Official Luthiers Forum!

Building a 12 string at present. An SJ of our own design and was glueing the braces on the soundboard.

So I marked out the top on Wednesday.

Dave comes into the shed Thursday sees the top marked out, glues the braces on. What teamwork !!

So Friday I set to work carving the braces when the Doh moment hits.

The guitarist who this guitar is for is LEFT-HANDED.

Yep, tone bars were on the wrong way.

We both on the floor laughing.

Here's the before and after shots




Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

Well, at least you caught on time....

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Hah! You're not the first, and won't be the last to do that. I bet its sound will be up to your standards if you go ahead and use it as it is.

Charge more for the innovation

I'm with Hesh, blame Dave.

What a great advantage you guys have over the rest of us Bob. The potential exist for you both to complete your entire lutherical career without ever having made one single mistake yourself. How cool is that!

Cheers

Kim

The best comment came from Dave.

And this can't be reproduced without the Welsh accent.

"We're both willies"

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] Bob not stupid at all my friend - this seems pretty easy to do. If I recall correctly someone else on the OLF did this a couple of years ago. It was interesting then because the general opinion was that it would not make much, if any difference.

If it were me I would blame Dave.....    And if Dave had posted this I would tell him to blame you.... [/QUOTE]

It may have been me...the guitar'll sound great!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

[QUOTE=Hesh1956] ........If I recall correctly someone else on the OLF did this a couple of years ago. It was interesting then because the general opinion was that it would not make much, if any difference......[/QUOTE] Is there anyone that can confirm this. I also suspect there wouldn't be a difference.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Your next opportunity to become a "willie" is the bridge and nut. Were I making this guitar, I'd make the bridge right now so that I wouldn't forget later. But that's me!

Thanks for posting, Bob...we all belong to the same club!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

I have done this....

but....

My understanding of guitar acoustics (slim as it is) is that it doesn't really matter. It's only in our mind that there is a 'treble' or a 'bass' side of the guitar top. The top is going to vibrate anyway - and the strings are close enough at the bridge that it really doesn't matter which way your tone bars go.

Maybe I'll try it (on purpose) some time.... would be an interesting experiment to build two mirror-braced guitars.

If it is for a customer I would strip off the tone bars and put them on the other way. Other's here are probably right in the it wouldn't affect the tone but lefty instruments are expected to run the other way. Stripping off a couple of braces and a "Magic tone enhancer" shouldn't take very long at all.

[QUOTE=Mike Mahar] If it is for a customer I would strip off the tone bars and put them on the other way. [/QUOTE]

Have a closer look at the pics above Mike

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

So it would appear that you already took my advice. I only looked at the top picture. Lazy me.

Question, Why three tone bars? I'm thinking of going to only one since the lower one doesn't seem to have much effect on the sound. At least you have to shave the heck out of them to get any change in a Chladni pattern.

Oops, I just noticed that this is a 12 string. That explains the 3 tone bars. (I think)

Yes Mike it's a 12 string and the top, although Adi, is not that stiff

Thats also one reason the PMTE, to stiffen thing up a bit at the back of the bridge.

Cheers

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Bob Connor
Geelong, Australia

my stupid moment not so long ago was to glue the neck block in the tail block position...
and lucky realised what i was doing before the glue started to grip..