Official Luthiers Forum!

The neck for my pine Tele is carved, still want to glue on a headplate. Have not decided what yet though. Need to get something for side fret markers. Never realized I did not have any black. Also making a lightweight combo of sorts. To be technical it really a speaker cabinet and head although the head could easily slip into a guitar bag. It will be powered by a laptop power supply, have a switchable 5F6A Bassman / 5D3 Deluxe preamp, and a switching amplifier for power. The cab is built with the lightest pine board I could find and comes in at 10 lbs. With a 5 lb Yamaha speaker it will be easy to travel with.

^ Wow I would love to see more of that amp combo as it goes along.

I have been slowly (these days it's a crawl) working on a white oak parlor that my wife and I sanded the neck straight so I could fret it. Always fretted my instruments after the guitar was finished and assembled. Took me two days to pound in the frets, I shake so much now that it is hard to get the glue on the fret and start it in the slot. Was able to lower the saddle Monday and take down the nut some. It's playable, but will take the saddle down a bit more and take a little off the top of the bridge. Then I can level the frets.
I am fortunate that I have a friend and master repair person (36 years in the business) helping me by spraying two others and buff another yet. Then I will attempt to assemble and set them up. What used to take minutes now takes hours, even days...
I will have some photos of the parlor up in a couple of weeks.
I also have an O-45 copy that I varnished a long time ago. It had been sitting in a corner of the shop so, we decided to string it up and sell it for whatever. Short story is that I think it was built with TiteBond and minutes after it was strung up, the bridge lifted. So, I stripped it (tuners, strings etc) and the bridge literally fell off. I will take off the violin varnish, leave the neck on and have it lacquered, Gibson style. That should bring the value back up to high standards. From my memory, it was a good guitar (BRW), but not a Larson. Guess it will be my Joan Baez guitar...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

While we are doing show and tell...I'm not doing a lot of my guitar work right now as I'm full on doing my canoe building. I have five orders for these. #1 is getting final paint, #2 is seen here recently having had the ribs bent.

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

Just finished a 4 string to 5 string Dean fretless bass conversion and now also finished with flattening, regrinding, and honing two sets (13 total) of vintage Ulmia Two Cherries brand chisels. Very much a 'wax on, wax off' exercise - unlike the modern chisels from Lie-Nielsen or Lee Valley, these blades NEED flattening! My Sunday was spent on the 7 chisel set...and not surprisingly, what I learned on those tools made the 6 tool set work much faster. I was lucky and found the set of six had the smaller sized handles on the 20 and 26mm sizes.

_________________
We have become a civilization that elevates idiots, prostitutes, and clowns. Am I still to defend it? Yes, for its principles. Yes, for what it was. Yes, for what it still may be.

-Mark Helprin, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story (A Novel)

Haans. Les Paul almost retired completely from music in his seventies because he 'couldn't play like he used to'.
A friend of his said 'then play like you still can'. he played into his nineties.
Hope to see you around for many years to come

Brent

+1 on that one.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Good to hear you are still with us Haans.

Haans
It might be slow work but I am sure it is good work. And you are inspiring others, whether you know it or not. I am a relative novice - I have built 5 guitars so far and I an having a go at a mandolin style instrument for my latest project. I have been poring over photographs on your website and have adopted your idea of CF rods for longitudinal stiffness. Your instruments look amazing, and your sharing on forums and internet is extremely beneficial to others. Many thanks for your generosity and wisdom.
Best wishes
Mark

Getting ready to cut this up for 2 furniture top. Claro walnut 12' x 3' x 3"
Hope there is enough left for a few back and sides

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

Finished prep sanding today on this parlor-size guitar and now it's on to applying the finish.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Jay
That parlor guitar looks delicious. Very nice combination of timbers. Are those two-piece sides?
Mark

They are one-piece sides but there is a strong figure line that runs the length that sort of gives that appearance.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Good to see you posting Haans! I just finished binding the F holes and am fitting the braces on a 17" archtop using the Smith Creek plates I got from you a while back. Man do I hate binding F holes.

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

I've been making some spool clamps with handles for quick tightening. Love these.

Jay.......NICE!

_________________
Pat

Last weekend I spent the day milling an old maple tree into billets for future projects. The tree is estimated to be about 300 years old. She fell down on a very calm day just missing an 1800's log cabin on an old Virginia plantation that is now a museum. The Museum offered the tree to local craftsmen in return for something for charity. I plane on building a C. Bruno parlor guitar.

What's left of the tree


Flitch cutting slabs with an Alaskan portable mill and a Stihl 660


The Slabs


Bandsawing billets


Manageable sized chunks



Resawn, stacked, stickered and sealed end grain