...

Thank you Dave! I am a couple of days away from bracing my next top. It looks like you can hit 190 when you get you bridge on and strung up. That is where I was hoping to land on my last one. I may go a tad higher than you as I will have an active back so there will be more coupling between the back...

Looking good!

When I looked at the picture with the Ibex ruler if the dark arrow was the correct mark for your scale length the bridge would be located such that the leading edge of the saddle on the #1 string would be on that mark. If set that way the bridge would be closer to the nut and you would be just perfe...

Pretty amazing work to build the mold. I will be interested to see the pictures of the layup for the cases.