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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:58 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian Rosewood
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Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
First name: Hesh
Last Name: Breakstone
City: Ann Arbor
State: Michigan
Country: United States
Status: Professional
What's your least favorite guitar building operation?

Mine is sanding - I hate sanding........ [headinwall] [headinwall] [headinwall] :D But I will admit that I do like to see the results as the dust cloud clears.

So let's hear about the things that we do when building a guitar that you find distasteful, stressful, annoying, tiring, etc?


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:13 am 
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Cocobolo
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Location: B.C. Canada
Set ups, I spend so much time on chasing buzzes around.

Peter


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:27 am 
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Koa
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Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:10 am
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Like Hesh, I don't like sanding. I also don't like installing frets 15 through 19 (classicals).


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:29 am 
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Koa
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Location: Lorette, Manitoba, Canada
First name: Douglas
Last Name: Ingram
City: Lorette
State: Manitoba
Country: Canada
Focus: Build
...and I have a love-hate relationship with binding.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:29 am 
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Sanding the radius and end taper in ebony fretboards. That ebony dust is filthy!

2nd place has to be sanding bone nuts and saddles on the disc sander. The smell puts me right on the edge of barfing! [xx(]

Mike Franks
www.mjfranksguitar.com


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:39 am 
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Old Growth Brazilian
Old Growth Brazilian

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I have to say that chasing buzzes is near the top but it is not always an issue so I will pick rubbing out sprayed finishes as mine. I love polishing and buffing but initial rub out is a bore


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:49 am 
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Koa
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Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:08 pm
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Location: Missouri
First name: Patrick
Last Name: Hanna
State: Missouri
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Trimming the overhanging edges of the top and back plates prior to finish sanding the sides. I can't say why. I guess it's an issue of patience and wanting to get along to the next step.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:52 am 
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Anything I have to re-do because I screwed it up the first time. [headinwall] [headinwall]

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:24 am 
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Mahogany
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Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:33 pm
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Location: Williamsburg Virginia 23188
Hesh wrote:
What's your least favorite guitar building operation?

My least favorite guitar building operation is carving and shaping the neck.
To me, that task is sheer drudgery.
Fortunately, both LMI and Stew-Mac have "solutions" available that now spare me that chore.
I have four guitars currently underway, and I bought a bolt-on pre-carved neck for each.
They're not cheap, but they allow me to spend my time on all the phases of lutherie that I think are a lot more fun.

Ken Grunst


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:55 am 
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Koa
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Location: sweden
First name: Lars
Last Name: Stahl
City: Stockholm
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well I havent come to that stage yet, BUT I can say that I hate to see that as soon as you have cleaned the work table, it takes only 5 min, before it´s all messed up again, "hate to clean" !! haha.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:57 am 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 11:44 am
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Location: Newark, DE
First name: Jim
Last Name: Kirby
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Ken Grunst wrote:
Hesh wrote:
What's your least favorite guitar building operation?

My least favorite guitar building operation is carving and shaping the neck.
To me, that task is sheer drudgery.
Fortunately, both LMI and Stew-Mac have "solutions" available that now spare me that chore.
I have four guitars currently underway, and I bought a bolt-on pre-carved neck for each.
They're not cheap, but they allow me to spend my time on all the phases of lutherie that I think are a lot more fun.

Ken Grunst


What variety is manifest amongst us! Neck carving is my favorite part!

Sanding for me - I just never seem to be able to hang in there long enough to get everything - I'm always going back to something after the first wash coat or grain fill says "Now would ya look at that!"

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:09 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 7:56 am
Posts: 225
Location: United States
Good post Hesh, here's my list

Enjoy
1. Finishing (mmm, love that nitro smell, always improves my attitude laughing6-hehe)
2. Making, gluing, shaving and voicing bracing
3. Final fitting of the neck

Dislike
1. Cutting binding channels, never seem to get it right. Sometimes fight with rosette though less
these days than before
2. Cleaning glue excess, Fish glue gets really hard and though I try to remove excess at the time of
gluing, there's always some left, a real time consumer.

Sanding never really bothered me though I find as years go by I'm more sensitive to the dust, have to wear masks
much more. Regarding necks, it's my opinion that building guitars should be enjoyable, if there is a certain part of the process you just don't enjoy and even find yourself dreading, come up with another solution.... like a neck from StewMac
etc. To me we need to concentrate on the things we enjoy, we probably do them best anyway. If you don't like
carving necks, let somebody do the carving for you and remove one step that's just not giving you any satisfaction.
Life is too short.
And, so was this past year, happy new year to all.

Best
Bruce

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"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:12 pm 
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BruceHerrmann wrote:
Regarding necks, it's my opinion that building guitars should be enjoyable, if there is a certain part of the process you just don't enjoy and even find yourself dreading, come up with another solution.... like a neck from StewMac


Or - learn to love it, get excellent at it and charge money to do it for others who still dread it [:Y:] [:Y:]

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:18 pm 
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Koa
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Location: United States
First name: Nelson
Last Name: Palen
Paying the bills.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:19 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 8:03 am
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Location: Toronto, Canada
Binding.

I have still yet to bind a guitar to the level of quality that will satisfy me.

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"All my favourite singers can't sing."


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:59 pm 
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Koa
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For me, it is sanding, and a very close second is cleaning up all the dust!

Chuck

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:45 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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I dislike making a new side laminating form. It's tedious, repetitive, and mechanical.

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http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:39 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Location: Tampa, Florida USA
Sanding too.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:51 pm 
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First name: Chuck
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I don't mind sanding at all. It's almost like I go in a trance, and when the sanding is done I wake up. [xx(]

Binding just tears me up. Fighting all those darn purfling strips and trying to fit in the binding with glue all over your fingers. Ripping off binding tape, and right where I want to stick it, there is a big blob of glue I have to clean while holding everything in place. Fighting the clock just gets me all worked up. I gotta have three beers and nine cigarettes when I'm finished.
gaah

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:26 pm 
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Location: SE Michigan
First name: Kenneth
Last Name: Casper
City: Northville
State: MI
Country: U.S.A
Focus: Build
Pore filling!

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:56 pm 
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I'm not to sure if I have one really. I like most parts of building.

Maybe the least favorite is waiting long enough to level sand the finish. Waiting for glue to dry so I can move one to the next step.

Oh and the least favorite is having to shut the shop lights off at 1am when I'm on a roll.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:14 pm 
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Walnut
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Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:54 pm
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Scraping binding flush and finish sanding (not finishing itself but sanding between coats) are the most tedious tasks for me. What do I like....neck carving and fitting, set up, and I particularly enjoy the process of concepting a project.

Steve Kovacik
Kovacik Guitars and Fretted Instrument Repair


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:42 pm 
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Walnut
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My least favorite is making jigs or tools. I just want to build guitars !!! Unfortunately buying tools and jigs isnt in the bugget most of the time. Then again if I had more time, building jigs and tools wouldnt be so bad bliss


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 11:27 pm 
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Cocobolo
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Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:48 pm
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Location: Bellingham, WA
First name: George
Last Name: Thomas
Country: USA
Focus: Build
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Least favorite is binding - mainly the cutting of the binding and purfling channels because of the trepidation involved. I still have not sorted out why sometimes the channel it is too deep and sometimes not deep enough on the same guitar. Then there is the "I forgot to check" part whether it is the tightness of the depth setting adjustment or the tightness of the nut holding the cutter in the laminate trimmer.

On the other side, carving necks takes me way back to art school days and carving sculpture. I do like french polishing, even the pore filling with pumice. Strange I know but hey, it is close to the time when I can string up the new classical guitar and see what the latest experiment in bracing, wood combination, top graduation or back and side thickness produces.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 12:17 am 
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Location: Windsor Ontario Canada
First name: Fred
Last Name: Tellier
City: Windsor
State: Ontario
Zip/Postal Code: N8T2C6
Country: Canada
Focus: Build
Status: Amateur
Sanding and scraping, I have a bad right shoulder and it doesn't like to do these things. All of the other building and finishing tasks are sometimes frustrating but usually enjoyable.

Fred Tellier

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