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Has LMII's quality gone downhill?
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=49641
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Author:  Chameleon [ Fri Aug 18, 2017 10:31 am ]
Post subject:  Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

I got a bass fretboard pre-slotted from them, was definitely not glue ready, whole thing was cupped a bit, by the time I had the face flat the fret slots were too shallow to take the frets. What's the point in pre-slotting if I have to re-cut the stupid things? I should note that this fretboard was a REPLACEMENT after I got one that was heavily forward bowed. It's already on the neck so I'm not trying to get yet another replacement, I'm just disappointed. If I had the space I would just have my own fret blade on a table saw and never have to worry about this crap.

Edit: I don't have to re-cut all of the frets, but enough to be a real pain in the...
I hate cutting fret slots by hand.

Author:  Don Williams [ Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

No doubt the fault is more than likely temperature and humidity changes during shipping.
This is why it's a better bet to buy the fretboards and slot them yourself...

Author:  Hesh [ Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

What Don said AND where are you located, generally speaking. It could be that your climate and LMI's are very different in terms of RH. Lastly is your building environment/shop humidity controlled and if so what range do you subscribe to?

Author:  Imbler [ Fri Aug 18, 2017 3:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

Don Williams wrote:
No doubt the fault is more than likely temperature and humidity changes during shipping.
This is why it's a better bet to buy the fretboards and slot them yourself...


Not being argumentative, just trying to learn.

Wouldn't the wood return to its original form if well seasoned when they cut the slots and you kept it long enough to have even moisture throughout the wood?

I can see it distorting due to moisture differential in the wood if you had different humidity (doesn't nearly everyone?) from when they cut it. But once you keep it in your humidity controlled environment long enough, it seems like it should return to the way it was when properly seasoned.

Author:  Hesh [ Fri Aug 18, 2017 4:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

Imbler wrote:
Don Williams wrote:
No doubt the fault is more than likely temperature and humidity changes during shipping.
This is why it's a better bet to buy the fretboards and slot them yourself...


Not being argumentative, just trying to learn.

Wouldn't the wood return to its original form if well seasoned when they cut the slots and you kept it long enough to have even moisture throughout the wood?

I can see it distorting due to moisture differential in the wood if you had different humidity (doesn't nearly everyone?) from when they cut it. But once you keep it in your humidity controlled environment long enough, it seems like it should return to the way it was when properly seasoned.



If the OP lives in a high humidity climate and does not have strict RH control in the shop LMI's very neutral climate which is near perfect for Lutherie produces products accustomed to the 40 - 50% range for building. So if for example the OP does not have strict climate control and lives in a high RH area it's understandable that things stabilized for one range will banana in another.

A slotted fret board is about as sensitive as it gets to massive RH swings and I can understand, if my hunch is correct and Don's too why this happened.

Author:  Hesh [ Sat Aug 19, 2017 5:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

We can't know for sure where the OP lives but from his link it may be the Ozarks. If that is the case check out this link and pay attention to the humidity AND note when it spikes annually. It's WAY high right now and very possibly the source of the wood movement that he's seeing and not anything to do with LMI's excellent QC.

I'll reiterate that if there is not a climate controlled shop, also a possibility from his link, warping wood here we come. ;)

https://weatherspark.com/y/10945/Average-Weather-in-Lake-Ozark-Missouri-United-States

Where I used to live I had a screened in deck on a pond. I once took a braced top out of my climate controlled shop and went on the deck to sand the underside, braces, etc. The humidity difference was only 15% between the two locations. In less that 20 minutes my top had lost it's dome.... :? Upon returning it to the shop the dome returned the next morning. It was a valuable lesson in RH control of unbraced structures for me.

Author:  Chameleon [ Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

I live in Dallas. As soon as I got the board it went indoors in an air conditioned home. I work outside in the mornings before the death-heat, then everything comes in with me. Maybe they could cut the slots just a little deeper to counter this or put the wood in a sealed bag or something, they just toss them in a flimsy box with some packing peanuts, subject to any humidity changes that may happen along the way. The first board remains forward bowed.

Author:  Hesh [ Sat Aug 19, 2017 12:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

Thanks Mark. Dallas can have high humidity in the mornings but you know too excessively dry can also be an issue if the wood was milled in a different RH range.

This is why every guitar builder that I know controls the RH in their shop and/or has a humidity controlled box of sorts for storage.

Anyway not shilling for LMI and it's been about 10 years since my last order with them but I always received excellent quality stuff and service from them, always! My business buys our HHG from them and that reminds me I need to place an order with them for HHG.

Lastly cutting the slots deeper would be problematic on a number of fronts. First there is more unfilled slot to fill for those who don't use bindings or don't like the look of fret tang ends and voids. Next deeper slots would encourage even more reaction to RH swings since the solid wood part is now thinner.

Sorry this happened to you but you might want to consider some RH control. I've answered nearly 20,000 posts on this forum alone now and when asked by new builders for getting started advice, and I know that you are not a new builder, the first thing I always suggest is calibrated AND checked hygrometers and an RH controlled building/storage environment.

Author:  Chameleon [ Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

Yeah if I was making money on instruments or was otherwise reasonably wealthy I would look into that but it's not an option right now.

Author:  Chameleon [ Sat Aug 19, 2017 2:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Has LMII's quality gone downhill?

I'd also like to point out that on the second board they sent, they had the frets cut on a side with a big, kinda ugly black streak on it while the other side was basically perfectly clean. Why they chose the side with the visual defect as the face, I'm not sure, but I was already done with the back and forth at this point.

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