Official Luthiers Forum!

Nice shot of a beautiful car. I once owned a 65 Giulia TI, the much uglier sedan version. With 1600 cc’s and a single Solex carb it was no drag racer but it had a sweet spot around 90 mph.

Lutherie related stuff - I was working on two Mariachi instruments, a vihuela missing its bridge and a guitarron with a cracked heel



when I heard a car in the drive. It was one of my buddies in his Prius with his dog, 3 year old daughter, three guitars and his wife's double bass. "We have a gig this weekend, can you check the bass and check my Martin for a buzz and restring the Taylor and refret the Alvarez......." We'll, OK, but I've also got a Neopolitan mandolin that needs tuners..."





Otherwise just an ordinary day....

In prowling through the shop library (which includes the boss's professional library as well), I happened upon a copy of a paperback titled 'A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown.' Having had some close association with that sort of garment, it reminded me that - while no challenge to the aerodynamic and structural perfection of a Canadian goose's wing - a well-fitted strapless evening gown is every bit as miraculous an engineering achievement as anything else designed by Man (or by Valentino, as the case may be).

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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H. L. Mencken

I made a 9 inch convex scrub plane for roughing out the arch top I started. I have more photos of it on my archtop build blog. https://kensarchtop.blogspot.com/2019/0 ... plane.html

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Why be normal?

The latest shop improvement project:
My shop is under 200 sq ft, so I had to get creative with the bulky buffer. It swings up with a rope and pulley setup with reduction borrowed from my sailing days.





Building a Tele from scratch with our son for a HS graduation present. He did most of the work and ALL of the fretwork. There's potential here!

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

That's the way to get tools out of the way! I was always stumbling over mine, I sold it and now I'm going to build one. When the time comes and I may consider this approach. Thanks for posting this.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!
That's a reminder for me.

"Alan Carruth, IMO the 12-fret 000 or 14 fret OM size (15" wide lower bout) is god's size for the steel string guitar, especially for fingerstyle. I would also try to get away from scalloped bracing and lean toward 'straight' or 'tapered' bracing. Scalloped emphasizes bass and 'punch', where straight bracing, and especially 'tapered' (sometimes called 'parabolic') leans more toward treble and sustain."

Here are some of my latest creations. A two-week old and the sound system in my car.

After finishing my last guitar project I drifted away from guitar-making a bit but got really interested in high-end car audio. I spend so much time driving and listening to music, the second I listened to the system in the owner's car of the local hi-end car audio shop, I was hooked. So now my car is full of over-priced equipment, high-end drivers, sound treatments, etc. And I enjoy every second of listening to it.

But... Last week the little one and I were cuddling and she looked up at me as if to say, "I heard you make guitars. I'd love something special." And the bug was re-kindled.

I love these discussions where we get to see what people are really like. My "other stuff" includes a 40 foot sailboat my brother and I built in the late 70's. As she was going back into the water after a winter on the hard near Albany, NY, I noticed the sun coming in through a skylight and hitting the mast. The mast is a 61 foot hollow box of Sitka Spruce. We bought the wood from Maurice L Condon in NY in 1979. We asked for Marine Grade which Is allowed to have pin nots and a certain amount of runout. He called back (remember telephones) and said all he had was aircraft Grade and would we accept that at the same price - well since Aircraft Grade has no defects and minimal runout we said "sure". Think of a 2X4 supporting the wings of a Piper Cub while your life hangs below it. He said he had 80 footers in the 5 and 9 inch widths we needed if we could arrange for shipping. We couldn't, so he cut it at 38 feet (remember 40 foot trucks). We built the mast, made the bronze hardware, and this is the boat's 40th season in the water and the mast still looks great.

So we have 300 pounds of the prettiest, knot free Sitka Spruce going. Some of the 38 footers had ZERO runout over the length on the faces, and less than 3/8" of runout in the thickness. I never guessed at the time that I would be intrigued with pieces of Sitka Spruce that weighs mere ounces. We also used Alaskan Yellow Cedar along with Cherry in the iterior of the boat, and I just finished a guitar that is all AYC - neck included.

That is beautiful Ed.

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“There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.” - Emile Zola

Nice!

A pair of plant stand for our church. Maple and laminated sapele.

Congrats, James!!

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"Is this the one where I trot downfield and act like I'm lost ?" - Billy Bob

Just finished a project. My lovely daughter got married and I made them a wedding gift. They live in a 750 ft2 apartment in Manhattan, NY, with floor space at a premium, so we settled on a wall cabinet. I had never fully appreciated the design of James Krenov, but scrolling through cabinet images for inspiration, some of them hit me. My daughter repairs guitars, so how about a bit of guitar influence in the cabinet. It would be real easy to carry this whole thing too far, so I tread lightly

1) here is what I came up with. My inspiration was Gibson's early arch topped guitars.

2) The veneer was put on with a hand powered vacuum pump which was cheap and would be great for a few luthiery jobs like bridge and brace gluing and

3) The back is Sitka Spruce from Alaska Specialty Woods and I put a sunburst on it

4) The pulls are Brazilian Rosewood radiused to 16" on both sides with fretwire for a grip

5) and they look great on there

I am in the habit of taking a lot of shots with my guitars so I can do next time what I did this time, so here are too-many shots of this thing. Great fun doing coopered doors and veneering for the first time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/33229296168/in/album-72157706524329895/

Ed

Really a beauty!!


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"Is this the one where I trot downfield and act like I'm lost ?" - Billy Bob

Really nicely done Ed!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Lovely! How appropriate for your daughter's home, given her profession!

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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H. L. Mencken

Here is a cedar strip paddle board I made a few years back, and my dad’s ‘53 Studebaker that I posted here years ago is finally on the road. Most of the heavy lifting on the Stude was farmed out.


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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Nice!
I think the starliner coupes were the prettiest design Studebaker ever made.

I'm fromDetroit, and the Belle Air's, GTO's, Mustangs, Novas, and even Vettes bore me. There is even a custom car shop 1/4 mile down the road from me that I've never even looked at. That Stude is cool. It has real attitude.

My wife agrees, and says the board is too nice to use!

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Why be normal?

Your Hawk is my close second favorite Studebaker behind the Avanti. My uncle had 2 Hawks of the Golden variety. Nicely done.

Ed

I think of Studebaker as the Larson brothers of the car world - they built a good quality forward looking automobile, but were never able to capture the market share they deserved.
I guess the mid 50's starliner and starlite (added B pillar) coupes grew fins and did morph into the later 50's Hawk series, but like the T-bird, I think the earlier ones looked nicer than the later ones. A friend of mine had the last Hawk incarnation - the gran turismo, back when it was another old car that was hard to source parts for. My older brother had a mid sixties Lark, a car bought cheap because it was one of the last Studebakers made.
The Avanti as it's name implies, was certainly a forward looking car, but the Starliner and Cisitalia 202, are among the very few coupes that I am attracted to. I generally prefer open two seaters.

Speaking of Studebakers, here's my favorite Stude photo ever, dripping with the innocence and sunny outlook of the early 50s. I guess we're officially off-topic now.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

My goodness...a model with actual curves and positively luscious contours. And the young lady in the photo seems pleasingly proportioned, as well.

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Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H. L. Mencken

Yeah, and if she would have just stood off to the side a bit more and not blocked the view of the car....
Perhaps I'm getting to be like the two octogenarians who stumbled on a talking frog. The frog said "if you kiss me I will turn into a young beautiful princess". One of the men picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The other asked "aren't you going to kiss the frog to turn it into a princess?" to which the other replied "At my age what am I going to do with a young beautiful princess?.... Now a talking frog!.!.!."
When my wife drags me to dance recitals I am as inclined to admire the young ladies flexibility as their pulchritude.
Bathing suits have changed since that photo was snapped.