Official Luthiers Forum!

Being an Aussie one become accustom to a certain amount of isolation from the rest of the world. Being from Perth in Western Australian (the most isolated capitol city on earth) is doubly insulating. When you’re on an island this big, you just can't help but miss out on a few things.

This situation can have both positives and a negatives, depending on exactly what it is you’re missing out on. For example, the jackass craze never did really take off here and Yoko Ono has never toured either But a big negative is the limited network and lack of resources available to luthiers.

I really do mean it when I say that the OLF and forums of the kind have made the dream of building your own instrument a reality for a lot of us from down under. The information so freely given to us here, allows us to eat the meat and spit out the bones so to speak when faced with the logistical challenges thrown at us by our location.

For example, when we buy wood, we must pay shipping cost that force us to basically pay for 3 sets to get 2, that coupled with only getting 70c in the US$ makes the equation more along the lines of buying 3 sets, to get 1 1/2 sets.

At those prices, we just cannot afford to be screwed over, the OLF and a few other lutherie based forums give us the opportunity to develop relationships with quality vendors ensuring that we at least get what we pay for.

Same deal with tools and other products. A lot of lutherie specific tools are simply not available in Australia. Not only does the information available to us here at the OLF make us aware of tools and products out there making the job easier, we can also use the information posted by experienced luthiers who have actually used it to assess for ourselves wether or not that item is right for us before spending what quite often amounts to more than the purchase price of the item just to ship it here.

The recent group buys organised buys John Watkins and Shane Neifer are a perfect example of how much this group can help us fellows from “down there tomorrow”

And of course there is the most valued and treasured resource of all here at the OLF, the friendship, advice, and exchange of ideas that are so freely given by this group as a whole. It far out weighs all of the other benefits and is irreplaceable. This gift not only makes the whole venture viable for us with so many cost saving jigs for this, and work arounds for that, the tips and advice also helps us to avoid ruining our expensive and hard won tonewoods, or worse still, just giving up the game altogether in frustration.

Yep, it’s just gotta be said, thanks Lance, Bruce and the rest of the guys doing the moderator shuffle. And on behalf everyone now and in the future who visits this forum from Australia in search of kindred lutherical spirits, thanks to all the rest of you OLFers, you guys make the process fun and interesting, more importantly, you make us feel welcome.

Cheers all

Kim

Well said!
We all greatly benefit from everyone else here, and it gives us all a greater appreciation for what our "mates" down under have to deal with. The only advantage I can think of is that you have access to woods there that we don't have as much of here, but it sounds like it's hard to get even those there.
Thanks for sharing that...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Thanks for the insight. We know you gotta love it as much as we do to overcome the obstacles that face you, maybe you love it more.

Lance and Brock are the moderators. I'm simply an OLF Forumite.

I did once suggest that Lance change the name to the Official International Luthiers Forum. And even though the name didn't change, that has occurred, we have a true international flavor. First the Canadians, then the UK folks, and now the Aussie contingent and who can forget Luigi in Italia?

I never met an Aussie I didn't like!

Bruce don't forget we have Arnt in Norway and Mattia in the Netherlands, there is also Jeff in Brazil and I think we have someone from Israel too. This truly is an international forum.

BTW where's that FRAPPR link?JBreault38740.5577546296

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Right HERE

Kim, thanks for the kind words about the OLF. It has certainly grow over the last 3 years! Im glad its helping you guys too!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Thanks for sharing this Kim, makes me appreciate this group of fellows and the OLF even more, i'm new in lutherie but hey bro. if i can be of any help or support to any aussie friend, you can count on me, i'm sure i won't be the only one to put my shoulder to the wheel.

Great to have people like you

Kindest regards

Serge

Thanks Kim, we have about the same problems here in sweden. For me this and forums like this has been a huge source of information and tips.

Although my posts here are quite sparse, i always read with great fascination!

Thanks guys.

Kim, well said, each one of us adds to the culture of this forum and I agree that it is truly a community of like minded friends. Thanks for reminding us of that!

Shane

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Canada

I lost my map somewhere along the way. Now it would need to be a world map with dots anyway. Visuals are good.

Kim,

It's especially advantageous to have you here, 'cause, as I've learned from watching the Australian Open, you folks are around 16 hours ahead of us here in the Eastern U.S. time zone. We can always check with you to find out what's happening tomorrow! And, since you live in the future, we can defer to your advanced knowledge!

Kim pretty much said it all, I don't think I would have started at all if I didn't have access to online forums, though, as the OLF has grown I've particpated less and less in those other forums. Being able to take part in group buys and to take advantage of specials has been great. There are some local vendors here where we can buy tonewood but the mark-up is so high (eg; $AU160 for one EIR B&S set) it's always cheaper to buy stuff from our OLF sponsors who we can trust not to sell us rubish.

Thanks guys

I am also very very grateful to Lance , Brock and all the OLFer's within
There is no way I could have built my first without the generous help of you guys. Kim has said it all, and thanks Kim, for doing so !
On top of our poor exchange rate and shipping costs , we are also slugged with our local G.S.T. tax on imports.
A good example would be my recent purchase of Robbie O'Brien's finishing video. $29.95 in U.S.A. I had to fork out $45. (curse )
Us, living in the future, may be handy Carlton ! Maybe we can all make some $$$ out of this !

My Kindest regards to you all

   KiwiCraig

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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We also have builders from Norway and Sweden, and Arkansas.

Ronold man38740.9410300926

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Yes, I am also very grateful for the effort made by a few individuals to make this type of online communities happen. I consider you guys my friends and in a way members of an extended family that I would be lost without. Guitar makers up here are few and far between.

By the way, where are all the Germans? There are obviously many great luthiers among them, but I have yet to see one post here or elsewhere in similar forums…?
Arnt38741.2659143519

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

The Germans, French, even Spanish seem quite conspicuously absent. There are a couple of Dutch folk who post stuff, but not many (and the dutch forum I visit is dinky. Tiny.) I'm almost surprised there are more Italians around than Germans, considering they're not the nation with the best reputation for foreign language skills (I say this as a half-Italian who's lived in Germany, before anyone jumps on me).

Mattia,

Which half of you is Italian then? Top, bottom or "passionate"

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=Dave White] Mattia,

Which half of you is Italian then? Top, bottom or "passionate" [/QUOTE]

I'll take the fifth. Let's just say it's the bit with the good taste in foods