Official Luthiers Forum!

Very nice Brian, boy do you sound chuffed!

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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.

Good for you Brian. Beautiful guitar, reviews and accomplishment!

You've been lucky to pursue your dreams early in life and stick with it, never easy either!

But dang man, you are doing well. Congrats!!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Beautiful guitar Brian, congrats on getting it into the Guitar Salon.
Been working on my first mandolin, and F4/F5 Hybrid - oval hole with the raised fingerboard.
So far....

2 coats of Rubio Monocote on Madrose back and sides.
Speckled Maple bindings.
Neck is Hog with 4 coats Osmo satin.
All open pore.
J45 style.


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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.

Ooh, that is the really nice mad rose. Used to be more of that around. I haven’t seen that stuff in a while.

First hand-bent sides build. I'm enjoying the process and looking forward to the result.
Queensland Maple. This is a first test to build confidence before committing my AAAA flame maple back and sides set.

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Breanna Anderson
https://glyphstone.studio

Looking good.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Hot pipe bending can be challenging at first but you seem to have aced it on the first try….congrats.
Just a curious question about the end block not being the same height as the sides. Is the side to be planed down?

the head and tail blocks have a groove in them to accommodate the back lining passing through. The back will be removable and set into a groove in the back lining. This will allow easy access to the body interior for adjustments and changes as this is an experimental prototype. The angle of the shot makes it look like the blocks are recessed from the back edge but not really that much and the lining will come right up to the current side high less adjustment for radius.

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Breanna Anderson
https://glyphstone.studio

Removable back prototype.
I really want to see it when you finish it.
Tom

I'm liking this GluBoost Flash Coat and it's aerosol
After build coats I was able easily to level the nitro with P1200, there was very little orange peel.
This is my first attempt at a nitro finish.
I'm going to wait at least 3 days for the final level and buff.
They say it can be buffed after 24 hrs drying but I'll play safe. Far cry from the 5 weeks normally recommended for nitro. Will make repairs much faster, but is expensive for a finish from bare wood, even with a seal coat of shellac.


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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.

I never waited 5 weeks for nitro. As soon as I couldn't smell it outgassing, I'd begin the buffing process. Time is money.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

My student's J-45 in Madrose and Lutz was finished today and is off with a very happy owner to its new home.
She didn't want, or even really need, a new guitar she told me (already has several) but wanted to make something interesting with her own hands, and has very much enjoyed the process.
Medullary rays on the soundboard are always nice to see, nice ones on this top.



Sent from my moto g(50) using Tapatalk

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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.

It's getting pretty sleepy on the OLF.

Glueing the back up on my 5th guitar; and a mini shop-shot:
EDIT: Added the back glueup
OM Style; 14 Fret
EIR back and Sides
Torrefied Sitka Spruce top and top braces.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Karl, there is room for a couple more clamps!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Haha I know, and Amazon just delivered 8 more orange quickies.
I believe that's a set, and enough I would ever need (said no one) at one time- I love those Jorg clamps!

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

Just finished up this F4/F5 Hybrid Mandolin - my first foray outside of guitar building.
It was....quite the journey!
It is basically an F5 based on the Loar dimensions, with the raised fingerboard and the 14th fret join, but using a sound hole and X-braces like an F4 instead of the F-Holes.
According to the rather accomplished fellow I built it for, it plays and sounds great!

That's really nice Robbie!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Beautiful work! Looks perfect.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Stunning Robbie.

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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.

I've been making bridge pins out of sticks from the yard. As with most things it's too time consuming to be profitable, but sticks have radial patterns you can't get with regular lumber, and it's so much fun treasure hunting for nice colors. Black walnut is mostly white sapwood, but has dark spots near twig branch points.

I use a 4-jaw chuck so I can adjust the centering for irregular shape and curvature, and a lathe tool to turn down the starting diameters (7mm for the head, 5.3mm for the shank), but the actual tapering and head shaping is eyeballed with files. I'm not sure how you even would machine them precisely since the wood flexes proportionally to the distance from the chuck. Maybe my tool isn't sharp enough, or RPM not high enough.

The final finish is done by dousing the head with shellac, shaking off the excess, and hanging it from masking tape until dry. But first it needs to be pre-coated with shellac and sanded with 320 grit.

These are sycamore:

I also made a bunch of willow oak:

But my favorite is the mottled walnut, so I used them:

That’s way cool Dennis, to machine the taper would something like the pencil sharpener work? Not the wall mounted kind but the one we kept in our pencil bag.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

I think Something Like this would work. Supporting the material so the cutter has something to push against

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Great idea! I think that would work while it's still on the lathe (the head isn't really enough to grip after parting it off). And the head is well supported near the chuck, so I can probably grind a form tool to do it in one shot.

I like it a lot also and may try to make some myself.

I think I'd make my initial dowels round by tapping them thru a dowel plate (they make very round dowels).

Then make a "peg shaver" like they use for violin pegs (lots of plans on the internet) I don't think you can buy them in bridge pin sizes, but fairly easy to make with a block of wood with a hole reamed to pin taper.

Sharpen the end of your dowel with the shaver.

Then I'd make a "taper collet" that could even be made from hardwood, mount the collet in your lathe jaws.

Tap the sharpened dowel into the taper collet which would center and hold it w/friction.

Cut to length in the lathe.

Then as you said Dennis, make a lathe cutting tool to cut the bead and ball end in one shot. Shouldn't be any flex to worry about with only the ball extended beyond the collet.

Pull the pin out with a bridge pin tool and repeat.

I think you could knock them out pretty fast and uniformly.

I've often thought about making pins but never thought it thru.

Thanks for the inspiration!

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED