Official Luthiers Forum!

Not seen much of people's guitar making recently, so thought I'd start this thread to see what's happening in other shops.
I'll kick it off with a couple of Wenge and Cedro necks being finalised. The boxes are ready for final sanding.
Panicking a bit because I hope to have these guitars ready for a show mid September.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

I WISH I had time for making. I'm buried under repairs, with a backlog of weeks. I'm SUPPOSED to be retired, why am I so busy?

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Good luck getting those guitars ready for the show Colin. I've already posted some things, but here they are again... Helping my friend kevin build his first guitar, an L-00 (he had close supervision) and Kevin working with me to make a run of cam clamps, and still working on my maple OM.

Who's next?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Two pictures of a parlor for my granddaughter. Palo Escrito and Sitka. This guitar is finished and waiting for professional pics.

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Lately I've been patching together some old guitars. This morning I was removing some grime and polishing a cover plate that covers some Stauffer type tuners. The guitar is relatively plain, but the cover plate has some nice engraving.

Three classics waiting for final setup. Double tops (cedar/nomex/cedar), double backs (BRW/nomex/cedar - EIRW/nomex/cedar - Louro Preto/nomex/cedar), laminated sides (interior is Poplar). All have a short scale of 647mm. Ebano synthetic fingerboards. Two are now strung and sound good...surprisingly similar. These guitars have no back braces and extremely light fan bracing.

Finished this one for me about a month ago, Honduran Rosewood, red spruce, from John Arnold's '37 D28 tracing.



Started this 13-fret OM, another Honduran Rosewood, red spruce. Just finished the armrest block and getting prepped to cut the soundport.


Lost our pups to old age last year so this is the new crop ages 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 months, both Australian Shepherds, been spending a lot of time on basic puppy training skills like how to act in the shop

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Off Topic Colin but is the show you mention in the UK? Dave

I am between builds but boy is the shop tidy! I have even thrown out all those bits of rosewood and ebony that are really never going to be used.

I have also spent time improving some of my jigs, in particular my jig for drilling tuner holes for classicals. I had no idea my original was so far out.

Dave M

Yes, NEOS, North East of Scotland Open Workshops, I've shown three years running, but skipped last year, so this is my fourth.
t's an arts and crafts fair really. Some exceptionally talented people showing - https://www.facebook.com/NorthEastOpenStudios/

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

The makerspace I belong to hosted a CNC class last month. We're supposed to run five supervised jobs before getting cleared to run solo. Yesterday morning was job one.

After taking care of the molds yesterday, I finished up the woodwork on this subwoofer box. As some of you know, car audio's another major outlet of mine. Not like the like tooth-rattling setup in your neighbor's kid's car, but true audiophile sound---creating a wide, deep, sensitive soundstage that'll make you feel like you're right there in the room with the artist. This baby's optimized for a pair of Audiofrog GB10D4 subs I picked up from a friend. When I listed to William Coulter's recording of An Daingean in his car two summers ago, they made Coulter's Traugott R massage my back.

Next step is to dye it with some black TransTrint and coat it with satin Enduro-Var.

Great idea with the makerspace CNC. What's the hourly rate?

$40 per month. It's an awesome place, and I've been lucky to be a member for the past four to five years.

Installing the rosette and clamping up.

My new shop space is nearly finished. I’ve gotta call for an electrical inspection and finish putting everything away. With the move it’s been about 4 months since I’ve built anything.

Wow Michael that's sweet - puts Norm Abrams to shame!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wow. That shop!

Working on an all laminate 16” archtop. Plates were from Steve Holst. They are nice.
I have not bought anything from Acme Archtops since it acquired a new owner. Anyone here know if the quality is still as good as it used to be?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Michael,
That shop is amazing! You appear to be ready for some serious production...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

These are the bodies to go with the necks which I posted earlier.
Macassar OM and a Black Walnut GC, first coat of epoxy pore fill curing..

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Hi Terence,
I am in the process of planning an archtop.
I see you are using a bolt on M&T, how are you dealing with the tightening process?
I have considered a hole at the tail piece or removable strap button.
Finding a 20” long allen key is also proving a challenge, though having something fabbed is doable.
Thanks,
B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

Attempting my first Gore-Gilet style neck joint.

I like how solid & serviceable it is but it does add some weight.

I'll used socket head cap screws when complete.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Nice.
Yes, it does add weight, but not that much and its close to the centre of gravity so doesn't contribute much to neck heaviness.
An ebony fretboard and headplate probably contributes more.
I like your rosette. What purflings are you using for that?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

That's the "28 style rosette" from Martin Guitar Maker's Connection.

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Nothing other than repairs lately. I did make my "neck dragon" as I call it. I stole the idea from Frank Ford (thanks Frank!).

Works off the outflow of my shop vac. The coolant hoses let you blow high amounts of cool air where the steam typically escapes on a guitar. On Martins it's almost always the heel + sides of the fingerboard extension. The air blasts the steam away while you're getting the neck off and prevents finish damage. Works a charm. I just use the neck removal jig to help hold the hoses in place while I work the neck off by hand.





Also scored a great deal on over 10 of these NOS Pony clamps. The old 245 size is a perfect size for bridge/bridge plate clamping. Also got a couple of 246's and 244s in the lot. Extremely useful for all manner of acoustic work. I plan on tapping a few of these to use for plate removal and brace clamping. Ebay can be a great resource for tools/tooling.