Official Luthiers Forum!

Camera's dead But, I'll probably start getting finish on the Baritone Uke AND the Explorer this week! They've been sitting around way to long. Time to get 'em done.

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Rob

Got the boxes closed for the 13-frret 000 cutaway and the 12-fret size 0. Also building a new neck for a friends 12 string 60ish Univox; the original is too twisted to play.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Man, that sounds familiar...once word gets out that you do repairs, your shelves will fill up with broken guitars faster than you can say "neck reset"! I don't particularly enjoy it , so I'm back to making money elsewhere, and doing only building (well, mostly anyways) when I'm in the shop, which is now half week.

Today I had a exhibition / repair stand at "Trondheim Country and Bluegrass Festival". Fun!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I'll show-and-tell later, but today I get to start work on the relief carving on the back of the scroll for the Viola da Gamba! This has been a long time coming.

Other than that, work, work work! That canoe that I've been building is just about finished-one more coat of paint, a little varnish on the trim, and installing the metal bits. I also got a repair done.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Just strung up #6 - my first with Zipflex - awesome to work with!
Another of Shane's Lutz on top.
This is my first 13-fretter and is by far my best sounding build.
My last two were 12 and 14 fret and this one sits sonically very nicely between the round 14-fret tone and the intense mid-rich (almost resonator-like) tone of the 12-fret.
Note I used the same body style/bracing/scale length/sound hole location for all, the the big tone difference (I believe) is the bridge location on the top.

Robbie - I'm glad to see that you're so happy with the 13-fret cutaway since I've got one in the works right now. Looks great too

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'm working on an archtop and a size 2 and doing a few repairs. You can see the little guy in the background. I'm going to try a bolt-on neck for the archtop using a long allen wrench through the pickup hole in the tailblock. I'm finding that a carved top jazz guitar is a very manly experience in lutherie. I've got sore hands and have made some monumental messes in the shop with routers, die grinders, and planes.

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

Nice looking guitar Robbie. I used Zipflex a couple of guitars ago. I agree with you on its ease of use.

Terence, wish that archtop were sitting on my bench!!

From my side, I got my drill press table finished up yesterday. Something I had been wanting to build forever. Used it today in making a bridge for an EIR OM that is now built and ready for finishing.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Only had a little time this afternoon to work on my guitar. Moved the jig I made for cutting the binding/purfling channels from my router table (guitar body horizontal) to mounting it on the wall (guitar body vertical while routing). This seems to work better as gravity tends to keep the side resting flat against the fence instead of pulling the side away from the fence. I routed the binding on the back of the OM and it turned out fairly nice. I will put a coat of shellac on the top tonight and tomorrow I'll route the binding channel on the top while I ahve the jig adjusted like I want it. I mounted the jig up where the top of the soundhole is about even with my chin and I like at that height as I it's easy to hold the body against the bottom and fence of the jig.

I know that isn't much........but it was a big step for me. Why don't one of you awesome luthiers move down here where you can show me how to do things!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Been busy with summer working on getting the shop officially up and going. Between yesterday and today I glued in continuous linings, put down braces on the top and shaped and tuned the top and back. And glued the top to the rims.

Here are a few pics of the progress.

The back is done using narrow strips of bracewood that are glued in such a manner than they crisscross and make the design you see. The glued laminations create a VERY solid plate.






Here's a shot of the linings before gluing up the box. I thought I didn't like them because they were a pain to bend and glue up. But now that I see them in final stage, I know it is a cool thing. Very neat and clean. No more time consuming than making kerfed linings (I did shape those struts as well. They look pretty beefy in the pic, but they're really not.)




Finally a shot of the top under the go-bars. Top is a three piece Douglas Fir board I've been hoarding from a fence board I found on the family farm in SD. My wife's dad remembers the day the boards came off the train in 1960. They ring like no one's business and this is the 2nd guitar from that 20' long 2X6 with straight, tight grain, no run out, and virtually no knots. Old Growth. Back is African Ribbon Stripe Mahogany.




Will start working on the neck tomorrow and get the rims bent for the slope shoulder D sister to this guitar. Same everything.

Dave

Show and tell as promised!

I had the design pretty much worked out but had a little tweaking to do. So after the drawing was finalized I taped it in position and used carbon paper to transfer it to the wood. After that is done the lines need to be incised and then the background is cut away.

After getting a little of the background carving done I can testify that this is going to be a LOT of work! Slow, delicate work.

Here's a shot of the canoe with paint. Its been showing up in my other shop update posts, so I thought that some of you might be interested. Almost done!

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Looking good, Doug! I'd love to see more details of this build. I may do a Viola da Gamba myself one of these days, and there's rather little information available on them.

I'm currently preparing brace blanks. Tomorrow will be side bending, and then I can start gluing everything together and try my hand at voicing

Good work all!
Terry, very nice. Manly is the word...Watch out for neck and shoulder problems though.
I'm afraid all I've done all week is stare at the stitches in my navel and chest.

Dennis, the information is available, but nothing like what is available for guitar building! Just start sniffing around and collecting the bits that you find. The viol has such as rich history and variety that it is a very appealing instrument to build.

I am very slow on this build. I'm afraid that a build thread would take quite awhile. I think that once this head carving is done things will move along a little faster and I'll start a thread. I have been taking photos along the way!

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Have a ukulele and a guitar that I just put the finish on. Here are a few pictures of body/neck mock-up for each before finishing.

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

The only new thing in my shop is a sewer back flow valve, I was almost back to normal from the flood and decided to install the valve. The sewer exits my basement through my shop so everything is a mess again. It has been 3 weeks since the flood and still not back to normal. There were over 2500 basements flooded in Windsor and the insurance companies are probably going to stop offering water coverage in the city, thus the check valve and a sump pit. I hope to actually have some guitar photos next time someone starts a whats happening in your shop thread.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Fred, sorry to hear of your woes! Hang in there, you'll be flushing fearlessly before you know it.

Here's the latest project from our shop. A deep body OM, built using Ziricote back/sides from Hibdon.
Top is a well-striped piece of sinker Redwood from Allied.
Rosette is a bookmatched piece of Ziricote, bordered w/ green ab.
It has a center section of sapwood that we lined up w/ a light streak in the top.







Bindings to come, they'll be Af. Blackwood, as will be the fretboard and bridge. So, a fairly dark guitar when it's all finished out.

Thanks for looking,

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Still struggling with #5. Was using a new Bosh Trimmer for the binding ledges, and the height adjustment lock slipped a bit. When I saw sparks, I knew something was wrong. Sooooo, the binding ledges were a couple of mm too deep. Had to add a strip of something to make it work, so I decided to add a wide purfling strip of Sycamore, which I had used on the top and in the rosette.

Here's stuff ready to go.

Here's the back with HHG drying.

Here is the top with just the top purfs glued in.

Here's what the top purfs will look like.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Ohhh, I hate it when that happens.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Waddy -

are you doing it freehand or using some type of jig or fixture ?


Finished working on my table saw, router table and drillpress table/scroll saw table. Well I did not completely finish - but I got far enough that I will continue later on. I need to make doors and drawers and shelves....
now I can start building again -
I began planning some neck wood... will cut and glue this week/weekend - I hope...

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX