Official Luthiers Forum!

I hope that everyone had a great week with lots of time for guitar building!

Let's see what's happening in YOUR shops this week please?

Here's what's happening at Flushtone:

Installed the frets (EVO wire) on my latest and leveled and crowned them. I love working with this wire!



Ran out of my marker ink at the worst time when stores are not open.... so I decided to stock up since I do a LOT of fret jobs these days....



After installing the frets I installed the pins and next is the final set-up making a nut, saddle, setting the relief, action etc. and hearing how she sounds. I always get a kick out of the first time a new guitar sings!



As soon as I finish the above guitar I will get back on this one, a finger style OM with WRC top.



I've been doing some quick projects here when I don't feel like building or repairing. My old Coach brief case that went with me many, many places during my working days was cut into pieces to use the leather for jigs, cauls, etc.... I have to tell you that cutting up the brief case was very therapeutic for me...

Here we see the resulting pieces that I will use for cauls etc and a holder for cut frets when doing fret jobs.



I thought that I would jazz up my repair vice with some of the pieces from my brief case..... Now I have a pocket for the repair ticket and how many builders can say that they have a Coach vice? And yeah that is a feather duster so what of it????



OK that's it for me let's see what's shakin in your shops please?

Just pulled the top out of my go-bar deck.Now i'm carving the braces.

I got a little side tracked in my shop which has taken me away from my guitar building. I recently started to turn a garage bay into a shop, so I put in new cabinets and in the middle of it realized I needed a good guitar workbench. So I’ve been building a new bench and my guitars and shop expansion have been on hold. Sometimes I think I'm a bit A.D.D. about my projects.

I just strung this cedar/Nomex/cedar double top with cocobolo back and sides. I'll be exhibiting it this summer at the Guitar Foundation of America Convention in Austin. A recording played by yours truly and more pics can be found here: http://leeguitarworks.com/In_Progress.html

Getting ready to close up this tricone. (no fretwork on this one! )

glued on the braces on my No.2 (a Koa/Sitka OLF OM). Will be carving till late into the night.

Time to get some hot Java.

Christof, that is some BEAUTIFUL koa!

If I can get over the psychological hurdle of finishing something that doesn't live up to the standard I'd like for myself, I'll be finishing my first acoustic tomorrow. Just a nut and saddle away.

I finished my rose motif freboard. Being my 1st fretboard inlay, i'm pretty happy with it. I'm almost ready to close up box number 3.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

I've been busy building a vacuum system for a vise, clamping, pressing etc. this last week. A project that has been in the wings waiting for all the parts to show up for several months now.

Got the guts of the system finished yesterday, and was very pleased that it works right from the start with the only adjustment needed being setting the shut off point for the pump.

Followed the plans on JoeWoodworkers site but swapped out the schedule 40 PVC for alloy and UHMP. PVC with that pressure rating in Australia is out of this world expensive, and the alloy was free as off cuts from a local welding shop.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

Beautiful projects everyone! I love these threads when I'm in building mode because I can give updates on my build without creating a new thread. And, I love seeing what others are up to. Thanks Hesh for starting another timely thread!

I'm getting a seal coat on the top of a redwood/koa SJ. I also did something that I normally don't do on guitars. I used zipflex on this one, and it turned out great. Also, once I bolted the neck on, I positioned my fretboard and located the bridge, and drilled the 2 outer pin holes. So now I just need to glue on the peghead veneers, and then glue down the fretboard. This way, I'll actually level the fretboard and install the frets before carving the neck. Just changing things up this time! Oh yea, forgot to mention that this is a 13 fretter.

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Well, let's see... I made a rosette, then promptly broke it in a drawer and had to fix it. (See glue lines)



Then, I cut apart and re-joined the back that I screwed up the backstrip installation on yesterday.



After that I joined the sitka top for this guitar.... (Actually, i glued this up yesterday evening, but took it off the board today.)



Profiled the curly mahogany sides and bent them. First time I've bent curly mahogany, made some funky noises as I slowly pressed down the waist.)








Sheesh, didn't even break anything today, that's a winner.

Chris.

I glued in my first inlay attempt tonight.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Finishing up a classical...

Goncalo Alves (B&S)
Engelmann spruce (Top)
Spanish cedar (Neck)
Macassar ebony (fretboard)

Here is a six string bass I have just completed. Body is claro/swamp ash, neck maple with claro lam. and african ebony fingerboard ($$!!). Neck has 2 pieces of CF and single TR. The customer wanted it very simple hence single PU. Has active 18 volt EMG electronics. Electronics cover is held on with rare-earth magnets, although I added a single screw just to be safe. Feels a bit odd playing a fingerboard this wide fingerboard but the additional 2 strings add a huge amount of versatility with guitar-like chords.

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It's not the miles ahead, it's the stone in your shoe


In Markham,Virginia

Hey James,
yes indeed. Vulcano Guitars got the stuff to make us drool.
Here is another update:

Nice stuff everyone! I'm so impressed with the level of detail and quality of the work here. Way to go.

Here's what's happing in my shop.

This is top #3 for this guitar The first two tops had to be scrapped due to bad layout on the first and a crack that couldn't be repaired clean on the second. Got the roesette done, which I'm really happy with, actually more happy with this one versus the original. And got the bracing started too.

First, the original rosette which was on both the first and second top (was able to salvage it)



The new rosette, See the difference?



The new top and bracing getting started.





And just to get Hesh's heart rate up a bit



Also got two gutiars curing in the spraybooth. The one on the right has been a long time coming and I'm very excitted to be nearing completion of it. The one on the left is the "The 60th" which I built this past summer for my Father In Law.

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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

Started an electric bass build for me...first 'just for me' build in a long time.

The best we can figure is this is a Redwood burl, gifted from a friend's step dad. He picked it up at a junk sale, stripped the 1/4" lacquer off it then let it sit in his shop for 15 years or so.

Neck is maple with a fairly generic single action truss rod installed. Pickups and electronics will be salvaged from an old P-Bass I have always been fond of.

The body has a single coat of shellac, just to seal it up while I decide how I feel about the final shape. Neck and headstock do not have a sealer on it yet, so the burl on the headstock is a bit underwhelming right now.

Today, besides cleaning up some, I worked on a bridge for #4.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Built a Wells/Karol circle cutting jig this weekend. Used Chris nice videos as I've never seen the plan......thanks Chris!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Just glued fretboard to neck.
Time to tidy up!!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Made this bandsaw box yesterday for my moms birthday, still needs to be sanded and finished. It was a brute getting the rough sawn lumber all jointed, I do not have a power jointer yet, so I had to take it down with the safety planer, then hand plane, then sand on a sandpaper stuck onto glass. She better like it...

Beautiful work everyone. Love your guitar, Gary! The EM6000 on my J-185 is still curing so I used the time to start an EIR OM. Joined a couple of the Lutz panels I got from Shane and got the end and tail blocks glued in. I also finished putting my flyfishing guitar back together. I had sprayed this one a year ago, but the finish on the top just wasn't up to par. I removed the bridge, sanded the top down, and recently resprayed. Got it all back together over the weekend and shot a few pictures yesterday.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Approaching the final sanding on my latest, for a client in Buffalo N.Y.

Literally....
Watching paint dry!

I am doing the "Shop Build" -- and so Step 1 is go get the poured walls sealed and painted..
I am going to have $400.00 in paint just to get the masonry sealed and painted

It is seriously eating into both Guitar Time and Guitar Budget....

Thanks

John