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That was my experience too, very stubborn stuff but what a cool look AND it matches Tiger Myrtle too, kind of

Shipped out two European maple and Swiss spruce first epoch Torres inspired guitars and a cedar and padauk concert model this week. Also closed the box on a new spruce and rosewood concert model.

Very nice Brian! Not knowing much, I have questions.
Do you use some sort of rod in the neck?
Can you tell the difference if you don't use it?
Are the square "blocks" on the neck, wedges to hold the sides tight? I've never seen it done like that.
Is that neck heel actually the back, like a bowed instrument? It looks very cool, and I've never seen that.

Edit Oh! I found a whole slew of videos by Pablo Requena on building classicals! He uses a wedge just like that. The book I have that uses a thru neck for a steel string just has a slot. The wedge has to be 10 times better.

I'd do a classical; I even have wood for one; but I need a bigger bending iron! It's only big enough for arch tops, romantic, and baroque guitars.

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Why be normal?

That maple looks stunning and the craftsmanship is clearly meticulous.

Thanks for showing. Dave

I’ve been too lazy to clear off the dining table so I could get a few pics. Had a burst of ambition this morning and got the table cleared off - mostly cuz my lovely wife is due home tomorrow and I gotta straighten up around here - The bachelor life.

I’m told by my jazz playing pals that I *do* have to put a finish on it. To me it sounds a little thin in the bottom end. I suspect that the F-holes are a bit big, though they are an exact size match to what’s in the Benedetto book. No big - I’m already plotting a second effort. The geometry is perfect. It ended up with a break angle of 13-1/2° which according to Benedetto is textbook. The last thing to do is to make a proper bridge for it. The one on there is a poor quality SM unit (used for test purposes only). It gave me a baseline.

Best, M

Nice, Michael!

Time to try a new finish!




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Is that your first archtop, Michael? You want to do it again. They are fun, addicting, it looks very nice. I made a hollow bridge like Ken Parker uses, out of a piece of tulipwood. It sounds better than the adjustable thing did. It looks cooler too. I have the Benedetto book, but who reads instructions? My breakover is 15 degrees.
The f holes look impressive. They wouldn't be such a statement if they were smaller.
I've never been able to pull off clean.

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Why be normal?

Brad—

I’m very interested to see what you think of the Cardinal UV cure finish. I’ve thought about experimenting with their Luthierthane two component catalyzed finish.

Love my new Elevate rolling pin sander.
Low speed, 120 grit, magic.
Turns a 1/2 day chore into a 10 minute (very dusty) pleasure.

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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.

IMG_0294(2).JPG

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Mike Collins

I’ve been doing surface prep on this guy today. Hopefully I can do the pore fill tomorrow and start spraying finish by the end of the week.






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There is amazing work om show here.

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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.

Not so sure a very tight back radius is a good idea when it comes to fitting the bindings....

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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.

Hope you're not planning to use purpleheart Walnut is the easiest bending wood. Side purfling installed separately from the binding will reduce the necessary binding height.

Alternatively you can bend an orphan side and then cut strips off of it with a dremel saw disc following the vertical contour of the guitar, to eliminate the need for vertical bending.

No. not purpleheart. I'm using Ebano, easy to bend on a hot iron and I'll be trying Dave m2's tip for the bending in the vertical plane
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=54517&p=715740&hilit=I+have+a+mod+for+my+bending+iron+to+help#p715740

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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.

Hey Colin, don't use Snakewood

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

No chance!! I'd sooner use concrete.
At least it could be poured, come to think of it.....

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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.

Decided against the concrete.

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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.

Ha ha. Looks good Colin!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Doing free repair work for folks whose houses and possessions were inundated in some severe floods we had recently.

This Ibanez bounced back pretty well after a full submersion. Loose neck binding, trashed bridge, wonky fret plane that needed a lot of levelling. I left a cosmetic split where the peghead veneer was ruptured by all the swelling as a kinda souvenir. Plays good as new now. Probably better as I doubt it had ever had a decent level and setup.





Most time consuming part of the job was cleaning the dried mud off of everything.

Thanks for giving back Josh, very cool!

Padauk neck, penultimate grit, lick of shellac hunting for scratches.
Hmmm, I know the bench could do with a tidy, but I need a shower to get rid of that darn dust.....



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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.

Looks lovely Colin. Have you used Padauk for necks before? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on it. I’ve had a few quartersawn boards of just the right size on the shelf for a few years but held off using them because they seem a little heavy. My standard neck wood is another member of the pterocarpus family - pterocarpus indicus, which is excellent for necks.

First Padauk neck.
Tap tone of course is good.
Yes, it's a bit heavy - normal Padauk I understand is SG about 0.72, but this one is around 0.90, and I suspect it may be Burmese Padauk, it is very hard and resonant, and quite hard to work.
I've kept some back for bridges as I've got enough for 6 necks + a whole lot of bridges.
At SG in the range 0.7-0.75, I think Padauk would be still be fine for 14 fret necks, at 0.9, I'm using this for a 12 fretter.
With a laminated sides body it still seems to balance fine, not neck heavy.

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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.

Thanks Colin, very helpful. What body wood are you pairing this neck with?


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