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What's the dumbest building mistake that you have ever made? Notice I said "building" and not "guitar building" in an effort to show my friend Andy Birko that I am trainable.......

For me it was back in the days of my old bathroom shop. Man I miss that shop..... Any way back then I spent every free moment, which were few in those days, building. I woke up one morning and on my way past the bathroom shop I noticed the OM body freshly bound and scraped and how the next step was to get out the Zona razor saw and cut away some of the top for the truss rod end.

So still half asleep I grabbed the saw and started cutting. I was half way done before I realized that I was cutting away the butt end of the guitar near the butt wedge. I had it upside down......

Anyway the result was a less than invisible patch and some serious time being mad at myself.......

We live and learn......

What's the dumbest building mistake that you ever made? And..... if you would like to submit multiple dumb mistakes please feel free - I have many more too......

Shortly after my son was born, deep into the sleep deprivation phase, i built a 335ish guitar. It was all sprayed and rubbed out pretty and red, tons of purflings upon purflings, super wood. I went to locate where the position of the floating bridge, and realised that i had joined the neck at the wrong fret, and the bridge would be literally floating above the neck pickup route if it were to be properly intonated. D'oh.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Great. Now instead of giving you a hard time I actually have to tell a story.

This was on my last bandura build actually and don't even know if it's considered a "build" mistake or not. I had everything complete, strung up and everything. Mind you stringing up takes about 2 to 3 hours because there's 60 strings on the dang thing. Anyhow, this was my third instrument and was a quantum leap better than the others in terms of fit, finish and also sound. I was so proud. Speaking of finish, it was my first sprayed and buffed finish and it came out really well.

Because there's too many strings on these things, I mark the G and C strings in each octave with this purple "dykem" layout fluid that really bites on to the strings - I think it's lacquer based with some sort of solvent that etches the metal just a bit. The markings make it about a million times easier to play. The one rub is that the ink also kills the sound if you put too much on. So I mark the wound strings and it works just fine but when I get to the plain steel strings the ink sort of beads up which I know can't be good for sound - I've seen it happen before. Before the thought even makes it through my cortex I watch in slow motion as my finger (which now has a mind of its own) plucks the string with the wet layout fluid on it.

The string vibrates.

I scream.

purple dykem goes flying all over my freshly buffed top etching its way into the lacquer.

Andy throws a temper tantrum

One of these days when I'm re-stringing the beast (usually no more than once every two years because of the time involved) I'll re-buff the area with the power buffer but for now, I did a salvage job on it using those micro abrasive cloth paper thingies that stew mac sells and most people don't notice. Of course I do. Note to self.....

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Every time I go back a step in order to improve completed work, I ruin the guitar. Such is the story of my flamed mahogany/italian spruce OM. I tried to remove the tortoise binding in order to cover up the back brace ends (which I left way too thick). Removing the binding resulted in all kinds of tear out. Fixing it led to even more. Just destroyed the whole thing.

And I've yet to build one that wasn't asymmetrical. That's all about to change with Dave Fefield and John Hall helping me out with some custom molds.

The enemy of good is better.
TJK

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

Probably a common one - bent one of the sides with the wrong face facing up. Didn't notice anything until I went to rout for the butt wedge....

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

I've made lots but one of many that jumps to mind was when I cut a left handed archtop back out of two beautiful figured maple wedges I'd joined. It's still up on a shelf a few years later, waiting to become something else.

This thread could get embarrassing.

I set the neck on my classical guitars using a technique described by David Schramm in his Online Apprentice course. Usually, this involves not gluing the sides into the heel block slots. Then, before gluing on the back, the neck is set to the right angle (to give the right clearance at the bridge) by adding shims between the foot and the first transverse brace on the back. The shims of thin veneer are added until the neck arrives at the right place, and then saved and reintroduced to set the neck during the gluing on of the back.

Of course, there was the one where the shims were forgotten ... Heh, what's with that neck angle anyway?

I also have one sitting around that has a body that got a little cockeyed during assembly - the sides slipped a little during gluing to the tail block. Would you believe that I didn't notice it until the binding channels were cut and the binding was installed and scraped level?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Andy, you have the patience of a saint. Stringing a plain guitar is sufficient to drive me nuts.

As for my dumb mistakes....pfff Hesh, I can write a book really. Let see, I think my latest guitar experienced the worst of these, one being that I profiled the rims and back braces to the doming i shoot for (I attach the braces to the guitar first) but stopped at 85% before going to bed. When I picked it up again the next day, I forgot i didn't finish, I should have sanded about 2-3mm more off the neckblock....glued the back without checking, ended up with a serious dip between upper and center transverse braces It is not really visible, but another luthier armed with a straight edge would cringe.
I'd have more to tell but I am too ashamed

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Build log

I built a Brazilian Rosewood Lefty 000-12 for a West Coast customer that I never got to meet in person. He loved the guitar except for the fretboard side dots that were on the wrong side of the fretboard!

Mike Franks
http://www.mjfranksguitar.com

Which instrument??

Not enough heat while bending side (cocobolo) .....bent, walked away, the bender started shakin'. .minor earthquake???. ..dogs still asleep... ., next day the bottom side was minor creased in the waist, top side is straight...sitka/coco/maple...great house/neighborhood guitar....

Dumbest mistake, hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Starting the first one Do you know how much money I could have saved?

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Well, let's see
I've put the fret marker dots in the wrong place & not noticed it until I've got the board glued on...made the FB too short to cover the rosette gap...inverted a side more than once, closed a box with the top still bolted to the work board through the soundhole...more will come to me I'm sure.
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Not double checking the accuracy of a set of plans that I was using a a rough guide to build a 24.9 scale guitar. Turns out that my copy lost something in translation at the printer (mainly about 3/16" of an inch between the neck joint and the saddle). The result was basically a guitar without compensation. But the truly dumb thing was, I forgot about the problem and used the plan as a guide a couple of guitars later.

Now I triple check all my measurements.

Just some basic mistakes:

Bought a low end set of topwood, with knot shadows in the upper bout cutaway, and used that end for the lower bout. - But I never finished THAT guitar, ha!

Glued up a top (HHG) without securing one end of the clamp system....

Dropped my Paduk back on the floor, improperly stored, and it cracked (mainly on the wood, not glue seam!) So now it may not get used. Now I can't do a paduk/mahogany geetar combo...

Bought some Cello pegs (25 taper) when I need 30 degree taper (violin)

Somehow drilled my endblock hole crooked through the neck joint. (but I straightened it out.) ..then drilled through the neck support...

Almost made a headstock mistake, but I caught it.

Its really endless..

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

The first bridge I made was for nylon strings. It turned out great, looked good. Bone tie block and all. I just didn't have a 7th string to put in the 7th hole.

I really need to make a big sign for my shop that says SLOW DOWN.

Leaving a side spreader inside a guitar that was to big to remove thru the sound hole. I had to remove the top to get it out.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I did that once John. I used a jig saw and cut the spread caul in half.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Installed a butt wedge upside down (yeah, I know, some of you like it that way). Also, bent a side the wrong way. However, I found out before I glued her up (unlike our unlucky friend above). Fortunately, I was able to rebend it. Who'd of figured?

My stories (so far) are not as funny as those above. I wish you would ask about car repairs... one time I was trying to get the air blower in my wifes Taurus "unstuck". So I sprayed some silicone under the glove box into the channel where I could see the fan. I reached over while looking at the fan and hit the power switch. Nothing. So I stuck a long screwdriver in there to prod the motor. Not sure what happened next. I do remember flames and smoke. Lost my eyebrows in that one.

Mike

I'm only building the first, so I don't have a huge library of these yet. I have a multitude of mistakes, it's just not many I would classify as "dumb".

I would have to say that the dumbest thing I've done thus far was I had glued on the fretboard to the neck. To locate the fretboard position and maintain it when clamping I used some cut off staples in a location that my saw blade wouldn't hit when I cut the taper. Well while carving the neck, I uncovered them. I did a good job on getting them out except for one that didn't go as deep and therefore I didn't see it until the neck was mostly shaped. So in getting it out, I left a crater that I've filled. Fortunately it's on the topside where I will see it EVERY time I play it. I guess it will be my reminder to never do that again.

Darrin

I swear that on all my guitars so far, at least 80% of all dings, gaps, misalignments, you name it, happened on the top half where one can see them while playing, while the bottom half is always perfect. If I could only get my hands on that Murphy guy...

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Build log

My very first guitar I did the same thing. It was a solid body electric, and I measured the string spacing by dividing by 6 instead of 5. whoops.

Sure was a pretty inlay that covered that one up, though. Definitely a bonus of working solid body; If it don't look purty, rout it out and put in somethin' that does!

Dumbest woodworking thing I've done was to cut a set of dovetails the opposite way round on each end of a board for a jewelry box....so frustrating.....had to start the whole thing over!!

Measure once, cut twice....er.....do I have that right?

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

As I reported before, I used the Shop Vac to suck out dust in the guitar and I acidentally let the edge of my hand touch the guitar. The vacuum pulled my hand against the sound hole, sealing it, and then the top got sucked down and collapsed.

After I proudly looked at my first back braced up, I chiseled out the pockets in the rim to attached the back. When I woke up the next morning and went to the shop to admire my work, I wondered why there was no arch. On closer inspection I realized I cut the pockets on the top of the rim and not the back. Thankfully, I was too tired the night before to finish attaching the back with glue.

Vince