Official Luthiers Forum!

Todd, my only experience with Larch may or may not apply. I've used it for making traditional arrows. At the time I could use PO Cedar, Sitka or Larch. I really didn't like Cedar, it was too soft and fragile. I think the desert air dried it out too much, making it too delicate for a budding archer. Between Sitka and Larch, I preferred the Larch. Didn't seem to dent as easily and had a bit more heft to it than the Sitka. I would have continue using it, but my supplier closed up shop for personal reasons. My experience with Larch is limited to making and using 4 dozen arrows from shafts bought at the same time. From what I remember of it, I would give it a go for a top. IIRC, I had Western Larch.

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Aoibeann

Thanks guys for all the kind words. This is my second white oak gtar (built an OM 2 yrs. ago).

Filippo & Haans, this guitar sounded great right off the bench. For a small body gtar it has a strong bass and well balanced throughout the mid and high range. This has surpassed my expectations, I was taking a chance using eastern larch since all other larch users that I could find were of the western variety...Just started another 0 size larch/white oak.

Haans & Todd, eastern larch, aka tamarack, is a rather nice softwood to work with. It is at least as dent resistant as sitka (as has been said), and very stiff like adi. What's the catch?,, it is very dense, so I am not sure how it would work on a larger body. The final thickness of this top is .095 at the soundhole and .090ish at lower bout perimeter. The billets that I have, have too much runout to risk trying on a larger body...And the growth riings are rather far apart, 4/inch or a little less in some places.

I am planning to attend John Halls open house in July, I'll bring it along so you all can have a listen.

Thanks for looking, Chuck

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Lot's of fine work going on out there!
This weekend I installed the neck on my newest build.
I also made a couple of jigs, the Bridge Locator and the W-K Precision Router Base to go with my shiny new trim router:

The coco / Adi dread is bound (with tortoise) and cleaned up somewhat








Neck getting there, too








Here's a madrose 000 that I'm finally getting around to finishing up. Should have strings on shortly.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Lot's of nice work going on here; Arnt, I really like that mad rose

I 'm getting ready to bind a walnut 13-fret 000 and put the top/back braces on a 12-fret size 0. I'm also working on a repair job to make a new neck for 12-string electric.

I've got photos but the camera is in the shop

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Kevin, that's stunning--how's it sound?

Let's see, I got the headstock roughed out on my Coco Classical (#5).

Next, I put together then glued up a Rosette for #5.
Bread boarding to fit up.


Transferring to top.

Flooding with Fish Glue.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Then I roughed out the fan braces and cut the top brace blanks.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Looks like there has been a lot of beautiful work going on this weekend. Very cool Waddy.

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Tim

Thanks, Matt. How's it sound? That's both an easy and a hard question for me to answer. The easy answer is the best of the three I have made so far, and a joy to play. It has tone and resonance and sounds like a musical instrument and not a toy. The hard answer is that I haven't had the opportunity to play many ukes, much less good ones, so I don't have a really clear sound ideal in my head. Unlike guitars where I know what kind of sound I want the instrument to produce. Probably more than you wanted. Let me just step back and say it sounds great.

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Kevin Mason
Mason Guitars and Ukuleles on Facebook
http://masonguitars.net

I am deployed at the moment and I was planning on going to Thailand on R&R for 2 weeks. However Thailand was a no go due to political turmoil, so instead I went home to upstate New York and got started on #1 and #2. #1 is a Black Walnut/Sitka D28 dread and #2 is a EIR/Sitka D28 dread. I decided to start #2 because progress was pretty much halted when I found out that I needed a Stanley #5 or #6 (or the equivalent) to get a perfect joint. I did not want to do the sandpaper jointing. Feel free to point out any glaring errors.

Bending sides. Love the smell of both IER and Walnut


http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/zz285/OlsonGuitars/IMGA0042.jpg

Need a new bandsaw....I'm thinking a Rikon 18" in about 2 months when they go on sale.


45 minutes later, we have some book-matched walnut headstock veneer. Nice stuff that has been sitting in my grandfathers shop for years. It also happens to match my walnut B&S set perfectly.


New drum sander



Out of the box accurate to .001". Nice machine.


3 piece laminated neck Black Walnut/White Oak/Black Walnut being thicknessed.





Walnut sides in the mold waiting for me to come home.


Now I am back in Iraq and I ordered this little beauty which will be waiting for me in a couple months when I get home. I really love old tools, this one hardly looks old at all. It is a no. 14 Miller's Falls plane, which is the equivalent to Stanley #5. It should solve my jointing difficulties.

Joey, looks like you got a lot accomplished on leave. Looks great.

What service are you in?

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Tim

I had a lot of fun on a much needed break. In retrospect I would have just bought the mold instead of building it. I think that took up most of my time and it isn't a very good mold. Actually it might not have been so bad if I would have read up on how to do it here instead of Kinkade's book. Unfortunately Cumpiano made little mention of molds in his book. Anyways, I could have gotten a lot more done had I just ponied up the 90 bucks for a mold instead of insisting on building it myself.

I'm in the Army and I have a couple more months left over here. I am looking forward to coming home, getting settled and getting back to work on my first 2.

Lots of weeding, planting, and general cleaning up.

In the shop I'm just doing work that brings in some money. I've allowed myself to be very distracted with the guitar building over the last year or so, so I need some self discipline.

A couple of shots anyway, as the question was "Whats' going on in your shop?" not "What guitar making have you got done this week in your shop?"

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Dude....that's freaking awesome.

Well I took a COMPLETE YEAR OFF from building. I needed the break.
I moved, set up a new shop etc etc.
Just beginning a commission. L-OO zebrawood lutz spuce.
I hope I didn't forget how to build a guitar.....

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Douglas,

everytime I see the boat pictures I think "I really have to start making a kayak", then I see Waddy's pictures of the headstocks, and I think I really have to perfect my headstock first....

Nice work!

Fingerstyle - looks like you did get a lot done - thanks for your service in Iraq, take care over there.

I actually did a lot this weekend.

I got a new Porter Cable router for $100 - it is the 1 3/4 hp model - finagled myself into a good deal, and a Ryobi intermediate router table which isn't half bad, for another $100.
I was able to set that up on my exiting workbench without the legs and routed an acrylic soundboard template with a flush trim bit and my half template - it was so easy with the router table ! I drew out the plan on the template with a sharpi.
I routed the posts on my deck, since the edges were very sharp.
Finished cleaning up a misdrilled neck #1
I drilled semi straight holes in neck #2 using my drill press and a jig idea from John Abercrobie (sp)
completed a sign for my wife's business out of wood letters (from Michaels) mounted on a cedar board.

general shop organization and digging up ideas to encase my cheap Ryobi contractor table saw in a wood cabinet and have it share a cabinet with the router.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

John , I have a Ryobi BT3000 table saw with a router table built into it. I can't tell you how handy it is and saves a lot of space. I use the fence off of my original router table and just clamp it to the table saw fence. Works awesome. I can post up some pics if you are interested.

Joey whats your MOS and what unit are you in? I was in the Infantry for 8 years back during Desert Storm.

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Tim

Preventive medicine. Pretty lame job, but I travel a lot. I'm applying to PA school when I get home.

I have finally got round to doing some more building after a long break. I am working on #4 EIR/red spruce OM. I am excited about this build as #3 turned into an experimental instrument mainly because I tried to change too much in one go. Anyone else struggle with this ? In any case I have learned a lot in the process and armed with a nice mold and bending form from John Hall and some good advice on voicing from John Mayes as well as a determination to follow a proven plan I'm confident this will be a keeeper for all the right reasons. I also finally got round to building a drum sander. Turned out quite well. Thanks mainly to lots of ideas from other members of the forum.

Craig.

Assembly on the next one........

Filippo,
The Solera forms the base of the fixture and is used by itself to attach the bracing and the neck to the top. The individual mold sections bolt onto "T" nuts to assist in fitting the sides.
As I'm wrapping the sides AROUND the domed top, it having been trimmed to the precise outline of the guitar, the segmented pieces allow a bit of adjustment to make sure the sides are snug against the top edge. I suppose "L" brackets would do the same but the mold blocks give me a bit more clamping surface for end block and side supports.
The entire thing sits on feet which clear the bench sufficient for the use of "Quick Grip" clamps as well as the width of the mold being narrow enough for these clamps to easily reach in.

Tried out my new router jig for archtops on a Maple back. Jig plus router, die grinder, scraper, planes, and sander got the job done but very loud, violent, and made a hell of a mess. Something to be done outside!!

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

I don't want to get personal Douglas so feel free to decline an answer, but I am curious. Can you say, in general, what brings in more money - building boats or building guitars and what are the reasons (if there are any you can discern)? I'm mostly interested in terms of seeing what people are more emotionally involved with - boats or guitars. I think what they are willing to pay for in custom creations can be a measure of this.

Thanks,
Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.