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Getting close to completing a Honduran Rosewood classical, nearing the end of my french polishing.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Honduran rosewood - one of my top three favorites, I like the sapwood!

I’ve been fighting snakewood binding on a cutaway. Stuff is stiff! Next time I’ll have to bend it better.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Black locust 000 is done.

Put a little shellac on this cherry dread

Well strictly speaking, not my shop anymore, but interesting in any case.

I swear the boys have a bullet-pointed list of things to do that starts with '...Tempt Woodie back into shop.' This was the case a few weeks ago when I was headed down to Rockville for a hair appointment. Received the following while passing G-town southbound:

"1960 Strat...unmolested except for 5-way conversion... needs your TLC. 1934 long-scale bar fretted 000-18 shady NEVER OVER-SPRAYED that cries out for shaved bridge repro swap, reset, refret, and some side cracks healed. You in?"



I stopped by. A mistake.

In addition to the vintage eye-candy, there was quite possibly the finest sounding OM finger-style guitar I've ever heard... the Kim Walker Braz/Adi poster child on his site (getting a touchup on the varnish finish due to a head stock ding). While I was there, the owner came by in his 'sensible, every-day' F8 Spider to pick up another instrument (where does it go???). Some people have the nicest toys, but seem reluctant to share them (I asked... no solo road-trips through rural western Montgomery County while the owner was occupied in the shop).

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

Very cool Woodie that sounds like a great time!! Very cool guitars and client toys too.

Just whittlin'.

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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.

Multi tasking--rebuilding 60's Vibrolux Reverb and building 7 string Hawaiian...

Dave

Cool Dave. Are you recapping the amp, tell us more please

Re capping, 3 pronging the cord, going through all of the resistors and replacing any that have drifted too far, new reverb tank, etc. plus a good cleanup in general. This one has never been touched electronically since 69--original black plate RCA tubes even (still test good), and it was played a lot. Vibrolux Reverbs run a lot cooler than something like a twin, and that undoubtedly has something to do with tube longevity.

When I get this one done, I have a classic old DeArmond that needs the same treatment minus the reverb tank.

Dave

Finally got around to cutting that ebony tailpiece.

M

Elegant, Michael!

I’m making some progress on the next uke, a ziricote baritone (aka “ziribari” ):





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Very nice!

How deep is the body if you don’t mind me asking?

85mm at the tail with a taper to 75mm at the neck.


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Looks great! What's your plan for grounding the strings?

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

Thanks Terence,

Do I still need to ground the strings if *not* using a magnetic pickup?

M

I am not an electronics expert but I don’t think so.

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

No, you don’t need to ground the strings if not using a magnetic pickup

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

When I have my old DeArmond Rythm Chief pickup on a monkey stick mounted on my archtop guitar, are the strings grounded by the monkey stick being mounted by clamping across the strings behind the bridge? Never thought about it before.

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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

With flattop guitars, magnetic soundhole pickups never require grounding the strings--same thing with the end of fingerboard floating archtop pickups I've used. I don't know why that is--maybe because regular magnetic pickups in an electric guitar are connected to a ground plane within the guitar where soundhole pickups just float? I dunno...

Dave

Finally finished this Snakewood binding. Most difficult binding I’ve worked with, even worse than Ebony.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've only tried snakewood binding once. It was in the steel string guitar building course I took years ago and it just would not bend without breaking in either a bending machine or on a hot pipe. Bailed on it and switched to sycamore for that guitar. I'm glad you got yours to work. It looks great.

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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

Thank you sir! I've got enough for another guitar but not sure I'll use it, if I do it for D$%# sure won't be another cutaway

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Yesterday I was able to make a repair on my bandsaw after a year of being out of use, and today I got some major clean and organization done.

Bet that feels good!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Definitely a psychological boost! Nothing makes you want to get to work like a messy workspace with tools in disrepair.


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