Official Luthiers Forum!

Looking at your pictures confirmed my suspicion. I am way too far to be on the level that you guys have right now. Hopefully I'll get to the point wherein I can post things like these.

Thanks Josh, I have so many questions about tornavoz making, installation, how to glue the bridge, etc. I hope you don't regret your offer haha.



I buy it from Rivolta in Italy, this is the second guitar (both FE-13 shaped) I've made with euro Birdseye maple (I think it grew in the Balkans but don't quote me) and I've found it to be a bit less dense and much easier to work with than the North American Birdseye hard maple I've used. I think the traits are the same as any other Euro vs North American maple even though it's flat sawn, probably near identical to NA soft maple in most properties. The main advantage for me is the color, it's much more of a golden cream hue rather than either stark white or grey like much of the North American varieties are

Cleaned up my work bench so I could get a good picture.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Student's J45 from Gore plans.
Bracings carved, tapered 6.3m x 13mm on soundboard, 20mm x 10mm back, final cleaning to finish after holidays.

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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.

What's new in my shop? I bought a Grizzly bandsaw - a bench version. Haven't done much with it yet, but SOON. Also - buying a drill press from a family member soon. It's used, but that's okay with me. Photos and reports forthcoming!

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

Looks like I am going to have built 24 guitars this year....(173 total) That is my record! also I am working on a video with Robbie O'brian on building the ladder braced guitar.

Closing the box on #94, my first with Ovangkol. Double side with a Maple inner.

IMG_0393 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.

How many people would see the photo above, and wonder what weird experiments you were conducting in your shop...
Is it a cage for an alien?
Are you torturing a small animal?
Developing a new source of renewable power?

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

I had the honor to restore a guitar Tony Rice owned , a Santa Cruz D405. This was an interesting guitar with special thanks to Santa Cruz Darren Webb for a lot of interesting information


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3at27HbrGT4

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Let's see...
- I ordered the Laguna drill press... used the DP:20 at the Maryland shop enough to want to commit.
- Managed to assert dibs on the 12" G0702 disk sander which was up for grabs after the boys upgraded to a 20" variable speed unit... need to build up a base cabinet for it, but thrilled to upgrade from the 9" disk on my little Delta combo unit.
- The guitar I recently refretted twice (once with 80 x 43 and once with 95 x 47) just sold for $35K over previous sale price (which was already a bit crazy for a recent-production instrument). While I doubt the sale was contingent on my refret effort, it was nice to know that the fretwork was not a deal-breaker!
- Still on the fence re: separate shop building and another week of vacation before I start the new 'work from home' gig... decisions are the very devil.

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

I'm learning Whipping Post by the Allman Bros note for note.....

Repaired about 15 guitars this week working only a few hours in the mornings. We are always over booked now for the last several years and turning stuff away unless it's a smaller job that can be done in a day and back to the customer.

Bindings fitted on a Myrtle/Apline Spruce L-0


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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.

Electromagnetic voicing rig.

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

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Wanted to provide an update on our Bamboo 3D printer that we bought for lutherie applications.

Not much happening with the lutherie applications but it sure is printing some mean planters for growing vegetables....

So we have an ongoing debate we bought a printer but I failed and continue to fail to see just exactly what it's going to do for us repairing guitars. If we need a special caul we dawn our safety glasses, snag a piece of scrap wood, go in the tool room to Dan Erlewine's Dad's belt sander which is in our shop and bang one out. Easy peezy, fast and we are ready to go.

Conversely printing a caul takes time, there may be programming and there are costs for the filaments. The machine generates heat too which was not appreciated this past summer.

Anyway if you find any game changing applications for 3D printing in a busy lutherie repair shop please let me know

So I wanted to bump this thread which I just did - what's happening in your shops? Thanks

I promised pix awhile back....Sorry. Busy right now - I have 2 G&L guitars in for electronics work, a low-dollar Mexican flamenco guitar with a warped top and bridge (the rest has potential), and a black 1981 Les Paul Custom with a funky fingerboard... And the 3200 projects I have stacked across the house...

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

Made a neck removal jig for an upcoming repair, just waiting for an order of 1" square steel tube to go under the heel
Check fitted to a 12 fret L-0 parlour and a 14 fret J 45, plenty of adjustment left for a J-200 and probably a terz.







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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.

To follow up on Mr. Breakstone's 3D printer mention, I would agree that relatively few things get done for actual customer instruments, although here is a partial list:

- 'Ramp' for roller capo to park between key changes (this replaces the truss rod cover on a Taylor 1:1
- Nylon bushings to support vintage tuner posts when the guitar has been modified for moderne sealed bacl machines, and then returned to the vintage tuners.
- DIY tail jack filler with locking pin for guitars that cannot be supported with commercial offereings
- Prototype pickguards for conversions such as ASAT to dual P-90's (a question no one should ever ask)

In terms of my little shop and Greenridge's big one, their Bambu X1C gets a workout. In the past few weeks, I saw the following printed:

- Zero clearance and standard Grizzly G0514 inserts (dead ringers for the Grizz product, but about $0.30 each)
- Jet Exacta Saw (Left Tilt) tablesaw inserts (they have a dozen or so inserts they use for various blades and operations... a good Leecraft insert is about $35... that will pay for the 2 kilos of filament, heat-set inserts, and enough 8-32 x 1/2" set screws to make up 10-11 inserts
- Dust collection fittings which allow butted, smooth inside wall joins. Most recently, for joining various manufacturer's more-or-less 4" fittings from the 6" branches
- A cool little caddie that holds various CA/accelerator/dose cups, and pipettes
- Custom design brackets to work with the dust collection system for the drill press

Greenridge uses the printer (as well as a laser cutter/engraver and resin printer) as just another tool and has a copy of Fusion 360 on the shop Mac as well as a decent size monitor. I can do simple stuff with that application, but hope to get better with solid modeling over time.

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

Wow that's pretty cool Woodie and it sounds like you are utilizing the printers for a lot of stuff.

Dave's printed a lot of stuff but very little for lutherie. He's done brackets for holding the conduit supply from Detroit Edison to his home and he's going to grow hydroponic veggies over the winter so he's printing a couple dozen of these planters that stack and are part of a hydro drip system.

The looth group and luthiers such as Evan Gluck who was an early OLFer here and runs and owns New York Guitar Repair in NYC designed a "Gluck Puck" that is a device that clamps itself to Fender slotted tuners so when you slack the strings the string don't fall out of the tuners.

The Looth Group is big on the 3D printers and they have a database of much of the stuff that users came up with as lutherie tools and its a free, shared library.

We used ours to print the shims for the Martin SC series adjustable neck angle/joint so we are not dependent on Martin for the shims. That was a good application but no time savings or greater efficiencies just something to use it for.

But these results are all little projects in and of themself especially with the programming. Being a former GE person I can't get my mind off the clock when I work... it plagues me at times and I am very aware of how long I take to do jobs. So simple stuff like a caul for an odd bridge reglue programming and the time to print and a $200 job becomes a 3 hour effort and it dilutes our productivity. We have nearly every caul on earth from making them out of scrap wood as needed which is a 2 - 5 minute thing.

So I think they, 3D printers are cool and debate getting one too for my home to play with. But when I put on that GE hat and try to amortize costs (which is my first mistake....) I struggle to see any efficiencies from the devices for what we do.

You guys have taken the 3D printer use much further than we have and that's cool! If you think of it and you make something with it post it here maybe please? Thanks

Like Chris I have lots of projects; but maybe stock for 16. I had all sorts of trouble trying to get color on a viola. The other day I did a test of a coat of sandarac resin in alcohol as a sealer, and then some shellac colored with oil paint on that after it dried. The shellac dries real fast, so I'll find something to slow it down some. The color is what I want though, and it is 2 fast, easy coats. Then a clearish varnish can go on top.

So when I went to the fair at LLJohnson in Charlotte the beginning of September I bought a piece of Beech, I looked good for a guitar neck. But it is just big enough for a replacement viola! I cut it in half, and cut a wedge off one side to cut ribs out of. That long rip cut in 5" wide Beech is not fun. I ended up getting 5 strips, 1.5 mm thick that clean up real nice with my little #1 Wood River plane, at 1-1.2mm.

I have the power washing, sanding and cleaning done on my deck; now it needs sealer. At least 10 years ago I put some stain on it that was supposed to last longer. I was fading in a year on the tops. It is still going strong on the verticals. I never liked the color. Oh well. I built the deck in 92 the first summer we had the house. I was working 50-55 hours a week, 42 miles away, Got a book out of the library, and did what they said.

Still standing.

I did post a photo on here from the Kindle, but I don't remember what I did. I'll figure it out later.

Snow; I like it! I like your creativity.





Did it work?

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Why be normal?

Macassar Ebony, Blackwood, Tiger Myrtle end grafts.

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https://www.instagram.com/fostinoguitars/
https://www.facebook.com/PuraVidaUkuleles/

Very nice work David. 2 of my favorite woods too. Mceb and curly maple. Love the color of the maple, was it roasted or stained, either way I love it.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Don't want to hog the thread, but thought I'd show a little project
I've bolted a curved piece of 3 mm aluminium to the top of my bending iron instead of the piece I used before that was strapped to the the side (1st pic) and use it to better control bending bindings up and down before putting them in the side bender.
Probably because I use tighter radiai on my backs than most I've had some difficulties getting my wooden bindings to conform to the ledges, even with strapping tape holding them + a caul in the waist they tend to twist leaving bits proud if they aren't bent in 3 dimensions. Last pic is a trial with a section of binding I bent with this, sitting on the ledge at the waist just lightly held with a small piece of SM's best, flat waist the ledge all the way.


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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.

Just finished BRW/Engelmann falcate classical guitar. I got this set at the last GAL auction. R.E Brune donated it. Took me a bit to use the wood and make the guitar.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

That's stumming John.

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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.