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I'm making an 19" acoustic bass for a customer who plays, among other things, his take on traditional Norwegian fiddle tunes, world music and what not. On a bass, yes you read that correctly. Anyways, the customer also wants the traditional "rosing" on the soundboard of the instrumet, a type of black pen-and-ink decorative drawing, which will be done by a Hardanger fiddle maker in another part of the coutry. So the customer took the finished bass body to the guy, and sent me this picture. I admit I'm a bit apprehensive by the new direction of this project, what do you guys think? I mean, where am I going to find a case for it?

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Been working on a guitar made with ALL USA woods.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
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It looks like a Bass-o-lin.

Is he planning to use conventional strings or those rubber band strings and a piezo pickup? My brother has one of those itty bitty basses that uses the round black rubber O-ring material "strings" and piezo pickups. He loves it.

Otherwise - how would you get enough tension on the strings so they aren't floppy when tuned down to bass at a 19" length...

Next - I see 9 tuning peg holes but the fretboard looks like it's about 1" wide... Are 5 strings going inside the neck? interesting. How does that work for plucked strings rather than bowed?

That's really pretty. I like the look of that.

What's your opinion on Osage orange for back and sides?

I think the photo's a bit of a leg pull......
Look at the masking for the FB extention.

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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.

Yup sorry, it was my poor attempt at a joke. The instrument will get a normal bass neck, the fiddle maker just stuck that little neck on there for a laugh. But hey, who knows, maybe it could make some "interesting" noises...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I works wonderfully, bends easily, and has no odd odor. It taps similar to some of the denser rosewoods. Not sure about the end result just yet. I'll know more soon (ish).

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

A new ladder braced concert. Still not used to gluing on so few braces but man do they sound nice.

Love to see progress on ths Steven.

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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.

New on the bench is to be a deep bodied, multiscale OM cutaway with a wedged body in EIR.
Plans drawn, started with the fretboard as it will be built around that, and made and tested an electric bending iron for the cutaway.

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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.

Steve Wheeler Said, A new ladder braced concert. Still not used to gluing on so few braces but man do they sound nice.

Very interesting design. How can I find out more?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I've been wanting to make a version of the old Martin renaissance guitar for years and am finally getting to do it. LOTS of work building jigs for this guy but it has gotten me here, which is a good thing! :



For reference, this is the guitar I am basing the design off of: http://www.vintagemartin.com/Martin1840Renaissance.html

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

That's very cool and yours has an extra level of complication with the sides being concave where they meet the heel. The sides on the Martin are skewed vertically as they approach the neck, but they are flat vertically .

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

Thanks for noticing that! It is a small thing but turned out to be a PITA to implement. Will be easier next time.
I figured in 170 years I needed to come up with at least something a little more complicated!. And then, of course, remembered that they used 2 piece sides :0

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Looking forward to seeing more on this build, Burton.

Bob

Wow, what kind of tool do you even use to shape that? Gouge and scraper? Making perfectly matching cauls would not be easy either... I'd probably just approximate them out of wood and then use friendly plastic to fill the gaps. Kind of cheating for a renaissance design, but it sure beats chalk fitting.

There are some pictures of the jigs in the AGF thread here:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/foru ... 364&page=3

I had one master outside form with 2 replaceable inserts for the compound section. I did use friendly plastic to make the clamping cauls! It worked pretty good but shrunk more than I would like. I had to use quite a bit of medium hard rubber to even out inconsistencies.

Those forms were to laminate the sides. I then bonded those to the neck block which I carved to match. Some tedious work but a fun change from normal.

All the carving was chisels and sanding, with a little rasp work. I don't have any gouges but the Spanish cedar I used for most of it is soft enough to be easy to shape. Love that stuff!

Easing the wood into the compound curve was the hardest part. Using that curly koa did not help!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

This thread by John How http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=15768&hilit=my+recipe is a good start. Most of his photos were linked through his website and are gone since he retired from the craft. Forum member Haans posted quite a few ladder braced builds on numerous forums over the years. A wealth of information can be garnered from his generous offerings.

Nice to see another build by Burton. The CF in the mortise pocket is new, what's the story there? I like seeing your neck block, it reminds me that mine is not overkill. You get the elegance votes for sure.

Thanks Steve. Very good stuff

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Thanks for the link, Burton.

Bob

Since the template curves and the block gets so thin at the heel I wanted to reinforce it- Having seen how many clamps I used to get everything to conform to the block when locking in the sides I am glad I did. I could see that section collapsing without the CF to hold it in place. On a standard block I don't worry about it- plenty of meat around it to maintain the shape.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Got the binding on this Uke, should have the neck and bridge on this week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Nice work as usual from everyone.

This shot is in homage to the hand stitched rasp thread. Ever since I got the Dragon Rasp it almost feels like cheating now. I guess I always thought rasps were crude instruments and heels and neck volute should be done with knives and chisels. That was before I actually had a quality made rasp. Now there is no going back. This is a tenor guitar neck.

I was using a Dragon rasp on a neck yesterday. I was fortunate enough about a couple years ago to pick up a small collection of six different ones on ebay for a song and they are a favorite of mine. I wrap the tips of the really pointy ones in blue tape to keep from spearing myself or other things in the immediate vicinity.

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