Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Hesh,
My real name is John, my close friends call me Johnny Rotten because of my in the gutter sense of humor, I think it was from an old Neil Young song. Thanks for your comments about the flamenco. This one is coming around pretty well. The spruce takes some time. I like it. THe next one will be a blanca ...HNY
John Nowicki

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John Nowicki

I built myself a new shelving system.
Old



New


Still a work in progress though.

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Got the shop cleaned up. Obviously I don't meet Hesh's standards



Used a chisel and ripped out the center of fretboard from #1 (where the trussrod went through the neck) to see if the neck is salvagable. And no, the neck is not hacked up, I pulled up the center part of the fretboard over where the cellophane tape was. This is an adjustable neck and I used two 1/4" graphite rods 1/2 in the neck and 1/2 in the fretboard for reinforcement of the neck but primarily to support the fretboard extension; anyway it's a bit of a PITA to take apart. I won't do it this way again since the fretboard extension still moves more than I would like and you can tell the difference real easily on notes above fret 16 - not that I play up there much.

Good news is it looks like I can probably repair by opening up the truss rod slot, putting in a wider maple spline then recut the slot for a shallower Allied rod and then put on a new fretboard. It will take awhile but I'll be setting this one up in the milling machine to complete the fretboard removal and cut the new slot. Probably won't use the Hotrods anymore, they're just too tall.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

you will love that Narra. It is one of my favorite woods to build with.

Hi Hesh,

Yes, would be great to get together some time. Maybe after I get this J-185 done, we can connect and you can teach me how to better set up the action I don't mind driving out your way. You are not that far away. Then I can see if your shop really is that clean!

Cheers,

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Walnut b/s, wenge binding, engelmann spruce top.

Also atempting to make my delta bandsaw run smoother for resaw.

Wes buddy welcome to the OLF! Your guitar looks great and that is a stunning piece of walnut too!!!

Hi Ken let's PM each other and arrange a get together in the future. Looking forward to it my friend!

Michael I immediately thought of you when I saw the Nara!

Steve bro your shop looks great and what caught my eye was that mother-of-all-cyclones in the back. The big yellow monster.... It also looks like you have a good handle on a very difficult repair.

Marcus nice shelves!!

John thanks for that! Now I remember - Johnny Rotten is from Rust never sleeps.... The memory is not the steel trap that it never was here...

Matthew buddy you get a pass this time but how about some pics next time please. We love pics!

I will post some more pics in a few minutes since I have been very busy in my shop recently.

Lets see some more of what's happening in your shops????

Thanks

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I am making good progress on my current guitar with getting the binding channels cut and the bindings bent in the Fox bender. But... I had to mess up my shop to do it.....





The bindings are in the cooker...



Ebony and Sapele bent easily.



And in the mold until I can get around to gluing them on the guitar.



This guitar came back to it's birth place this morning at 6:00 AM dropped off by it's owner so that I can restring it and clean it up for him today. It's been doing some touring in as much as it's owner recently released an album so this guitar gets played for hours every day. After checking it out just a quick clean-up and new strings and it will be on it's way this evening.



Last but not least I bought a new bandsaw!!!! Other than stressing about how it's going to get from the store to my shop I am pretty excited about it. I also picked up a new LN plane and what can I say about LN that has not already been said beyond IMHO anything LN is pretty cool.





Thanks for looking!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Nice plane Hesh, I've got one and like it a lot.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks hesh its an honer to be here.

Well... The 1st thing is that I now have a place to put a shop! We got a house with a basement.... and I am co-opting part of it for a shop... There is just some minor work that needs to be done.... like....
Walls
Electricity
Lights....
Work bench

Stuff like that...

The good part is that I am on the road to "Off the Kitchen Table" -- It did me good through 3-guitars... but the Wife really wants it dedicated to stuff like Eating... (I know... Crazy talk..)

I finally got some Guitar time.. and made some real progress on the Oakie -- Neck is set, Bridge is glued on... Next step is Nut and Saddle and Fret levelling and crowning... and I also found out that I gotta buy some bridge pins too...

I will post a pic later on tonight.

Thanks

Just started a 000-12 fret a couple of weeks ago. Soundhole was cut out today and started glueing the kerfing to the rims yesterday. I manage to put in about an hour in the morning and another in the evenings after work. B/S are Panama Rosewood and the top is Red Spruce.

A new top for the Guild in progress

The Guild waiting patiently

My first Guild inspired Steel String..i just liked the shape and size
And finally Just strung up my first classical EIR/ENG 37 Hauser from Brune,s plans with some intentional and ALOT of unintentended differences!

Not much, see pic



blessings
the
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Thank You Padma - looking forward to you getting back in the shop as soon as you wish to my friend.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

This is my #3, but my first OM.
It's getting so close to completion that I'm getting excited.
I had to take several months off when I tore my rotator cuff, but finally got back in the shop recently.
Bearclaw spruce top
Figured Mahogany B&S
Ebony Bindings, Bridge, Fretboard

Hesh, is that the Rikon 14" Deluxe bandsaw?
If so, that's the same I have and you'll love it.

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Thanks,
Blain

http://www.ullrichguitar.com

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

Hey Blain thanks for the recommendation of the Rikon - I am looking forward to the saw. Your guitar looks fantastic!!!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

I never have anything to post, but I've been fairly busy recently. Here's what I've done. (Forgive the bad photo quality, cell phone don't ya know.)

A few rims that'll be guitars by the spring:


And a Braz SJ (that I might keep for myself)

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

The last week of the year I always close my business for the holiday and spend it in my shop. This holiday was spent not on instriments but on my new spray booth. I have now a booth 8'-0" deep 4'-0" wide and 8'-0" high . I have it with exhaust fan and filtered . All thats left is plastic door strips and air supply run .

I lined the stud walls with 6mill plastic doubled and then 1/4" mahogany underlayment that the local lumber yard had cheap . It was shipped unsanded , and couldnt be used for underlayment. I got it for 5.00 a sheet.

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The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Wow Bill you are a machine!!!! Great looking guitars my friend and great to see you here too!!!

Chris welcome back stateside!

Wud that is a nice looking booth that you have there - very cool!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

my first one is ready to varnish.

In your honor Hesh



Peace,
Sanaka

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...imagine there were no hypothetical situations...

Here's one a little different, hope it fits in this section. I enjoy restoring old stuff.

I got this 1903 Martin 1-34 from ebay 9 years ago. I took a look inside when I got it and got sick. The bridge plate was more like a 3/4 inch plywood mass of top-damping junk. I put it back in it's case and resolved to some day restore it. Well, I started just after Thanksgiving. I quickly began to wonder why....
Here's the bridge plate, complete with delicate calculations too important to not write down, on the plate:


I tried removing it through the soundhole and found that it was not glued in with repair-friendly glue. It was epoxy.
So, I knew the back had to come off. The ivory binding came off great, it had been off before...

However, the back was also glued to the linings with epoxy. 2 days and a lot of creative language later, the back was off
though the finish on the back was much the worse for wear- no problem as it was refnished anyway. Here's the back
in relatively good condition considering..


By the time I had removed the bridge plate, the extent of the real damage was evident. No idea why the top was so
badly damaged but I knew I had to reinforce the top or things would never be stable. Here's why


I made a sanding caul that would allow me to do 2 things with the same tool. First, I could use sandpaper to produce
a v-shaped area that would remove the bad wood and allow for a graft. Then, by turning over the caul, I could prepare
the graft for a really close fit. It worked well. Here's the patch being glued in

and the patch glued in before final sanding. I could have used finger planes to produce the area for the patch but the
top was not stable enough for my comfort level with anything but sandpaper...


The original pencil lines for the bridge plate were still there so I just had to replicate the size and repair one of the seam
spruce diamonds and glue it all back together


Ready for the back to go on, enough clamps??


I used the new Hard Shellac from LMI to apply the new finish on the back and touch up the sides and top, using a pretty standard french polish technique. It's great stuff, thinned 50%, it works well, dries fast and hard. We'll see how it works over time but I like it so far.





I used HHG and fish glue so someone else, hopefully many years from now, will find repairs to be a bit less hypertensive.
I also had to repair a section of top purfling, more like marquetry, and T.J. Thompson was kind enough to give
me some style 30 material he had made up, it really looks much better bu that's another story.
It's a great player now, great top that seems perfect for the nylon strings it's strung with. If you're still reading
and not bored to death, you have as much patience as I did in repairing this great old Martin. Thanks for taking the time to read the story.
Best
Bruce

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

Bruce - that's a great story, I love to see good, old guitars brought back to life.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I agree - great story and an even better guitar, Bruce - good show!!!

I am also just wondering if you have any idea how long ago the not-so-great repair may have been done?

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Ann Arbor Guitars