Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

And the final day of the intensive ... I arrived at the workshop, and took off the clamps. Here we are with an attached bridge: 240809 start Day 15.jpeg Shaping the heel cap to fit: 240809 shaping heel cap.jpeg Levelling the frets: 240809 fret levelling.jpeg Adding just a little french polish for pr...

Dave M wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 08, 2024 8:38 pm

Like this:

That looks great! Thanks for sharing - I'll keep that in mind for the future.

LOL...heel caps are a pain in the arse. I hate 'em I actually had to shape the heel cap a little differently to disguise a 'mistake', which made it just that bit more difficult. ... And then ... after all that hard work of shaping the cap, I accidentally then thicknessed it too much - still no idea...

Ok, today was the second last day. I didn't take as many pics today because I really had my head down trying to finish some bits off. Here's the guitar at the start of the day with a neck attached: 240808 start Day 14.jpeg Getting ready to level the fretboard: 240808 prep levelling.jpeg And the leve...

Looking good. The finishing schedule interests me. 10 spit coats before going in the aquacoat? Might try this myself. Ive been using Aquacoat on my last few builds but results haven't been that outstanding Those sealer coats were for preventing any discolourisation from the Aquacoat on the blackwoo...

So what did I get up to today? Here's how it looked when I started the day: 240807 Start Day 13.jpeg Getting ready for a little french polishing: 240807 wadding.jpeg After a little french polish: 240807 FP.jpeg A bit more neck shaping. Getting more of the curve in now with more facets: 240807 neck s...

Ok, I'm finally caught up. Here's the action from today (Day 12): Starting the day by sanding back the sealer coat: 240806 more sanding.jpeg And then a bunch of coats of grain filler, which needed level sanding in between. I won't bore you more more sanding pics of this step: 240806 grain filling.jp...

Ok, on to the home stretch! Here we are at Week 3 / Day 11 ... Starting off the day by finishing the neck fit: 240805 more neck fit.jpeg Putting in some little pins for locating the fingerboard: 240805 FB pin.jpeg Rough drawing of the fingerboard end shape: 240805 FB end.jpeg After a visit to the ba...

Time flies - here's the last day of the second week ... Getting some shellac mixed: 240802 shellac.jpeg Trimming the headstock veneer to the nut line: 240802 veneer to nut.jpeg Roughing in the heel: 240802 heel roughing.jpeg And here's the heel, further along: 240802 heel further along.jpeg And fina...

Here's the body with the binding glued in and now needing flush trimming. But an important question from this pic - which of these 3 tools is most important? :D 240801 start Day 9.jpeg Add a little dash of CA glue: 240801 CA.jpeg More mummification: 240801 more mummification.jpeg A close up of this ...

Ok, we're now just past the half-way mark. Here's how the guitar looked as Day 8 kicked off: 240731 start Day 8.jpeg Getting the purling ready: 240731 purfling.jpeg Flush cut top and back to sides: 240731 flush cut.jpeg Recess for the wedge cut out: 240731 wedge recess.jpeg Here's the wedge glued in...

Here's Day 7: Let's start with a pic of the Schaeller tuners I'll be using: 240730 tuners.jpeg I have to use these magnifiers these days a little more than I wish I needed! 240730 magnifiers.jpeg Back kerning glued on, and sitting upside down to help with glue runs: 240730 back kerfing.jpeg Cutting ...

So here's what it looked like as I started Day 6 / Week 2: 240729 body.jpeg 240729 back.jpeg 240729 top.jpeg Shaping the back braces with a jig for proper radius: 240729 back braces.jpeg Back braces nicely shaped: 240729 back braces shaped.jpeg Laser engraving marriage strip: 240729 laser.jpeg I set...

Mark McLean wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 04, 2024 9:26 pm

I'm impressed. It is looking good, and that much progress usually takes me about 6 months.

Thanks Mark. Usually my progress can be measured in years, not months ... but that's the beauty of an intensive with time set apart, and with a teacher who knows the processes really really well!

And here's the last day of the first week ... Starting with nicely bent sides: 240726 bent sides.jpeg Glueing in the kerfing: 240726 kerfing.jpeg Neck block mortise: 240726 mortise.jpeg Start of heel shaping: 240726 heel shape start.jpeg Planing the kerning flush: 240726 trim kerf.jpeg Gluing the si...

I arrived on the morning on Day 4 to find nicely glued up top braces: 240725 top braces on.jpeg I enjoyed using these two little planes for brace shaping: 240725 tiny planes.jpeg (I like this pic ... looks like a little snail slowly travelling along the top): 240725 snail.jpeg And more brace shaping...

And here's some of the third day ... More top thicknessing: 240724 more top thicknessing.jpeg Routing the truss rod channel: 240724 truss routing.jpeg Prepping the headstock veneer (definitely wanting to keep using the beautiful timber): 240724 headstock veneer.jpeg Marking out the top bracing: 2407...

Hi all, I thought I'd post my progress with a classical build that I'm doing with Toscano Guitars. I'm doing this over a 3-week intensive. Right now I'm near the end of Week 2, but I'll go back to the start and get caught up over coming days. First of all, I'll say that getting everything set up wit...

Hi Ben. I run weekly and intensive courses from my workshops in Hornsby (Sydney), and Port Stephens. Myself and my staff have instructed over 500x student guitars at these locations to date all to a very high quality. If you are specifically after an intensive course - i do these in 3week alotments...

kiwigeo wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:01 pm

Brisbane Guitar Making School. Run by one of our members Trent Paleili.

https://brisbaneguitarmakingschool.com.au/

I've had a look at the site, and that looks pretty good as well.

Dave M wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 20, 2024 4:36 am

Gerard Gilet runs courses.I guess it depends where you are in Oz.

Thanks. I have reached out to Gerard to check about workshop dates.

Thank you!

Hi everyone, If this query is answered in another post anywhere, please feel free to redirect me to that. But I'm curious please if hear if there any suggestions about reputable lutherie workshops running in Australia? Who is currently running classes or workshops that are generally well-regarded? I...

Yes, I’m planning on the same - ‘proper’ timbers instead of Masonite, neck with truss rod, master volume and tone, the adjustable Dano bridge rather than the one with a timber saddle. I may even depart even further and put in some Filtertrons instead of lipsticks, or one of each. I’m also considerin...

I've found some building info on other Dano guitars. Since it's just a laminated body, I'm going to use techniques from Dano in general, but copy the U2 shape. Should be easy enough by enlarging a pic big enough since I know the scale length. It doesn't need to be perfect anyway, because I'm aiming ...