Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I have received lots of very complimentary emails since the books have been out (thanks everyone who took the time to write, your thoughts are really appreciated) and now and again comes one from someone who's "been there, done that". Marc runs an overseas company making top shelf guitars. Here's wh...

Clancy wrote:Oh, and someone who tried it out has asked for one, so it's already creating sales.
Noice one.

Noice one indeed!

Well done Craig, and thanks for posting this.

I did oil the bridge with fretboard oil (after 24 hour of glue drying time). I oiled a bridge once, with fretboard oil, the Dunlop stuff (Dunlop 02 Fretboard Deep Conditioner oil), probably a few months after I'd glued the bridge on. A while later, hard to say exactly when, but it's still getting w...

The glue has not stuck to the rosewood at all. Hmmm. There seems to be a whitish residue on the bridge and some rosewood "splinters" on the guitar top. Really hard to tell what happened without seeing it in the flesh. But one (of many) things that can go wrong is if you masked the bridge area with ...

Acoustics and acoustic/electrics are very different beasts, though most of the large makers would like you to believe otherwise (or haven't figured it out themselves). Check out a Maton 808, which is really a solid-body in disguise!

Paul B wrote:Um, don't want to offend, but have you checked that you haven't got the blade (is it an iron on a spokeshave?) in upside down? I only ask because at one time I might or might not have done something similar

Ah, that would be the high angle, bevel up, spokeshave. I have one like that.

slowlearner wrote:actually the bed is rounded. is this wrong?

If the bed is rounded, seriously wrong. If the sole is rounded, that's OK. Some come flat, some come rounded, depending on what you want to use them for. I use both at different stages of neck shaping.

Could be many things, but take it apart and check that everything fits: bed is flat, blade is flat, blade sits flat on the bed, cap iron has its leading edge sat full width on the lowest part of the blade (adjust the cap iron screw if necessary, file/hone the cap iron leading edge straight), blade i...

For me, the main idea behind the top and bottom bearings was so that I could (largely) avoid climb cuts. Adjust the cutter height and flip the job.

Sometimes, it's hard to avoid the climb cut, like on headstocks. But the piece is bigger, heavier and you can keep your pinkies well out of the way.

As Martin said. And as Bob said, be very, very careful when doing any pattern routing on a table router. I always trim as close to size as possible with a bandsaw and then clean up with the router. You can do the same sort of thing with a 1/2" diameter cutter (1/4" shaft) which isn't quite so intimi...

I use the 806-691-11 cutter shown here with a bearing on the shaft as well. That means I can always rout "down hill" on the grain by flipping the work piece and adjusting the bit height so the pattern runs on the other bearing. The shear cut gives a smoother cut than a straight cut one.

There's a really good thread on wood seasoning/baking/sorption hysteresis etc. here. It's long and you also need to follow the links, but heaps of great stuff.

Hi Paul, I hope I'm answering your question here; if not, please re-state it and I'll have another go. Let's assume you're doing the nut-on-a-ledge thing, which makes it easier for me to explain, because that's what I normally do. The body edge of the nut ledge (effectively the end of the fretboard)...

Just for clarity, the modification that Dom illustrates here is the same as I was talking about here . After the differences had been noted, I revised the modal tuning course notes. Not quite so easy to revise the pages in the book... The spurious results that Excel throws up occasionally are still ...

As per Martin's reply, above. A few more things to think about though: 1) Once above about 16" fretboard radius, the difference between compound (based on conical sections and string spreads) and cylindrical is generally smaller than the building tolerance that most people can achieve 2) The conical...

I've assisted a good few other people in getting their spreadsheets to work, using the equations as per the book. Typically, Elong comes out at 11.90GPa and the thickness at 2.71mm, which is close enough to the answers in the book and different for the reasons given higher up in the thread and insuf...

nnickusa wrote:As for Pizza, Mate, if you're in the Byron area, come by Your Italian Kitchen and I'll make you a real Italian pizza...

Invitation very gratefully accepted. I'll have to find an excuse for getting up there. Hard to beat a good pizza...

kiwigeo wrote:My plan for the table is to give it a few coats of 1lb cut shellac.....any better ideas?

If you're serious, a couple of coats of epoxy followed by a couple of coats of PU. (that's what I used on my dishes - never regretted that).


If you're REALLY serious, Formica or Laminex for the top.

nnickusa wrote:No offense to the engineers here, but I don't think being an "engineer" is going to allow you to make a good guitar.

!!!

Steady, there, Nick. That's called having your pizza and eating it, where I come from.

Everybody (doesn't really matter what sphere) is looking for enlightenment. To many of those people, faith is as strong a persuader as fact. Often, facts are just too, well, factual; whilst faith retains the romance. These people are easy to exploit, if you're so inclined. (Sorry, just waiting for t...

That's pretty right Craig. It's hard to explain how it all works without writing a book! Just to confuse you further, the height of the peaks is relative to what your tap hammer is made of, and how hard you hit it! ...and where you place the mic. These were all uncontrolled taps and I wasn't worryin...

Trev if you still have those wrinkled veneers, try spraying them with veneer softener like super soft 2 and ironing them flat the next day and once flat clamp them that way for a while and they can come good. This won't help with cracks and voids but it can salvage some pretty doubtful looking slic...

trevtheshed wrote:Two options: Aquadhere (white PVC that sets clear)...

What a difference a letter makes! That should have been PVA, of course!

Two options: Aquadhere (white PVC that sets clear) and use the ES method, or use transfer adhesive (LMII) and the "float-on" method. Either way, everything needs to be really clean.

Resaw close to required thickness and it will dry out quick smart..you'll probably need to keep it stickered to keep it flat but then you can run a low speed fan near by to really push it along. That usually works with "straight" wood, for sure. But I've had a lot of trouble when I've tried that wi...