Official Luthiers Forum!

OOPS, guess I was wrong on the BRW.  I don't know where it changes above 500.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I think it goes brazillian at 2000.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

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

ckpung, Please stop and think of all fun you could have sharing your stash. You would get a once in a life time chance to see how other builders use it. We could have a thread “What happened to ckpung’s wood”

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

[QUOTE=LaurieW][QUOTE=ckpung]

Hey,

You guys are really supportive, and that being what I notice about all luthiers and their willingness to share their knowledge and passion.

What does "Walnut" mean? 

[/QUOTE]

 

As far as I can tell, it is just a level that is driven by your number of posts, kind of like an experience meter for the forum.    I just went from Walnut to Mahogany a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't notice what my numbers were at the time.   I think they should have your number of builds posted with your name too, but that would be hard to track I suppose.....enough work associated with this free forum already!

Any plans for your first build?  Dread?Om? wood selection?

Laurie

 

 

[/QUOTE]

Hi everyone

Laurie, thanks for the info on Walnut! I should have figured it out myself but I'm really new to this forum and have just started to get aquainted with it's format, wealth of well detailed instructions,the sponsers and their super products and all of you.  I am quite impressed with everyone's acomplishments and making me feel welcome.

I will target OM's and I love playing them. I really don't think I will even think of doing this with intentions to sell anything as it has been a long overdue dream to build (for me and family/friends) There is a really huge uke market here may consider that if and when I get my skills up to par (duhhh)

So, will stick to OM's and probably will go with koa back and sides and some kind of spruce top and simple binding. I have bought so much tonewood throughout the last few years, If I don't start doing SOMETHING with it, it will be terimite food or listed on eBay!

 

Aloha

[QUOTE=Hesh1956]There is a bit of a tradition here on the OLF that when one has a substantial stash they spread it out on the floor and roll in it.....    Of course pictures of this act that you can post are greatly appreciated too.

I would agree with those that have advised you to build one at a time and I would add that what is important is to "complete" one at a time. With each guitar that I have built I spend a few months playing it, learning about what I did right and wrong, and noting what I would change next time. And the list can be substantial too. If I was to build and complete a batch at one time that entire batch, for better or worse, would be the same. This, to me, prior to having your chops down is risky.

I also agree that there are many operations that you can safely batch now and do the final tweaks, if any are needed, on a subsequent guitar.

And - Welcome to the OLF!! [/QUOTE]

Hesh,

 

You are "Da Man!" and your guitars are awesome! Also your tutorials could not be more appreciated as I have just scratched the surface of your past instructional resources as well as your latest creation. Hope I will reach #13

ckp

 

[QUOTE=WaddyT]Welcome to the OLF!  There are lots of us that are pretty new to all this.  I am building my first too, so I really don't have an opinion on what you should do.  I'd say it all depends on your confidence and skills.  Oh yeah, your knowledge of instrument construction techniques.  What ever you decide, you'll get all your questions answered here.
[/QUOTE]

CKP,
Welcome to the OLF! As a relative beginner, I'd say build one at a time for the first 2-3 instruments. Not necessarily because you want to spread out your mistakes, but mainly because your techniques will change dramatically when you first start(Mark Blanchard is giving you good advice).

You will be suprised at how steep the learning curve is, and you don't want it to affect many guitars. Also, if you can build a guitar, you can build a Uke. But voicing it is totally different. I just finished my first concert Uke, and I used many of the techniques I use on guitars. In fact, I'd suggest trying to build a little concert uke first just to get a feel for how do things. Just use a simple bolt on butt jointed neck, and things will go smooth. Things like thicknessing a top, installing the rosette, carving the neck will be much easier on a uke, and if you mess up, you are not out a lot of wood. Not only that, it won't take as long to finish Best of luck, and enjoy the process!
Tracy

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Waddy,

What stage are you at with your guitar? I have bought a couple of kits from John at Blues Creek and my intentions was to use it for reference as I make some components, just for something to compare with and match the blank pieces with raw stock that I have for bracing, neck components before and after shaping.

ckp

Welcome to the forum !

I thought I was the only one on here that was also a sawyer (home made hydraullic bandmill, Peterson 10" swinger). I just wish I had those kinds of tonewoods here in Florida!

Take your time on the first one and pay attention to details. The DVD set by Frank Finnochio is also a good set to buy and learn by. He goes into great details on each step, so it answers a lot of questions you may have along the way. Plan on building yourself a LOT of jigs along the way to make future builds easier.

I'll volunteer to help you get rid of some of that koa that is in your way

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Reguards,

Ken H

Crist, I didn't mean to ignore your question.  Forgot to check back on this thread.  I have been working on the neck and headstock.  Planning my design for the look on the classical headstock, etc.  I have also joined my back and top, but still have to get them to proper thickness.  I have also split out some brace stock for both larger braces and the fan braces.  I have been spending a lot of time sharpening tools, lapping planes, repairing things, making some jigs, making a drill press table, among other things.  This past weekend, I shaped the headstock and drilled the holes for tuners.  I still have to cut the slots and do some routing for the design I'm using.  In other words, I'm just getting started.

I spend a lot of time reading stuff here.  I have found no place that offers information in such abundance, and from people who really seem to care how my work turns out as much as I do.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Ckpung,

Welcome... To add to the woods you may run across in Hawaii, Mango is just starting to catch on and is a really nice wood with all of the splashes of color and grain. Koa is getting very expensive so you were right to hold onto any guitar quality Koa when you did.

Recently I got some wood from a dealer that said that he got it in Hawaii and called it pheasant wood. It is darker brown than walnut with the summer grain a lighter shade like coffee with cream. It is very dense and heavy and has a really good taptone. I have never seen it before but it is a wood you may keep a lookout for.

What is Lichee wood like? I like the fruit but have never seen the wood.

Good luck on guitar building...take it as it comes and learn from all of it.

ckpung:

Welcome to the OLF. I look forward to reading your posts. It's a great place to learn, and get to know others with this sickn, uh, passion.   

Bill

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Thanks Bill! It's soo bad, I can't sleep at night. I think learning is probably the most fun part of doing something like this. I used to get so excited about learning other woodworking related projects and once I got comfortable with the process (building/carving local wood products) , and started doing it for money (selling) it was not fun anymore, more like a job, Now I have a solid customer base and actually hope they don't order stuff so I can use what spare time I have to make guitars/ukes.

Shawn: Pheasant wood is not endemic to HI and the few trees I know of that were cut up were kind of "mistakes" when people felled these trees (thinking they were something else) that were planted at least 50 years ago. The tree itself looks like our typical monkey pod or shower tree. and will have subtle differences in the leaf structure. It is really a beautiful wood that I have seen local luthiers do fretboards as well as whole uke sized instruments out of. Lychee is a beautiful super wild grained, shimmering red orange wood of meduim density. It is used mostly for turning and slab oriented funiture due to it's unstable drying properties. The growing trees are rarely straight and seems to go from a straight stump to twisted side branches with in a few feet so the desireable stump material is relatively short and diameters can reach 3-4'. I have a huge pile of that to mill up and will send pics later. Mango: I think will reach a high demand status but with what was once plentiful, is being taken out for land clearing due to our growing developments and no replanting effort (as far as this state) It may end up reaching koa's elusive status in the future. Believe it or not, Koa is the 2nd most plentiful endemic tree in the state next to Ohia. The problem is that most of it is in State land and you are forbidden to take even the fallen/rotten pieces! Most of the available koa is from private lands, and State controlled salvage projects which have very slim pickins as you cannot harvest prime growth live trees and have to pick through the rubbish.

Waddy: Happy BDAY! (belated) I too have been gearing up for the last year and because of time constraints, try to buy most of the jigs molds, benders (mostly from John at Blues Creek) to give me a head start and have enough room in my shop for permanent stations. I have been driving my wife nuts (again) by having reasons to buy every luthiere tool known to mankind cause "I really need it" but have found out through the years that experiance/knowledge and just a few tools are all you need. But what the heck, he who dies with the most toys wins!

Hodges: Thanks for the tip on the DVD's and will check it out! I knew there was a few fellow sawyers in this bunch! I am fortunate to be in "tonewood heaven" and be a sawyer. I used to pass up logs (monkey pod and others) cause I thought they were not worth the time to cut up and now, just slap me as I see monkey pod tonewood sets that I never thought would be a desireable tonewood! Also have huge lacewood trees next to my shop that I will take out next year and that is another tonewood (I won't throw that one away) Will cut up a hundered year old avacado stump next month and who knows if it is a decent tonewood? Will make sure I take the time to quarter it!

 

Happy 4th everyone!

ckp   

I am late to this post but wanted to say a few things.

1. build one at a time to begin with. Learning voicing is a biggie in particular if you intend to sale your work. keep lots of notes religiously on every build. This note book is very important and will become the best tool in your shop.

2 don't sell your fist 10-15 instruments as a commodity. I you wish and have friends that will pay for unproven work then that is ok. Or donations to underprivileged players is great. Keep in mind the first reviews of your work are critical to your success as a commercial luthier. so you want a level of proficiency established before you start selling. There is a lot more to this than the joinery.

I agree with Michael. Build one at a time and use the mistakes to improve the next one and the next... When you're pretty sure you are doing you best work start with multiples. Around bult # 12 I did 3 at once. Got through it but felt I was juggling burning torches. But then I am just a small operation and like it so. I really endorse the gifting of the early ones. Family, friends and local charity auctions love this too. I was a little taken aback when the first one I donated went for $125 but I got over that. Soon a couple of commisions came in and pointed out the value of a little advertising via donation.

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Greg
http://garibaldiinstruments.com/

Thanks Mike and Greg

You guys make perfect sense and I'm pretty sure after all the imput,which were all great, feel like I will make one at a time until I know what I am doing and stick to one size. I like the idea of giving/donating and some of the accomplished builders around here donate their stuff too.

 

CP