Official Luthiers Forum!

Scrape scrape scrape!

M

Oh my!


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Is that Lacewood?

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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!

I think it's leopardwood and I always wondered how it would look in a guitar.

Looks gorgeous! I made some bindings from it and found it liked to make super sharp splinters and lots of them but in spite of the grain it bent well.

Lacewood, I'll take your word for it since it's yours. I've gotten them confused but I was sure I bought leopardwood and it looks just like it.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

You know, after looking at some images online, I think you are right.

Best, M

That's funny Michael, we posted about the same time and as soon as I saw lacewood I had to go look again because as I said, I've confused them before myself and suspected I did again.

I sure like the guitar and the seam is quite invisible. Good work!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Leopard wood is sometimes called and sold as lacewood. Australian northern Silky Oak is another wood sold as lacewood. And then there is lacewood, which seems to go by the name Brazilian lacewood, or South American lacewood. I'm sure there are a few other "lacewoods" out there.

Wow Michael! Nice!

Kind of a cool repair, a KayKraft Mandolin with a loose neck and other issues that belonged to a woman’s late grandmother. A farm kid, she got it at age 16 in 1932, during the depression. The finish was completely worn off the neck in the first position. Had her initials decaled on the upper bout. (I read that Kay supplied dealers with those to personalize an instrument)

Got it playable and it had a delicate sweet tone. I think it was well loved and I imagined it bringing some joy to a farm kid and maybe her family during tough times.

IMG_8216 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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

The mother of toilet seat head stock overlay is pretty cool Terry. These old mandos are often great restoration projects. I did a 50 something old Harmony mando.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

It’s Neck:30 - I’ve got 10 days

M

Simple koa rosette and sound hole binding for the prototype mandocello I'm building.

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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

Active electronics circa 1964.

Sprinter van cabinets in BRW/Lutz Spruce.


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

Wow. This has to be the biggest thread in the history of the OLF!

When I banged out this solera from cheap plywood for my first classical, it was to be temporary since the classical was built on a whim, just to see what they're like. I expected I'd go back to steel strings soon after, but right away I got two orders for classicals and now, ten classicals later, I thought it was time to build a better solera.

Here's the old, first one. It served me well enough, but didn't quite have the accuracy I wanted.



Below is the new one. The base is MDF, the mold is Baltic birch. I still have to put some sort of stiffener along the length of the bottom to ensure flatness, since it controls the neck angle. The base is dished to allow for the dome in the top, and the nut end is planed down 2mm. Last step will be the finish. I'll probably use spray shellac, but I'd also like to treat the fragile edges of the MDF to stabilize them for protection. The MDF is highly absorbant on the edges, so CA would make them really ding resistant, but using that much CA would have an intolerable stink in my little shop not to mention expense. Maybe some sort of wood stabilizer? I thought also of epoxy, but I think something thin would penetrate better. Any ideas?

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

Uncle pat maybe watered down Titebond would be good enough.

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Pat

On my MDF side bending molds, sanding dishes, and assembly forms etc, I experimented with a bunch of finishes to seal and protect the MDF. Oil based finishes, water based, shellac....

I ended up using Zinsser Seal Coat dewaxed shellac. After slobering on 6 coats or more I finally got a "finish" on them and it stopped soaking in.

It was cheap and easy and they have held up really well. Tape and glue come off well and it really seemed to harden up the MDF.

One of the things I was testing for was something that would hold up to heat since I was using the MDF for a bending form with blankets. Of all the soak in coatings i tried, good old shellac also held up the best to heat, all the rest got gummy.

If you are doing a lot, get 2 qts of Sealcoat. You think it will never stop soaking in but it does. I'd consider doing the entire thing, not just the edges, I think you'll like it.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Made it out from the buffer alive! This is the first guitar I’ve done with the Cardinal UV polyurethane. I’ve done a couple ukes with it. Osmo satin on the neck. Always learnin….












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WOW Brad, Thing of great beauty there man! Do guitars get any better than that?

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Really beautiful, Brad. I'm sure I'll pick your brain a bit more about the Cardinal urethane. It is coming out great on your guitars!

Hi Pat,
You can seal the edges of MDF with latex paint, but the super glue will give you a "harder" edge. To avoid the fumes I would apply it out of doors. If you are just doing the edges it might not take too much CA, and MDF being a paper-like material, most CAs will dry pretty quickly.

Hi Brad,
Shiny! Very Shiny! Nice looking finish (nice looking guitar).

2nd, 3rd, and 4th build!


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Hi Dan and welcome to the OLF. Looks like you have three going on there, very cool.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

[quote="Pat Foster"]
Below is the new one. The base is MDF, the mold is Baltic birch. I still have to put some sort of stiffener along the length of the bottom to ensure flatness, since it controls the neck angle. The base is dished to allow for the dome in the top, and the nut end is planed down 2mm. Last step will be the finish. I'll probably use spray shellac, but I'd also like to treat the fragile edges of the MDF to stabilize them for protection. The MDF is highly absorbant on the edges, so CA would make them really ding resistant, but using that much CA would have an intolerable stink in my little shop not to mention expense. Maybe some sort of wood stabilizer? I thought also of epoxy, but I think something thin would penetrate better. Any ideas?
/quote]

Hi Pat, I make my soleras from MDF too and use minwax wipe on polyurethane to seal them. The lack of moisture in poly prevents the varnish from warping the solera (thus defeating all the hard work put in to creating the proper geometry) and after 6 coats it no longer soaks into the mdf, helps to harden it, and provides a surface in which glue won't stick should you have some excess squeeze out while gluing peones.

Also I'm not sure how deep you've scooped your solera but I've found 2mm of neck lift to be a bit excessive. I use 1.5mm with great results, as does my mentor in Granada. If you find this to be the case too its easy enough to add a half mil shim

French polishing a number of guitars at the moment but I've just delivered (client flew me out to Dallas) a crossover guitar in Swiss spruce and Brazilian Rosewood and just finished up this Swiss spruce (purchased from the great Andres Marvi) and Indian rosewood concert model