Official Luthiers Forum!

I don't usually take in outside finishing work, but I'm finishing one of the last guitars Kevin Gallagher built. It's the only one he ever done a bevel on. I've got a little more work to do to the neck before I can finish it.
RIP Kevin we miss you.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

I started on a hydraulic laminating press. Four 20 ton cylinders and a whole lot of 2.75" aluminum plate. It's a big project but when it's done I'll be able to apply 0 - 160,000 pounds of even pressure on a 14" x 19" stack of plates. I had it engineered so I know that at 80,000 pounds (about 300 p.s.i.) there's only about .006" deflection across the full width of the plates.

Don't want no stinking glue lines.

More to the point...when gluing large panels the trick becomes how fast one can get the glue spread and pressure applied before glue starts drying. With epoxy you can take your time but even with Titebond Extend you're pushing the time envelope. I get a better looking glue line with the Titebond. Since it took quite while to apply full pressure with my old screw press I had to come up with something that would allow full pressure to be applied quickly.

I'll throw some pics up when it's done.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

Well , I havent done anything on the Musical side , cause Grandma thought grandpa needed to make grandbaby a new rocking horse ! Im sure you can guess who won that conversation.

If your interested you can go here and see " Ole Hik'ry "

http://www.wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com


Dang it , Now I need a new stash of Hickory !!

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Pulling and preparing the goods for the next lot of 3 acoustics and one electric. More at a later date.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I usually try to stay out of the shop on week-ends, but here's a couple I worked on last week: Closed the box on this Lowen-inspired steel string...








...and did the binding on this pernambuco dread

[/quote]

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I porefilled a ukulele with pumice and rotten stone. Amazing results!
By the way, it's my first acoustic build.
I'm also working on a classical, on solera. I'm at giving the back radius to the sides, then i'll be close to close the box!

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

I'm about to attach the neck to the bubinga OM, then the bridge, and put a finish on it. Cant wait to hear the sound out of this one.

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http://www.sixgunguitars.com

arnt, i love how as i was scrolling down the page of this thread, that i immediately recognized your work without even seeing who the post was by. and it was only a simple shot of the "boat!" simple, clean, elegant, love it! i think ive commented on how i appreciate your aesthetic before, but if i havent, its one of my favorite for the aforementioned reasons.

as for that shot of the braced top plate, i dont think ive ever seen finger braces extending down from the upper legs of the x braces, as opposed to extending upward from the lower legs. would you mind commenting on that? thanks.

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sweat the small stuff.

I'm doing the final shaping for the dread's peghead and mocking up the new, ivoroid Waverlies.

I am applying zpoxy an Hawaiian Koa guitar parlor guitar. I made this guitar in a class I had with Rick Davis. Because I have to wait for the zpoxy to cure I have time to start spraying a violin I made from a kit (the next one I will try to carve) for a niece. Also I have time to finish the braces on the classical guitar I am making. The rim and kerflings are finished and the rim is radiused as well so I hope to close it next week.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

.

Well besides sculpting of the banding on the travel guitar....






Me been making 12 to 1 lumber for a model of "the Temple" that will house my UV/black light paintings at the
Shambhala Music Festival http://www.shambhalamusicfestival.com/
and at
the Entheos Summer Solstice Gathering http://www.entheosgathering.com/2011-home





Ya!


blessings
Padma

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.

Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


.

Arnt, I had the same thought as Heath.
Todd, I just watched your 3 part videos on epoxy pore filling.
Very well done.
Thank you!

heath, i too love what arnt has posted. i'm looking forward to his reply.

turns out that i have built two that look a lot like arnt's. both of them were very good sounding guitars right off the hop. i got to play one of them a few weeks ago that i built about 4 years ago, and with the addition of the warmth that comes to sitka over time, that guitar sounds fantastic. very lowden-esque. very crisp. very high headroom. very even across the registers. another thing that was pretty cool was how little the top has moved. we live in a brutal climate in the canadian prairies, and the owner hasn't needed to adjust the action since the guitar's first birthday. no belly behind the bridge. no dip in front. the top shape looks like it did when i first strung it up.

when i built that guitar, and now a few years later, i can't figure out why more builders are not imitating that lowden bracing. it's a small but brilliant change to the common martin sound.

phil

Got my bandsaw and drillpress on saturday and set them up, set up a router table in my table saw wing and built a small outfeed table, made a drillpress table with adjustable fence, Finshed my tapering jig, built some more shelving and did a dozen or so other small things.
Brian

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Hi guys, the idea behind this instrument is to take the signature Lowden sound as a point of departure, and voice it a little more towards my SJ-model (think Martin-like scalloped bracing system, on an oversized OM...), at least that's what my customer requested. This top bracing layout is pretty much copied after the customer's favourite 0-32, but for one thing I'm trying to make everything is a bit less rigid around the perimeter of the lower bout. I can't comment too much on those "finger braces", other than its how Lowden does them. I'm also doing some other small departures from their system, plus the top wood is adirondack spruce, so... I guess we'll see how well my guestimation went in a little while

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I'm not familar with the differences between Lowden and Martin bracing. Is there more differences than the finger braces?

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Hi Folks,

Been lurking for a long time, first post...

Here are pics of this weekends project. Started a Les Paul copy. I've been wanting to do one for a long time, and Robbie's photo essay came at the perfect time! Actually started an acoustic 10 years ago, but for a variety of reasons, its a long ways from done. Off to a good start on the LP, despite a little tearout from the router bit...

Back is mahogany, top is curly maple, bought locally and not bookmatched. Should be ok for a first guitar. My wife doesn't care how it plays as long is it looks good on the wall. So, maybe a brightly colored burst? Turquoise?

I've been learning a lot from this board - thanks everybody for the great info!

Dan

Doing a little repair work on a guitar from one of my students. It got dropped.

wow , dropped from where ? Seems like alot of damage from a drop

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Worked on two new jigs. First is a traveling sled for resawing on my Bandsaw.
Second is a fretboard radiusing jig as described by Rick Micheletti in the Fall 2008 Guitarmaker.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Hanging from the rafters. Dropped down onto a concrete floor. His wife bumped it and down it came off the hook it was hanging from. She is still sleeping on the sofa! haha

Excellent repair work by the way Robbie. It's so much easier when there's no finish in the way eh? Once the finish is on it, no one will ever know.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Got this one ready to head to finish:




Working on my "black and white" project, and I got this pic back from Craig Lavin that he did on my pink ivory guitar.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Thank you Bill. Yes, after the finish is done this repair will be invisible and the marriage will have been saved!

Saturday - worked on some fretboard inlays for my pal Bill's uke build (I'm tutuoring him on his first instrument). He wanted greyhounds.....he got greyhounds:









The fretboard is BRW. The inlays are hard beech. The pockets for the inlays were cut using raster mode on my laser, and the inlays were vector cut on the laser. They are about 30 mils thick and are glued in place using thick (gap filling) CA glue.

Sunday - went to the NCAL meeting at Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto where Frank Ford gave us a great lecture/slide show on re-fretting.....good stuff from one of the best!!

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"