Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hi OutbackJack, Thanks for the kind words. They are pretty cute and having made big ukes and little ukes I recon the 15" scale is the perfect uke scale. I have just started collecting materials for another batch and was disappointed to discover that Gotoh have discontinued the stealth tuner. I'm goi...

Howdee, Its been a bit quiet around here lately so I thought I’d post some pics of the batch of concert ukes I just finished. There is one made from dark figured Australian Blackwood, another from Mahogany, another from Cooba and Spruce and another from Lace Sheoak and Aust Cedar. The common specs a...

Hi Nigel, yes, I spray my bridges with rattle can satin. I spray and fully buff the soundboards without bothering to mask the bridge pad. I then route off the poly where the bridge will be glued down with a dremel in one of those stewmac bases. Seems to make a tidy result. I'm still new to all this ...

Hi Nigel, Yes, I buy the celluloid from ebay and the 020th fibre veneer sheet from RC tonewoods. I actually only do BW not BWB because I recon the white behind the tortoise shell brings out the colours better. I start by gluing full sheets of black and white fibre veneer sheet together with cyanoacr...

Hi Mark and Alan, thanks for the kind words. I didn't have any idea what sort of bracing was in the original dulcimer but I did some research into bracing patterns as used in the instrument that most resembles this structure which was a flat top mandolin. I found the Gilchrist page about the types o...

Hi, I have only ever made ukes but late last year I decided to try something different in 2020. I usually build in batches of 4 but couldn’t decide whether to make some dulcimers or weissenborns and eventually settled on a plan to make 2 of each. The dulcimer idea came from listening to Joni Mitchel...

Hi,
thanks to all who replied and helped me out with my questions . I ordered some gotoh minis from Japarts and will be fitting them to some 14mm headstocks soon.

cheers

Hi,
I just got a reply from the gotoh factory and they said 13 -16mm. I'm still interested in finding out if anybody has used them and that they thought of them.
cheers
Paul

Hi Rod, thanks for replying. I did find that drawing but wasn't sure exactly what the 22mm related to. Assuming the nut and washer is about the same thickness as the gotoh UPTL that I'm more familiar with (2.5mm) and that I want 6mm from the top of the nut to the centre of the string hole that would...

Hi, I'm thinking of fitting some Gotoh SGi510 mini tuners with standard tuning posts to some dulcimers I'm working on. I need to know what range of headstock thickness they are designed for which is a dimension that isn't on the gotoh data sheet. I contacted some overseas suppliers but they don't kn...

Hi John,
nice looking uke. Just out of interest what strings did you originally have fitted?
regards
Paul

Thanks Allen. I did check the oil sight glass the other and it hadn't used any oil. Since I corrected the problem with the wrong type of filter I haven,t seen any water droplets coming from the blow gun. I used a fair bit of air yesterday on the sander and what with warming up the hose in the sun ma...

Thanks Allan and Allen, I wrote everything below early this morning and have then spent most of the day trying to attach some pictures. I've done it before without problem but today when the little status green bar for uploading a picture gets to about 90% it turns into a little yellow triangle? I'v...

Hi, I've switched to polyurethane from previously spraying nitro and am experiencing problems with little craters all over the surface and am looking for some advice on a probable cause. The poly I settled on using is Northane made by Norglass which is an Aussie made two pack. I picked this because ...

Hi Nigel I found my fibre glass rod by tracking down the kite repair guy in town (Fremantle), he was also the guy that repaired kite surfing gear. I got enough 4mm to make 20 rods and he also had the little rubber feet that slipped on the ends. From memory it cost less than $100. I tested them on a ...

That’s another batch of pear shaped tenors completed. Three of them are cocobolo and mahogany and one is cooba and mahogany. Also, two of them are floating bridge and 2 of them are fixed bridge. The differences between this batch and the first batch of pear shaped tenors include: solid linings, 13 f...

Thanks Allen,
I'll be looking closely at your future post pictures but I can't imagine any room for improvement.

cheers


Paul

Hi Allen, I had the pleasure of playing this instrument yesterday. Beautiful and brilliant. Sounded great and the little touch of blue from the turquoise is a nice touch. You also take excellent photographs. I was hoping you could share a bit of information about how you get such good pictures - lig...

Hi Pat, Thanks for the interest. Boy do I wish I had taken a couple of pictures as I was doing it! You will have to make do with a re-enactment and use your imagination. To correct a detail from above, I just put my callipers on some of the brass sheet that I used and it was in fact 1.2mm so you sho...

Hi Jim and Mark I think small batch production and the economies of scale it offers is great right up until I have to get out the sandpaper. Favourite, umm - as happy as I am with the look of the exaggerated neck angle, floating bridge and tailpiece pair I think I'm happiest with the high G fixed br...

ad a couple more pics

I just finished a batch of pear shaped tenor ukes and I thought I‘d share some pictures. After making 24 long neck sopranos in all sorts of timbers and basically to the Grellier (Martin) drawings I wanted to design a ukulele from scratch. I love the look of instruments with tailpieces and floating b...

Hi Crafty Fox, I got it from J H Wilberforce in Malaga. I forgot how expensive the ultraslow thinners is and I'll take back what I said about it being cheaper than Stylewood. 4 litres of 3220 gloss lacquer was about $65 and 4 litres of the 1242 ultraslow thinners was about the same as of August last...

Howdee, So I made the change from Wattyl Stylewood 95% to Miratone 3220 for my latest batch of soprano ukes and I thought I’d share my comparison of the products. In no particular order of importance- • They smell very different. Stylewood has (to my nose) the typical auto lacquer smell but the mira...

Hi Allen, I am in the market for a dehumidifier and a recommendation from a ANZLF member carries a lot of weight with me. What model do you use and where and how have you got it installed. I'm thinking of building a small (2mtr x 2mtr) room within my workshop out of cool room sheet just as a timber ...