Official Luthiers Forum!

Interesting. I have a lot of wood by virtue of buying and selling, so a lot of what I have was bought and milled by me, then I sold off most of it and kept what I wanted, and basically zero cost. Does that count? Seriously. I have bunches of B&S sets that cost me in reality...nothing. Even some BRW that was essentially less than $20/set. Can we make exceptions for hardware? I mean, if you're going to go through the trouble of making an instrument, it seems worth putting decent tuners on it. I really don't have time to waste on making a low-quality instrument that I can't sell.

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"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."

Cost or not it has some value and should be counted as such , and as for tuners , better quality stuff can be added after the challenge its still your instrument .

_________________
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/

It would be my second build. What price do I put on wood from my property? I paid nothing for it, I just cut the trees up. I have maple and cedar that has been cut for 15-20 years.
Or ...heh, heh...Since I am a newbie and an amateur...does that wood count as free....you know like a handicap...

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Joe

My wife asks me "How many Guitars do you need?"
I reply "When I die count them; thats how many I needed".

I will jump in too.... I can't say I will finish on time - but I will eventually finish it....

It only took me 2-years to finish up the 2009 MIMF $100.00 challenge guitar.. but it came in under $70.00 all up.... That was my 4-string pallet tenor guitar I posted here:

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=34519

It was gone 1.5 days after taking it over to the local music shop...

My brother is bugging me for a 6-string version.... Sounds like I gotta go dust off my pallet wood stash again!

Thanks

It's impossible not to use imported wood in Taiwan, all wood here are imported because it is an island. I would say the same for Hawaii (of course shipping from the lower 48 to HI doesn't technically count as importing).

Even if I find a wood supplier they all supply imported wood. The cost is lower but I need more time to season it because most of the time the wood I get isn't ready to be used in a build just yet.

What about use only wood indigenous to the region, like in Taiwan we can only use SE Asian woods, people in the EU can only use European woods, and people in Africa (like S. Africa, I don't see any OLF members from Africa) can only use African woods. The difficulty being the top and bracing since most of those woods come from the northern region.

If using regional wood is possible, then I am going to build an Ukelele out of Philippine Mahogany, fingerboard out of the messed up (and warped) Macassar Ebony, as well as its bridge. I think as for the tuner I am thinking of using a violin tapered tuner, but I don't know if I can simply use my 5 degree bridge pin reamer for this...

_________________
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

Do the best u can , again this is about " within reason "

_________________
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, have you decided that maybe it might be a good idea to have the deadline be in June? That gives 6 months for completion which seems more realistic for many members.

Yes I am kicking that idea around , just didnt want to drag it out to long . how about may 30th 180 days ?

_________________
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/

Wud it be okay if i built 2 stringed instruments for under $150?
I got's an idear!

ROFLMAO GO BABY GO !!

U IN ???

_________________
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/

Yup.

That typo always sounds so dramatic DEFIANTLY IN!
I shall recommend you get to work on this http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=33322, as that's what this is inspired by, and is lots of fun. And if you share my curiosity, try it with a riftsawn top... I'm using quartered redwood that is very stiff across grain, so it should have a rather high cross dipole. But if you use a top sawn to minimize cross grain stiffness, you should get something more akin to a thinner top with fan bracing stiffening it along the grain.

But in any case, I look forward to seeing what you come up with. Love that little washtub redwood build you've got going

newb question...

do molds and templates count for this project, as far as the $150 limit?
especially for new builders, like myself, who have to get/build new molds, which will hopefully be used for future projects.

I would assume that the builders with more experience would have an unfair advantage, by having ready-made templates and molds...

what say you?

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Music Is Forever

Well WudWerkr, it seems you are the appointed referee…

Now if I understand correctly the rules are very, very simple.
1) It must be a stringed instrument of your creation to be judged on sound and appearance.
2) The sound will be judged through posting via Youtube.
3) Appearance will be judged through post in the forum.
4) All materials that go in your stringed instrument must not exceed $150.00 American
5) Tools are not materials therefore excluded from cost.
6) All wood must be indigenous to North America; participants from other countries
Will get a reasonable dispensation for shipping of these woods.
7) If there is any confusion the referee will make a decision on the parameters of the build.
8) Referee decisions are final
9) An Idea of 160 days is being considered for the time limit?
10) It is imperative that ALL participants Have fun on this build

I hope I have the general jist of the game, if not let me know. This is what I have gleaned from the posts.

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Joe

My wife asks me "How many Guitars do you need?"
I reply "When I die count them; thats how many I needed".

Along a similar vein...

My great lumberyard find so far was a dimensional WRC 1 by 10, something like 16 ft long, which was (1) well quartered - nearly perfect - over most of it's area, (2) essentially no runout, (3) highest grain count of any board I have ever seen, and (4) with bearclaw on a portion of the board. Stiff, too - the one top I have used so far was thinned down more than I would usually do to spruce.

Are the tops cut from this board valued as Master grade tops, or are they construction lumber

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

No molds and templates do not get counted as part of the build . What counts is all the instrument wood and hardware , finish and strings . no glue , sandpaper tape etc:

_________________
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 am going to go look for some Lauan boards.. should not be too difficult to find seeing how Taiwan is littered with this stuff. I will then resaw them into Ukelele sets. Honestly I hate working with the stuff because it splinters easily, its soft and dents easily, and it doesn't look nearly as good as mahogany. Another possible wood to use would be cypress. I'll see if I can also track down some teak as well, as they're also indigenous to this region.

_________________
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

the board ft cost that you paid that takes up the amount needed for instrument

_________________
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/

This concept is to build a creative decent sounding instrument without having to use top of the line materials. There are i bet a huge number of lurkers who would attempt building if they felt it could be done at a inexpensive cost. the idea here isnt spending bucks , its being creative with whats available .

Here is a good example



one of our friends here built this , Its CHIP BOARD , even the neck is Strand board ,and it has a great sound .
now admittedly I dont know what he spent , but the point is it can be done and I do believe that some people are convinced that if the dont have $ 300.00 back and sides and $140.00 tuners and a $200.00 top they cant be sucessfull ...... so they dont try .

_________________
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/

If you extend the time limit to 6 months, then I'm definitely in. Actually, the guitar I'm building now would qualify, but this is an excuse to build another.

_________________
Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

Considering it

I have pm'd Lance to see if we can have a " Challenge subheading " so that this can be a seperate area and if it goes as well as it seems , repeatable .

Hopefully we will hear back soon

_________________
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/

In my eyes, it just makes it more fun and relaxing because you know nobody's going to be building up a $1000 set of Brazilian. Also a good time for more experienced folks to show the newbies what you can pull off even without using expensive materials. Like the "$100 build challenge" and "back yard build" rolled into one, with the restrictions loosened

Pricing is definitely confusing though, with woods bought from luthier places, lumberyards, salvaged, harvested from personal property, received as gifts, part of a bundle, scraps/offcuts from past builds... I honestly don't know how to properly classify everything, so I think we should just go loosely $150-ish and don't worry too much about it.

In other words, the cheaper and more local, the better, but it's all a gradual scale of goodness and not strict requirements.

And as for this, which I think was in response to my first post in this thread

I sort of agree, but on the other hand not. I don't much enjoy the rough processing of wood into blanks, so I usually buy stuff from luthier supply places or people here. Maybe that should disqualify me from this competition, but I don't think it makes me unfit to build at all. I have a great appreciation for doing things completely from nothing, but the purity of the idea is corrupted as soon as I have to involve another person in the acquisition of the wood. Since the entire earth is owned by humans at this point, then unless a tree falls down in my back yard (which I hope doesn't happen within my lifetime, because I love all the trees there), I might as well save myself some drudgery and involve people to the point of cutting to blanks and start from there.

I'm just gonna relax on the local wood point and have fun with it.

I think the idea was "local woods " IE the spirit of the situation So yes its not a hard fast rule , again as Ive said befor the spirit of honesty prevails

_________________
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/

This makes the most sense to me, and I'd be most inclined to participate with this working definition.

Agree with James......Todd's definition is very workable. If I'm a pro, I wouldn't mind building with local woods but I wouldn' waste my time with cheap tuners. So it's simple to leave the hardware out of the cost and it doesn't affect the tone.......and it's doubtful folks will put Waverly's on a $150 instrument.

It would be sorta fun to see a Walnut challenge. Use whatever top/neck you want but back and sides must be American sourced Walnut. I bet there would be some killer guitars built. Then you could just forget about tracking cost.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......