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That's got to be weird working in 3 dimensions with changing radiuses on surfaces. I bet your first time was nerve racking.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Chris, a lot of the time I'm working on curves with a flat plane blade. You just tilt it different ways. Like putting a compound radius on a fretboard, and adding relief at the same time. Or smoothing out neck heels. It would have helped if I had something to look at when I made them! This one is just from 2 photos that don't show the arch at all.

But now that I'm a wood listener...

You see it. You can feel it. You can hear the high spots when you tap. Only in thicknessing do I ever measure anything. Setting up the outside recurve gets a lot of the fiddly stuff out of the way.

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Why be normal?

Inside the sides of the mandocello that I'm building.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

That looks awesome, Jay!

I’m done with mold building and time to bend sides tonight! This is the design with the zip bolts closure that I showed at the roundtable a couple months ago.



Brad


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Here is an add-on for the mold to bring it to the height of the blocks during glue up. This uses the pins and hole liners I showed at the roundtable recently.









Here’s a demo:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-G9g3RO ... FwdGp5NnJ5

Brad


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I like that! I may switch mine to this configuration.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I can't remember if I've ever mentioned this one.... About 5 years ago I bought an Eddie Finn 8 string uke. I know what you're saying, "PILE! You hate ukes!". Yes, I do - but I bought this one for a reason. The nut is 1 3/4" wide, not a little toothpick. And I converted it to a mandola. The scale is 17", just right for a tenor mandola, and with the wider neck I can easily play it. A lot of people told me it wouldn't hold steel strings - too much pressure. I knew better. It's been loaned out to family and friends in the last 5 years, and finally came back to me. It was drying out a bit, but I took care of the fret ends... and yes, the wings of the bridge were starting to lift. Easy fix for both. Decided to add a mandolin tailpiece to move the tension to the tailblock, and since the cheap 4 on a plate tuners weren't staying in tune, I ordered some nice Gotoh uke tuners - singles, with adjustable length posts. WHY? Because it's a slotted peghead. BEHOLD! Fresh strings, solid tuning machines a shiny tailpiece. It's SWEET. Would I kid you?

https://imgur.com/a/MHWiweD

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Working on the double sides. Fingers crossed!









Brad


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Feels a little like cheating….









Brad


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Just finished building a "knock down" spray booth for spraying water based Crystalac Britetone. It can be easily disassembled by unclipping the 4 bedframe brackets for headboards and footboard. The dimensions are 48" Tall/20" deep/24" wide with a 16” x 20” 8 Merv furnace filter. The box at the back is fit to the opening with an 8-inch duct that connects to flexible hose with a 1000 CFM exhaust fan that will draw the overspray out of my tiny garage.

Here is what is close to being ready to be finished.

Most expensive guitar I've ever had in my shop for work. This one will not stay in my shop overnight!
I may even sleep with it...

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Use a modified JJ method for cutting the tenon and cheeks, my first.
I like it.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

A few shots of making solid mahogany lining.

https://youtube.com/shorts/QFbk9lub2n8? ... HtDDw_leiy


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Great video Brad!
Did you make the paper roll dispenser?
I need to get/ make one! THey are kind of pricey to buy.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

We got it from a school supply company locally I believe. My wife is a teacher, they know where to buy all the art supplies.

Here is a short video of plate prep before bracing. Finally getting to put an instrument through the paces of a complete(ish) build system.

https://youtube.com/shorts/3od1kxDIeVQ? ... nsbHQnsznc


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I have a couple ready to go to the store. The Rosewood is my first with a Cedar top. Jim Olson gave me three back in 2020 (they had micro defects he said he couldn’t put on an 40K guitar )and I finally got around to using one. I thicknessed it to the same deflection I use for spruce.
It is a double side with a Maple inner.

As I am a few months shy of 80 I don’t trust my hearing that much anymore but the Cedar has gotten good reviews from a couple of pros. The Maple has a rosewood inner side. That has been a good combo with Maple.

These are 90 and 91. I hope to hit 100 before I am unable to build anymore. I am optimistic.

IMG_9353 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

IMG_9354 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Beautiful guitars. Guess you will have to lower the price to 30K. I'm rooting for #100!

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Lovely, Terry!

Here is how the lining turned out. Russian nesting dolls!

https://youtube.com/shorts/oNU_v8xZQcI? ... qb-RCUY92Q

Brad


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A special congratulations to you Terry for approaching 100 guitars. That's quite an accomplishment and I never made it that far stopping at 54 1/2. Your guitars are excellent too as indicated by the fact that I never saw one Congratulations my friend!!!

This is a classical guitar that I built in 1978. It has been sitting in a cabinet for several decades because the action was too high. The neck was joined as a butt joint with a 1/8" thick maple spline. I decided to get it repaired which necessitated a bolt-on neck conversion. One new thing I tried was Master Shield by Glu-Boost to protect the sides during the cut. Also used a very thin Japanese flush cut saw. Pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Finished up a simple rosette with a maple ring and maple soundhole binding.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Building a 12 string with a Brazilian rosewood neck…



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Ooh, that's nice. I used to have a PRS that had a Brazilian rosewood neck and fretboard and it was a fantastic neck. PRS left it unfinished which I liked a lot. Also, the smell when opening the case was amazing.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

That's actually a great idea. I might have to try that.