Official Luthiers Forum!

OLF’er Please welcome Advanced Shell Technology (AST) to our fine family of sponsors!



AST is a new company that is dedicated to making guitar building more efficient while
producing superior construction and aesthetic results.

AST’s flagship product – ZipFlex, may be the most innovative product aiding guitar inlay that we’ve seen since Chuck Erickson introduced Abalam shell.

ZipFlex is a genuine abalone inlay strip that has been engineered to be very flexible. It can easily flex enough to go around the edge of virtually any soundboard (including cutaways). It can install in approximately 1/10th the time it takes to install the traditional shell materials when being inlaid around the edge of a soundboard, sides or back.





This innovation allows for all builders – from the factory big names to the hobbyist, to enjoy efficiency, cost reduction, ease and the beauty of intricate shell inlay - that, up to now, may have been too time consuming and often too difficult a procedure for small builders to justify.

ZipFlex is available in several different shell species and is cut in lengths that are perfect for any or all portions of the guitar where shell inlay is typical. ZipFlex is currently being used by both factories and small builders alike with very attractive cost breaks. And AST is making your first set of ZipFlex available at half the normal price.





Please check out the AST website below for details.
Visit AST’s site at http://www.advancedshelltech.com or call them direct at 866.200.3772 for more information about ZipFlex and other lutherie innovations from Advanced Shell Technology.

Welcome aboard AST!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Ooohh... That looks really nice...

Welcome AST.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Welcome aboard AST .
ZipFlex sure looks like a winner with guitarmakers !!

Can't wait to try it myself.

Mike

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Mike Collins

I have some guys, its the bomb! Even my wife went WHOA! That is amazing!



That NEVER happens!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

First of all I would like to welcome AST to the the OLF!

Second, I will now have to wish $75 good bye as that is just to much of good of a deal to let pass!

Thank you Mr. Ryan.

Ray

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

I just sent an email for the special also, thanks for another great sponsor.

Gary

That looks nice! Looks like I'm gonna have to pony up $75; too good a deal to pass up.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The Zipflex is awesome stuff. I really love it. And that is a great first offer too.

Here's a rosette I did using it. It was super simple to install too.

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Lance,

Do you know if they'd be willing to post pictures showing examples of each shell type they offer? Either here or on their website would be great...

Thanks,

Flori

is this the same as flexi-ab from LMII?

Jason, Yes it it. Only it's made slightly different (better from my understanding) so they changed the name from flex-am to zip flex.

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"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

Hi Flori,

Not sure, but this is from there site.
Paua
Blue Paua
Green Abalone
Select Green Abalone
Pink Paua Heart
Blue Paua Heart
Green Abalone Heart

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

It looks good to me.

Does anyone know how small the radius could be for a sound hole. I have several ukulele builds planned and wondered if it would fit around several small sound holes. Hmm, I guess that it could be used on sound ports also.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Philip, I cant say for sure how tight these can go, but I can wrap them around my finger just fine.
They are truly amazing..

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

The ablone around the soundhole on one of the picture above and ablone around the cutaway in the first picture looks much thicker than .064" to me. Is it combined with another piece to make it .128"? Or is it just with purfling that makes it look thicker(wider)?

thanks, David

Since my picture is the only one of a soundhole rosette I can answer for you David.

The total matrix of the zip flex is 0.057" so just shy of 1/16". That rosette is 1/2" wide total.

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"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

Hi Rod,

Thanks for the reply. However I'm still not clear and have mutiple questions now.
What is matrix? and how and where does 0.057 play a roll in zipflex when the only size they have is either 0.047 and 0.064. Also, 1/2" wide total? does that mean two pieces were combined...or no?

Just new to this stuff and bit confused. Thanks for the help.

David

Thanks Lance,

Wow! I guess I won't have problem with two sound sound holes in the upper bout along with a sound port.

Now if I can only convince my wife that I need some. Of course she is going to remind me that I already have bought a new saw and air compressor this week.

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

The Matrix is everywhere. It is there when you go to work, go to church, pay your taxes......er sorry (I love that movie )

The zip flex is made from individual pieces of abalam material which are all held together by a substance (proprietary secrete I assume) which is black and Kevin calls it the matrix. I assume as it holds everything together.

When Kevin first offered the zip flex (through Peter M) on the olf, it was only offered in a 0.057" width which was what I got.

So know, Kevin is offering two different widths and not the 0.057" like before.

I think you must be talking about this picture (the rosette)



Which isn't mine at all. I don't think that the shell in that rosette is zip flex, but the purfling line is.

Any other questions feel free to ask.

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"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

Anyone know how long these strips are? It says 5 pieces is enough to do the soundboard and rosette so I'm guessing it takes 2 pieces to do one side of the top? Or did they mean that you could do the back, top and rosette with 5 pieces?

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

"89.67% of all statistics are made up on the spot."

Dear Friends,
Thanks a million to all of you who have already tried or ordered the ZipFlex. I really appreciate it.
And thanks to Lance and the other folks who run this forum for their warm welcome.
Now to answer a few questions and respond to some postings.

To all of you who have welcomed us so warmly, a heartfelt thanks.

To Raymund; you’re welcome my friend. I am happy to offer it. I know how much it has made life easier for me.

To Flori; thanks for your great question. Yep, the plans are to have our new website up and running in a few months. The current site is just a quick launch to get up and going. The real site is still under construction and it will certainly include things like high quality photos of the shell types available.

To Jason; essentially, the FlexiAb is what I was making before (yes, it is what LMI was offering) but then I had some important breakthroughs with the design and manufacturing process. The improvements were pretty dramatic (virtually eliminating delams, making it 15” long rather than 5”; easier to handle, etc.) and so to avoid confusing us luthiers, I just gave the new version a new name to differentiate it from the old version. So the older version, FlexiAb, is now discontinued. And the new version, ZipFlex, will be the final version for a long, long time. I guess I just said the same thing as Rod True. Thanks Rod.

To Philip; as Lance said, the ZipFlex will bend around some pretty tight areas. I sort of remember doing some experimenting awhile ago and I believe we got down to a 1” radius just fine and dandy. It is hard to imagine a cutaway horn radius that could be bent much tighter than that. And speaking of that, if any of you order some and it will not bend around your radius, of course I am happy to take it back. I want this to work for all of us.

To David (SkyHigh); It has not been doubled-up in any of the shots I submitted to Lance (which accompany the start of this welcome thread). And it sounds like it was not doubled in the other posted photos either (not talking about the two-ring abalone rosette which is a different kettle of fish of course). But we have already communicated with some clients who have plans to do just that with the ZipFlex—put two segments side by side to achieve twice the width. I don’t think the product was a guitar for this client but at least it shows the possibilities with different configurations.

Also to David (SkyHigh); the actual shell measures exactly .047” wide. Then there is the “secret” material on the sides and bottom that hold it all together. Each layer of this black “matrix” is .005” thick. So the actual, net thickness of the ZipFlex will be the shell plus .010” (.005” x each side). On the Advanced Shell Technology website there is a pretty exhaustive FAQ that deals with these great questions. This is the same size I offered to the group a few months ago. The size available then was also .047” and it is exactly the same now. Both then and now, the shell had the .005” matrix on each side making the entire ZipFlex segment .057” wide. For the .064” shell, the entire width is .074”. If any of you have questions about this, please just give me a call at my shop. Just remember it this way: the net width of the ZipFlex is always .010” wider than the nominal width of the shell (the width of the shell only when seen in the inlay). And the .005 jet-black matrix adds a nice, delicate "purfling" element next to the shell.

Again, thanks to the great folks who run this forum and to you folks who frequent it.
I look forward to answering your further questions and hearing your suggestions.
Blessings to all,
Kevin Ryan, Westminster, California

Blaine,
Sorry I just missed your question as I was posting some responses.
Each segment of ZipFlex is 15” long. So four segments will inlay a typical soundboard and one extra 15” segment will inlay the rosette.
To inlay a guitar body in the style 45 configuration, you will need 16 segments; that’s all. You will need 4 for the soundboard, 4 for the back, and 8 for the sides on both edges.
I hope this helps my friend.
Kevin Ryan

I just finished a rosette for a bandura last weekend. The BWB lines gave me headaches but the ZipFlex was perfect.

Don't inspect the pic too closely!

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Well Andy, you know if you say don't inspect it closely, everybody will. I think it still looks real good.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Philip,

I used it to do a soundhole on a little soprano six string. Not sure how big the soundhole on your uke is, but it worked really well on this 2 1/2 inch hole.

Jason