Official Luthiers Forum!

Imagine this:

A very dumb luthier establishes string hole positions on a classical bridge: "Ok, what is the distance between the 1st and 6st string...?"

The dumb luthier is then happy to realise: "Great! 60 mm exactly. Dividing string distances will be easy! One every centimeter!"

So the dumb luthier mesures, establishes string positions and proceeds with drilling the holes.

Our dumb luthier suddenly realises: "60mm... one string every 10mm.... THAT MAKES 7 STRINGS!!!! ARRRRRRGHHHHH!"

So the dumb luthier calls his customer informing him there will be a slight delay with the delivery of his guitar...

I'll let you guess what the name of the dumb luthier is....

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Alaine: Check out my signature...! We all do it...! Sorry to hear about it but I think it's part of being human. Hope all works out.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

You are definitely NOT the first! Say "Oops!" plug the holes & move on.

Aw, dang! I know how you feel. After making a mistake, I have never EVER felt smart.

Last week I made a compensated saddle. It went very quickly and looked great, which left me thinking that I'm finally getting my chops down on whipping out saddles. When I strung up the guitar, I had a nice compensated ramp for the B-string. But it wasn't under the B-string, it was very nicely centered between the B and G, missing the B altogether.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I offered my customer to make him a new bridge and he agreed, with the delay that this implies.

Thanks for the encouragments guys!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Did you first ask if he wanted a bonus 7th string for free?

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

Alain- I 'feel your pain' ....it's those 'automatic pilot' sessions that can grab us and remind us of our being human.....you are definitely NOT alone ....and we move forward, laugh at ourselves and learn!

Gee, and I thought that was just part of the normal building process

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Doesn't make one dumb Alain, just human! This too will pass!

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

some people drill 12 holes for classicals looping through the bridge twice
i cant remember who though
could be a solution mabye having to plug 2 holes or something ?

Kent you are SOOO bad at doing business! I didn't 'give' the 7th string option for free, I offered a discount! (C'mon man, got a make a living!)


I actually went ahead and drilled the extra holes for a 12 holes. But if I wanted something that was aesthetic, I had to leave an extra 13th hole right in the middle of all the other ones. Not only my customer wasn't too hot about a 12 hole bridge, the extra 13th hole totally turned him off...

The new bridge is already almost finished. It should take about an extra week for finishing. Me and my customer will both survive this.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I did the same thing on the nut once...

I just drilled one to the same dimensions as the width of the fret board at the 12th fret. *sighs* I haven't made a dumb mistake in a while so it was well due.

I made a nice Mother of Pearl nut for a banjo a while back..........with 5 prefectly spaced slots...............it was a 5 string banjo!!!!!!

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

According to a recent thread (viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=29946), you should be fine. Unless I'm missunderstanding something...

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

Don't EVEN get me started on my mistakes.
I've got a build sitting there with so many problems I ain't even working on it anymore.
Working on 2 more, and that one might get smashed up.
Some day I'll post it and axe for advice.
Axe.

Gee, Mike, drilled 7 holes in a nut? That's kind of out there, innit?

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Gee, Mike, drilled 7 holes in a nut? That's kind of out there, innit?

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Maybe my wording is a bit off but essentially the strings would be right over the beveled fret ends.

Alain,
Thanks for sharing this because while you must feel bad, it makes the rest of us realise that nothing (and nobody) is perfect.

Chuck

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"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong"
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

All-righty then. First mistake was putting the kerfed linings in before I shaped the sides for the back. So they ended up very shallow, which you will see at the lower bout in the pic.
Next mistake was using black fiber for the bindings. They were gray, and so ugly I carved them off with my sloan cutter, AAAAAAHHHHHH! Did a sloppy job there! Then, I went too deep and you can see where my linings are too shallow. Also, look at the non symetrical body at the end of the fretboard. I made a new mould which I hope is better. Also, I didn't let the bracing into the linings, which is okay, but the ends are 1/8" tall. I later learned they should be carved to zero.
So there! This is the first git I've made with an arc to it, hence the worst problem, the bindings.
My fix for that is, take off the back, re-line kerfed linings, put a thin maple binding, with a bloodwood outer binding, which I have already bent.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Any other ideas? Kindling? Oh, I did string it up, and it sounds good!
Let's see now, koa, coco, spruce, ebony, maple, bloodwood. Next mistake, too many different woods!

It's kind of nice to know the rest of you all thought I was perfect!

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

This reminds me of a post I saw on the net. Teacher FAIL.

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GregH
Fot Wuth

Amazing! Absolutely AMAZING!

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Check out my site at: http://www.TrueAxeGuitars.ca

Dat funny, Greg.