Official Luthiers Forum!

Well guys its once again time . Fillipo has gracefully worn the title and would like to give it to someone else SOOOOOON Last month turned out to be a busy month for doofus moments . Seems we all had a few .

HOWEVER !! It did bring to the fore what I really wanted the thread to accomplish , or at least part of it . We all have the moments , the one Fillipo had would have made alot of us scrap it and start over . The Guitar was not a loss BECAUSE people here have the expertise to help us past these moments and do so willingly .

SOOOOOOOOOO If your a lurker and afraid we are gonna have a laugh at your expense , well your prolly right ( Jusss kiddin )BUT , you will get the help you need and you will find out that we are laughing WITH you and not at you .

So Time to fess up everyone and reach for the


COVETED "DOOFUS OF THE MONTH" Trophy to wear for a month !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I dont know Fillipo , seems like people are wanting u to keep it for a while !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I don't know if this counts

I joined the top for my demo guitar, with this Sitka spruce top I got from some supplier in Taiwan. It was horribly off quarter, and the run out was crazy. It's like basically they just sawn the wood without even splitting them to see where the grain would go before sawing them.

So after planing them close to the thickness I want, I decided to give up and use a better top...

So now I have enough wood for a bunch of back seam reinforcement...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

It took me four try's to get my back strip right on my guitar. After putting the back on I noticed that the back braces are cocked alittle bit so I kept putting it on wrong. So I glued the back on then put the center strip on haha.

Took me 4 years to, um --- nevamind

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

I'm not sure who qualifies for the doofus award here. Seems a family member, helping us move to the new house and shop this last last week, took my bracing material and some binding and decided it was kindling and used it to start a fire in the new fireplace while I made several trips back and forth from house to house.

I guess I'm the Doofus for not personally moving all my shop myself and leaving my bracing stacked unconventionally on the new shop floor for the fire builders to joyously discover. Good thing they didn't burn my neck blanks and back and side sets. Those items were boxed....so overlooked by the firewood search crew.

Kent

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Wood Creations by Kent A. Bailey
EXCELLENCE IN SCULPTURE, CARVING, LUTHIER, ARCHITECTURAL MILLWORK AND DESIGN

http://www.kabart.com

I'm not sure who qualifies for the doofus award here. Seems a family member, helping us move to the new house and shop this last last week, took my bracing material and some binding and decided it was kindling and used it to start a fire in the new fireplace while I made several trips back and forth from house to house.

When are the services scheduled?

Bailey,

That is awful! This is definitely not a recoverable situation. I'm not too sure that you are a doofus here, but you have to assume that nobody else knows what is valuable in your shop. I know Wud likes it when doofus posts generate something positive maybe it can. I just realized I have been keeping several chunks of old spruce from my friends 30+ year old exterior door. It is all tight grained and quartered. I intend to (someday) split it and see what I've got; until then it is sitting in my garage. This thread made me realize that it is leaning up in the corner, right next to a pile of construction debris that we are slowly putting out with the trash. I'll move it tonight before the wife mistakes it for garbage.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh sounds like you got burned !

We might have our first contestant for doofus of the year award here Fillipo !

I have all my brace wood in a box that says " DO NOT BURN " I have (2) 35 gallon plastic drums with the tops cut out and my family knows if its not in the plastic barrel , it doesnt get burned !

Seriously , sorry that happened we might have to have a " prize " this month of some brace wood !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

OK ! Im trying to use U-Beaut -Shellac for the first time , and I thought " what the heck cant be that hard " who needs tutorials !!

I have applied 6 coats so far and have been able in my stupidity to sand all the way back through to wood EVERY TIME I try and level this stuff . Is there an emotiocon that cusses ?

I have spent several hrs over 4 days and am basically nowhere ! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I guess Im gonna have to watch a toot !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Kent,
I am most sincerely sorry for your loss. I mean it. I have experienced a similar loss or two due to my own stupid lack of oversight through the years. All that having been said, and because you offered up your story in good faith and with a willingness to wear the dooffus badge in a good, self-deprecating way, I think your story will be hard to beat. But don't despair. Many of the rest of us have been down the same road more times that we care to remember. It'll pass. And you're already sort of laughing about it (between your tears) and that's all you can do at this point. You've got the right outlook!

Press on, my man!

Patrick

What grit are you using? I wouldn't go any coarser than 600 on shellac, and watch your progress very closely if you do. 1500 is probably better. But really, you shouldn't even need to level more than once if at all. The trick to French polishing is in the preparation of the surface... that's one of the purposes behind the traditional pumice filling method. It fine sands, fills, and burnishes the surface smooth all at once, perfect to build up the micro thin shellac layer on. 'course, you should have it sanded or scraped very level before that too.

Unless you're spraying the shellac. Then you're on your own.

I'll challenge Kent's unguarded wood massacre with something similarly tragic... I think I've finally found the point known as "under braced". I consider it an important and inevitable step in my education and thus not a true "failure", but nonetheless a sad loss of a great sounding guitar. Not that it's dead dead, but it's barely a month old and over 1/16" dip in front of the bridge, so I don't think it's going to last any 100 years. So after a photoshoot and a few recordings for posterity, I'll pull the bridge, route off the top, transplant the rosette and shoulder inlay to a new top, and try again.

Maybe I'll put some medium gauge strings on it for a week or so first just to accelerate things and see exactly how bad it gets

I have absolutely NO idea what you're talking about. I simply never have those kind of moments. Or at least, none that anyone will ever hear about.

Never going to happen...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I bet you never ask directions at a gas station either. Nor do you ever read the manual when assembling that new lawn mower right? yeah? :p

So... Here I was at the beginning of the month... on my 4-string Tenor guitar project.... Figured out what the intonation length needed to be... All that stuff... Time to make the bridge....

So... I carefully measure and cut out the bridge... Get it all ready to glue on... About to scrape the finish off... and then I decide to double check my dimensions.... The bridge is about 1/2" too narrow and won't even hit the X-brace legs..... Humph! Gotta go make another one....

On to bridge #2.... Carefully measure and cut out the bridge... Bridge pin holes and saddle slot.... Get it all ready to glue on... About to scrape off the finish... and then I decide to double check my dimensions.... String spacing is way too narrow....

On to bridge #3.... Carefully measure and cut out the bridge... Get it all made nice and pretty.... Get it all ready to glue on... Measure again.... String spacing is way too wide?!?!?!?

On to bridge #4.... Carefully measure again... Lay out the whole bridge extra carefully... Double-triple check all the dimensions... Get ready to rout out the saddle slot...... On the 4th dimensions check.. These dimensions look really familiar... Check the notes.... Hey wait a minute... Back to Bridge #2.... The dimensions are exactly the same as #2.... Go fish Bridge #2 back out of the "OOps pile"..... and see what I have got.....

Hey... Look - Bridge #2 was right all along!

So... Here I am with 3 spare 4-string tenor guitar bridges and about a week worth of extra work.... Yay....

Thanks

You people get all excited about this " voice activated GPS " Sheesh Ive had a womans voice in my car telling me where to go and where to turn since the 70's

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Somehow, "recalculating" is easier to take than, "Why did you turn here?"

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Fillipo , either people are having a real good month of building and not making mistakes or they arnt building .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Hey Dennis,
why don't you just let that guitar sound good,
and look bad until it comes apart?
My second Weissey has a top that looks like the Pismo beach dunes.
It sounds great,
but whenever I look at it,
I learn from my mistakes.

I suspect that we all just understand the folly of trying to beat letting someone throw your wood stash in the fireplace. =)

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Jim Hansen

I promise Wud, I'm trying. even though my shop is not available right now and I don't have time, I managed to sneak in long enough to rough out a set of back braces. Unfortunately, I didn't mess them up. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

You may have a point . That one is gonna be tough to beat .

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I been trying to sand a shellac finish on a top and it seems like I can never get all the shiny spots sanded out . I think they are multiplying !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

From what I've read and experienced, shellac is very very hard to sand.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

From my experience... I came out with this: If you can't achieve a nice gloss with the only pad... don't do FP. Even with good lubricated sandpaper wich is especially made to sand finishes, shellac is pretty hard to sand.

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars