Official Luthiers Forum!

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I always put random pencil lines inside my builds to to confuse the curious [/QUOTE]

Ahh Yes Dave ! I haven't forgotten . A great tip .   

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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[QUOTE=Joel] A friend of mine once told me that dancing around your guitar by the light of a full moon in nothing but a silver boob tube and fishnet stockings would improve the sound of the guitar by mythic proportions.[/QUOTE]

This is ridiculous nonsense. To attempt such a ritual without the aid of high heels, suspenders and a Carmen Miranda Fruit Hat would be a complete and utter waste of time.

Some people have no idea

Cheers

Kim

Yep, There's nothing like a Carmen Miranda fruit hat! Some great info here guys!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

And to think I was going to post something _serious_ on this thread......

Oh well, here goes.

It's likely that most of the losses in the various air resonances are 'surface' losses, having to do with the tranfer of energy from the air to the material of the box. It's concievable that this would change depending on whether the surface was rough or smooth, but then there's the matter of scale. Air molecules are pretty small, after all, and what looks slick to you might look like a plowed field to them. As usual, somebody need to do some real experiments.

I re-topped a 70s Martin once, and it looked as though they'd smoothed the inside of that top with a garden rake. That roughness, I'm convinced, contributed to the poor glue bond that allowed the neck to shift in and ruin the top. I don't suppose it contributed to the tone, either.

Well as I am building my cittern in my kitchen, I'll just adhere some fish fingers and boiled carrots to the braced side of my guitar top, and see how that contributes to the tone!!

[QUOTE=Howard Klepper] Owner was furious; said those dust bunnies went back to pre-war.[/QUOTE]
Yeah...that's the ticket! Pre-war dust--tone gold! It's gonna show up on Ebay now.

Chris, this is just one of those things that will probably never be proven one way or the other. If you were apprenticing with him, that's the way you'd do it, and by golly, that'd be the right way! Frankly, you can't go wrong by following a master builder's methods, as long as you incorporate all the other details of his style, too. That's the rub, isn't it? There aren't many (or any) traditional ten-year apprenticeships any more where you can soak up all the master's knowledge and emerge as a master builder yourself. We're all pretty much on our own, so when you come up against a question like this, asking others is a good move, but ultimately you've just gotta make a choice and go with it. Personally, clean and smooth seems right to me, and that's the way I'll do it. I'm just a beginner, though, so take that with a few grains of salt!

I just re-looked at the article, Larrivee said that he sanded to 80 grit. Although not smooth I wouldn't really call that rough either.

Shane

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Canada

     I think that tone is more about resonance created by the combnation
of mass and its subsequent weight and the careful placement and
shaping of bracing to maximize its potential.....and much less about the
textures inside the guitar.

     I've heard...and am embarrassed in many cases to say that I've actually
spent time and energy researching many of the theories and myths
presented by builders for the past hundred years. Anything is worth some
research but only a few deserved any more attention than that.

    In my opinion, this is one of those. Sanding doesn't push dust into the
wood, by any means and if it did, it would inly be into to surface structure
of only a few thousands of and inch.

    Sand away, but there's no need to get carried away on the inside of
your guitars. Many builders have used quirky or cryptic little hooks like
this to pique the curiosity of other to a point of saying...."Maybe that's the
secret."

     Try it all if you need to, but some of it is obviously not worth the time.
This is ust my personal opinion and some of you may see fit to chase it all
as it comes.

Regards,
Kevin Gallagher/Omega Guitars

The inside back and sides of my 1980 Kohno 30 are finished lightly, but the very coarse sanding lines from a thickness sander still show through. It would have been a few minutes work to scrape these surfaces before assembling. I infer that Kohno at least thought that such smoothing was of no benefit, and maybe an improvement.

I think somebody suggested treating with oxidized methane as a secret process in a certain other thread.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

I happen to know for sure that you need urine in your hide glue... Not only will you have longer open time, but tone fairies really dig the smell... Honest! They've told as much, more than once...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Dude they told me only cougar dew.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

I also heard the Kentucky tone faerie like hide glue made with Lynchburg water and Hawaiian tone faerie want their home sanded with shark skin only but they could be just messin with me.

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

I sand and sand and sand some more. My latest build is sanded to 800 grit. It may not help the tone but it sure looks pretty

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

[QUOTE=Joe Beaver] I sand and sand and sand some more. My latest build is sanded to 800 grit. It may not help the tone but it sure looks pretty [/QUOTE]

Hmmmm, and here I am, slacking off and just going to 400...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

I am also a proponent of not sanding the interior excessively. I go to 120 grit max. The top comes off the sander at 120 and I sand my chiseled braces to 120. I think it is just common sense. I don't want to leave the inside "off the saw", but I am not about to waste my time prettifying and area that no one sees other than the builder. But if sanding to high grit numbers turns your crank -- go for it.