Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hey all, I've haven't posted in a while, mostly because life has been interrupting my build schedule. I've been working on a twelve string on and off for a couple of years now. I had intended it to be complete about 15 months back but, well, life happened. It is an original body shape, which i desig...

Hi Jim,

Yep -- the faux turquoise is very easy to work. I didn't have any trouble getting it level with the top.

I'll probably try the real stone next time, but it is very likely to be more difficult to work than the plastic was.

--Paul

Hi all, This is number 7, a fourteen fret OOO with a very large cutaway. I was feeling very proud of it, until I had a glance and the Forster post. Has the man no shame? In any case, for all its flaws, this one plays like a dream. I actually got started on this addictive hobby because of a four-thou...

Thanks for the link Bill. That's what I was afraid of -- a failed joint. I'll glue up a test piece and see if it does the same thing.

--Paul

Hi all, On the current build, I was planning to do a more elaborate laminated neck than normal. It was/is going to be Walnut | white fiber | bloodwood | white fiber | walnut. I've seen similar examples on the forum here, and really like the look. But now that I've actually bought the fiberboard, I a...

The soundboard on my second guitar was also very thin. Right around 2mm over most of it, and very floppy: I had my calipers gapped incorrectly, and failed to double-check :oops: . I salvaged it by re-enforcing the soundhole area and putting an extra brace right behind the bridge patch. It worked out...

As Perry pointed out: not my cat. The image happened to match my mood on the day I was looking for an avatar. It's pretty good, but doesn't hold a candle to Lillian's .

--Paul

Hi, I think i understand almost all of that. But two sentences at the end have me puzzled: ----- rough the nut slots to .007 off the fret plane. Use a straight edge off the 1st fret to the saddle and make adjustments to a 2 3 action height. ----- I am unsure what it means to '.007 off the fret plane...

Thanks folks,


I'll keep doing what I'm doing, then, and forego the neck thingamajig. As a newby builder I get worried sometimes that I'm doing it wrong, and things are kinda working by accident.

Hi all, With five builds finished, I'm starting to pay attention to details that I either didn't bother with on the first few builds, or didn't even notice that they existed. Currently, I'm thinking about the initial fret leveling work on a new instrument. On the ones I've finished so far, I level t...

Hey Dave, Nice job! I especially like the bloodwood binding with the rosewood back/sides. I think it adds a bit of definition to the border areas that gets lost with a darker binding. Don't sweat the mistakes too much: Some of my errors have been sickening, and I've always found a way to turn it int...

Hi folks, It sounds good -- not as good as I'd like, but OK. The mids and trebles are very good, bright with a lot of overtones. But the bass is not as strong as I'd like. I suspect I didn't get the soundboard thinned enough. I'll spend more time on the tap tone on the next build :). The K&Ks are gr...

This is number five, made for a young man from church. He paid for the wood, I got to build a guitar, everyone wins :cl . The specs: Soundboard: Bearclaw sitka Back/Sides: EIR Neck: Port Orford cedar, oak center lam Fretboard: Madagascar Rosewood Binding: Bloodwood tuners: Gotoh 510s Pickups: K&K mi...

So, let me get this straight.... 1) I've been sanding all wrong. (BTW, I actually like sanding -- I find it calming in kind of a zen way) 2) Even if I do the sanding right, the grain should still be apparent, or I've messed up the finish work, and 3) Rub soundhole balloons in private. That about cov...

Wow, you guys really are math wizards! Comparing my current technique to the responses on this topic, I can see several things I've been doing wrong. Most notably: I never, ever sand cross-grain. Probably something my Dad taught me when I was 5 or something. I've never questioned that advice, but it...

Hi all, So far the finishes on my builds have ranged from dreadful to tolerably bad. Finding out about ZPoxy has helped tremendously on the backs and sides of the last couple of guitars, but my tops are still unacceptable. It seems that no matter how carefully I sand the spruce, I cannot get a smoot...

Thanks guys! I like the shape myself. I stole the ideas from other guitars and did my best to blend them. The lower bout and cutaway are straight off a Les Paul. The wide shoulders I stole from a Parker acoustic I tried at guitar center a few years back. I really liked the look. Too bad the guitar i...

Well, maybe not *completely* different. This is an experimental guitar I built to solve several problems I had with the OMs I've been building. First, they are just too darn loud to play while other folks in the house are watching the TV. Second, they feedback horribly on stage, even at very moderat...

HA!

I think I'll increase my chances of staying married and not suggest any of that.

--Paul

Godin, huh? I'd never actually heard one. I had a listen out on youtube to three, and they don't sound bad -- I could do worse :). But the ones I saw were solidbodies. That may not be a huge difference, as with 6mm sides and back, mine is sure to be a heavy sucker, but mine should be acoustically be...

Thanks of the replies. To answer the last question, it will be acoustic only. No humbuckers, nor anything in the body to attach them to :). Leaving the soundhole out should minimize or eliminate feedback when I play amplified. And (obviously) if I cared about the thing's volume I'd make it deeper th...

Hi folks. I'm planning an odd duck guitar, and I'm looking for advice from anyone who has done anything similar. The guitar has to solve two basic problems: 1) It has to be load enough to hear, but quiet enough so that the person sitting next to me can still concentrate on whatever plot the TV is pu...

I especially like the plans on vintage projects, where they describe X-bracing as fan-bracing, and tell us that guitars are not difficult to make. That hurts -- it is certainly hard for *me*.

--Paul

Happy Birthday Lillian!

Hey Todd -- I hand-rubbed the finish. 25 coats (and wasn't that fun...much easier than french polish, though). Tru Oil's only flaw that I can identify is that it really stinks up the house. Even with the door to my workshop closed, and the outer door open to vent the place, upstairs, the cats were t...