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My guitar was already coming apart at the seams so I had to take the back off for access, and that allowed me to scrape and sand the inside to get it as clean as possible.

I am not sure that rice would be aggressive enough to clean up your guitar. I would suggest something more abrasive like coarse sand, or even crushed rock. We use a lot of weathered granite around here for landscaping and it seems to have very sharp granules. Just make sure that whatever you use is good and dry.

I have never really measured its thickness but it's pretty thin. I sand that back then French Polish. I like to build up the shellac probably thicker than most to at least try and get the most protection from this already delicate finish. I definitely do more on the backs and sides too.

Thanks Barry, appreciate it.


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It's gotten pretty cold here in the mountains. Got another 5 or 6 inches of snow--nothing like what they're getting up north! But in my shop today, it's heater active and messing with my CNC laser for making labels...

David you got more then us up here in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. We got maybe 2 inches but that was piled on last weeks 8 or so inches which had melted down some. Being a Native New Englander I kind of wish I was up there. I remember the blizzard of '78 I think it was. I was only a child but we built a network of igloos around the house

Now I enjoy a good snow storm because I can shovel a path from the house to my shop and have an excuse to spend a full day inside.

My shipment goes out tomorrow of amp badges and a clock for my studio.

The large "Heshtone" is going on the Marshall clone I built and two more smaller badges like the one of the clock will go on the two 50's tweed amps I built. Excited to get this stuff and install it.

This stuff and much more creative and cool stuff for your amps, studios, homes on a guitar theme is available from a company called Droplight.

I was in Vermont at Charles Fox's school when that 78 blizzard hit. The snow was over the top of the yurts, and we tunneled from the yurts to the shop. Pretty big time actually!

We got about 4 or 5 extra inches on top of the 15 or so we got last week. There was still about a foot on the ground before this latest round, but the streets were clear. Mainly, it's been cold. I've been getting in a lot of quality shop time in between shoveling snow.

Dave

I am having some difficulty making an esthetic decision. check the 3 options I am considering and give me your opinions. The satinwood turns fairly 'goldish' The binding is a deep blue celluloid.

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Mike McNerney

for some reason I can't add sw op3 which is satinwood headplate and blue celluloid logo and dots which you can just see on the AB FB?

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Mike McNerney

Mike the pic has to be under 200K which is hard to do these days and that may be why it won't let you add it.

10th attempthttps://www.luthiersforum.com/fo ... 1&t=54593#

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Mike McNerney

I put the strings on for the first time on this new design octave mandolin. The setup is done and guess what I've been doing since then this afternoon.

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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

neck reset on 8 month Martin reglued back cross grain that was falling out

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Just finished regluing three loose back braces, a refret, new nut, saddle and a new pickguard for a fella. He told me that after over 1000 gigs, his jumbo had earned him enough money that it was time to put a little of it back into looking after her.




The back braces had been previously repaired by someone who left a whole heap of glue everywhere except under the braces. Cleaning it all up so I could get started took longer than fixing the braces themselves.

I always expect a tonal improvement when I pitch a plastic saddle and replace it with bone but this is by far the most dramatic tonal improvement I’ve encountered. I was so surprised that I went and fished the old saddle out of the trash and swapped it back in just to check my ears weren’t deceiving me. A totally different instrument, both acoustically and amplified. With the plastic saddle it was one of the puniest jumbos I’d ever heard. With bone it’s as good as any I’ve encountered.

Yesterday I learnt not to work when upset.
Adjusted radius of cut but forgot to re-tighten the locking knobs on my W-C jig before cutting.
Oh well, wasn't so sure about this Sitka top anyway, bit on the heavy side at 0.46 S.G., although it was extremely stiff.

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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.

I like this one best it's subtile and frames the entire guitar in a similar look. The blue is cool too but I would want to see it elsewhere too to do that ole repetition of shape and design thing that we humans seem to be comforted by.

You could still do some contrast with the tuner knobs perhaps black or a tone wood that matches or contrasts.

Colin, I’ve saved a top with a similar issue (bit came loose) by inlaying a new center section. The rosette covers the join. Sounds like you may be leaning towards a new top though.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.



This is a Carpathian spruce that somebody with my inexperience has no business working with. That's why I love finding those $20 "student grade" tops and orphaned backs and sides to take all my inexperience and angst and stupidity out upon.

As for me, in another thread I outed myself as a perpetual novice - which is my way of saying that years of procrastination and life getting in the way (i.e. my kids fraying my nerves to the breaking point.) I should have a LOT more builds under my belt but I don't. Number 2 has literally taken a decade and Number 1 was completed so long ago that I noticed that the French polish needs touching up. I'm currently in the process of trying to find the right grit to sand out some pretty nasty scratches. I'm thinking I'm going to have to make some small project (like a jewelry box or a wine rack for my wife) to practice on instead.



I really can't do much more on Number 2 though. After putting the frets on in October I put it to bed for winter because I'm too much of a bear. I'm looking forward to the day in spring when I can roll my portable workbench out into the driveway so that I work under warm sunlight and not worry about burning my house down.



This is typically the time of year when the whole house humidifier that I put on my furnace struggles to keep the house above 30% RH so everything guitar-shaped lives in a case with dampits and sponges and I shift focus to jig making. This year's project is my first attempt at a Fox bending machine - which again is something that I should have done long long ago since I somewhere sometime years ago somebody donated a copy of the old LMI plans (the ones that use light bulbs as the heating source.)

Yes Steve, started work on a Torrified Sitka top already (it's for me), but I'm not throwing this on the bonfire yet, thanks for the excellent suggestion.
Tap tone's too nice and I think it will make a nice Celtiic strummer/Bluegrass top. Rings more like nice Adi than Sitka.

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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.

I thought it would be fun to have a lap steel to play while laying back in the Lazy Boy, so I started a Weissenborn. I'm using ALS (Australian Luth...) plans and it just seems like there ought to be some kind of bracing near the "hollow" neck, but I suppose they know what it's supposed to be so that's how it's getting built

Just FYI, here's the one where the bit slipped and I put in a new middle section. I didn’t have another piece of torrefied spruce with a good grain match but even with the mismatched grain it looks fine. In fact I had to go looking to remember which guitar it was on - ha.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I you have one of those tops with the secondary internal rosette. Those are fancy even if they do get covered up by a soundhole reinforcement ring sometimes.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I have a large repair project on my bench. A few friends are helping me.

I'll post a photo in a later message.

Actually, a friend of mine that frequents facebook sent me this photo.

Looks like you aren't suffering from a staffing shortage where you are. I'm down to just three these days.

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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