Official Luthiers Forum!

If I get a chance I'll some shots of some old Gibsons and Martins. But here are some shots of the setup I used.

First I took a 13 watt fluorescence bulb and carefully cut the end off with a hack saw. Then I took an old electrical chord that I had and soldered the wires to the 13 watt bulb and wrapped the end with white electrical tape. A 6500 Kelvin temperature is close to natural sun light and is best to use IMHO, but anything would work. I would not use a regular light bulb because they just get too hot in my opinion. A LED light would have been great to use to keep heat to a minimum, but I didn't have one bright enough on hand.

Then I took some scrap foam rubber that I had laying around (yeah, I keep everything). It had to be thick enough to stay in the sound hole AND hold the bulb firmly. I cut an "x" through the center with a razor blade and then cut out an undersized pocket through about half of the foam to hold the bulb.

Here are some shots of it:






Notice how I run the wire out and along the fretboard to minimize its interference in the picture.


Here is the rule used for scale. As previously stated it is exactly 1/2" wide and 6" long with no extra steel on the end. When I blow up a picture I can read the numbers on the sale most of the time. Even if I can't it is still a know scale. The blue tape is 3/4" wide.


I hope this helps someone. Let me know your improvements.

Here's the link to Part 1: viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=33657&p=443250#p443250

Ed