Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Well the Port Fairy Folk Festival is on next weekend and I've been slaving over a hot buffer to get these two ready.

The strings went on this afternoon but they still need a final detail before showing them.

First one is all Blackwood (including bindings) with a Brazilian Rosewood bridge and Honduran Rosewood bridge plate ( pluce Red Spruce Braces the only exotic species in it.

The sides are laminated (2 ply) and the bracing is X braced with lattice bracing in the lower bout. I didn't tuck the lower ends of the X brace in these ones.

Second one has a Huon Pine top with whitebait figure and the back and sides are Blackwood from the same billet as the other

They both sound fine to me both still a little tight. They'll open up over the next day with some playing and the Huon will sound great in around 6 months teh Blackwood one in a few years.

Anyhow thanks for looking here's the pics.

Wow!!! Those, two will turn some heads at the Festival.

Beautiful work there Bob.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

Alan

Nice work Bob. The Huon pine topped instrument lights my fire but I'd be equally as happy owning the blackwood one.

Really great work Bob , as beautiful as they both look , what I cant get over is the use of the Blackwood for the binding on the first one, It must be the sap wood? It looks great, I would think no one would ever guess it if you asked what it is .

That's what I'd call "make good use of beautiful wood"!
Too bad I won't be there at that festival . Thanks for sharing those pictures though.

Wow Bob !! Superb ! If they don't steal the show I'll eat my hat !

Your Binding and herringbone purfling on the Blackwood model was a perfect choice . Incredible bit of Blackwood too !!

The simplicity of the Huon pine model is also a class act. Beautiful work Bob

Beautiful guitars as always Bob. Well done.

Good to see you back in action, Bob, especially with such a lovely pair of instruments from my favourite fiddleback blackwood. Hope the Port Fairy folk love them! Ed,

Holly Moley Bob. They look great.

What do you think of Huon for a sound board? I've got some pieces here but am a bit uneasy on using it. It doesn't tap all that great.

Very nice Bob, I wish that I could be at port fairy to see them in the flesh .

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. I'm fairly pleased with how these ones turned out and they are reasonably easy for me to build as the old fingers don't cope too well with fret installations any more.

Allen - This is the second Huon Pine topped Weissy I've built and I think it sounds great. (for Weissenborns anyway) Tim Spittle stayed with me recently and he was surprised at the sound of the Huon one I had already built.

Mind you there is a lot of variation in Huon Pine and the stuff I've got is comparatively light and not too oily. If you look closely there is figure through it that looks like whitebait swimming up a river. I was told by Chris Searle that this type of wood comes from a plateau up behind Strahan and the wood from there is quite light in weight. I don't see any reason it wouldn't work for a steel string - don't think that a uke would drive it though.

Regards

I'm in Blackwood heaven! Great looking Weezy's Bob and the sapwood bindings look the dogs bollocks. Pretty figuring on the Huon too, the stuff I've seen was very bland & uninviting but this looks great. Don't need to sound good, looks alone make them a winner.

Very nice Bob. Some tasty looking Blackwood there. Pity I won't get to see them, the Port Fairy trip has had to be cancelled. I'm still hopping around on crutches.

Peter

Wow, nice work Bob.

So what finish are you using these days, O Mighty Leader? Looks nice and clear.

Still using Mirocat 3220 full gloss Paul.

Hi Bob - I've been mostly lurking and gleaning some great ideas and tips from the talented luthiers on this forum.

Your Weissenborns look fantastic and its the herringbone purfling one I'm attracted to.

I've reached an impasse on my first build (going very sloooowly) with the herringbone purfling installation. It's a Grellier 00 Lutz top Tassie blackwood back and sides. The binding and purfling channels are finally cut and cleaned up. The binding and purfling have been bent in the side bender but will need to be touched up on a hot pipe bender.

My question is do I glue up the herringbone purfling separately or together with the maple binding. Here is a photo of a dry test of the herringbone - it looks ready to glue up. I intend to use original Titebond painted on the channel and tape it down with fibre reinforced tape unless 3M blue auto tape is plenty strong enough. The body has been shellac-ed to reduce tearout and the tape ripping out fibres.

Note, I try and follow the G&G bible whenever I can which does say to glue BWB purfling and binding at the same time but there isn't anything on herringbone or similar.

Keep up the great work
Bernie

Couldn't wait for a reply!

I decided to glue in the herringbone purfling first and the next day after cleaning up the binding channel for any glue (very little) did the maple binding. The purfling turned out surprisingly well given the small number of gaps in the back. No fixes required. The maple binding installation turned out well too.

Now onto the neck tenon / mortise.



Bernie

Hi Bernie
Bob Connor, who used to be our fearless leader here at ANZLF, has retired from guitar making these days - and when we last heard was fully engaged with his whisky distillery

Your L-00 looks great, and very nicely turned out for a first build. The lutz and maple bindings look lovely with the herringbone. Very nice scheme. The main trick with using herringbone is to pre-bend it, but then it is very easy to install. It is not hard to do it at the same time as the binding - probably easier than trying to wrangle multiple strips of bwb at the same time as binding.

Thanks Mark for the update on Bob and your reply. I did find pre-bending worked a treat.

I would be like a kid in a lolly shop if I was making whisky! I'd better stick to making more than 1 guitar ...

Looks like I'm about 10-12 years behind the guitar making trend, most of the contributors have probably moved onto other interests. Maybe there will be a 2nd wave.

The headstock beckons to be clad front and back.

Bernie