Official Luthiers Forum!

Lots of small things not picture worthy yet except these two of my 13 year old helping daddy carve top braces.

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Bobby Masten

Its not Thanksgiving here but I closed the box on my Cocobolo Lutz top wedge over the last couple days and am now trying to decide on purfling and binding to use on this and the other guitar I am working on.











Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I've got a figured redwood double top on bubinga baritone-



Koa SJ

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

That's some fine looking Coco, Fred! <drooling Smiley> Beautiful Steve.

I finished up the gross heel work, and have been working on the fingerboard and bridge for #6.

Checking the action vs fingerboard taper before slotting. 4 mm treble 5 mm bass to the board at 12. Bridge is about a mm too high, and I'll get about .3 mm with strings on, so I'm pretty close.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I am ready to start fretting fingerboards on my L-00 and Prairie State guitars. I have some tools I need for that on order at Stew Mac, so while I am waiting for them to arrive, I was working on a tenor ukulele I started a long while ago, and put to the side. This week, I got the rims done, kerfing, tail block and neck block (I prepared for bolt-on butt jointed neck, which I have roughed out) installed. Also got the back thicknessed, and in go bar for back braces. The top i had ready for bracing awhile ago, but I am still trying to decide how I am going to brace.

Glenn

I have a nice Brazilian Zion almost done...and a few others I don't have pictures yet.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

I just hired a new Safety Supervisor / Quality Control Manager, Mr. Rusty.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend? Got a finish curing on an EIR/Sitka SJ sized body. Other than that.......

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

The pictures are still in the camera, but I just closed the back on a Lutz/maple classical-FE19 with tornavoz. Now I have the binding to do. I have a love-hate thing going on with binding...

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

Yep! Me too! I love the way it looks, but I hate doing it!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Whoa...Whoa...Whoa...Hold on a minute.

I just skimmed this thread to drool over the incredible woods being used on these builds when it hit me...Did he say double top baritone??? Please tell me you took some build shots of this instrument? A bari and a double top???? AWESOME!

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

Nothing much, being my birthday and stuff but I got a chance to select some sets from a huge stash and got myself 5 Indian sets that look nice and ping great.

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Build log

Happy birthday to ya Alexandru!

Some mighty nice looking zoot working throughout this thread for sure.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I'm making an acoustic bass guitar. The woods are koa for the back and sides, Lutz for the top, mahogany neck.

Front








Back









Koa 4-piece rosette








Headstock







Hipshot lightweight tuners, koa bookmatched backstrap








Still need to trim that heel some...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Rusty,

How does Mr. Rusty mark the part if it passes?

Maybe I don't want to know...

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

Still working on the scrolls & necks for two banduras for my kids. I'm also concurrently building my first commission so these are basically practice runs for the real deal.

Although I'm getting better, I still pretty much suck at carving. I'm doing them one after another so that I can build some skills and not forget them before I get to the next one. The second one (the rougher of the two) is coming along much faster than the first (these are my 6th, 7th and 8th scrolls although only two of the prior 5 were of this type).

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

I finally got moving on my next commission, going to Europe!

And the 3rd picture came in the mail today! 4pc back BRW set. If you've ever dealt with Chris Cantwell, you know what nice stuff he has.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

David,
You guessed it, only he "marks it" if it doesn't pass.
In the photo he was thinking about it.

Some truly awesome stuff here. I especially liked the beagle, reminding me of losing my dog (named Hopper) a few Mondays ago just before my Giants won the World Series (a bitter sweet experience). I went to Home Depot that morning and took the dog for a walk at a beautiful park along the bay, called Pinole Shores. He went through a hole in the fence to check out the water, against my calling him back, and got hit by a commuter Amtrack train. I miss my buddy....




... This weekend I installed binding after having wasted $40 on some snakewood that I had to give up on, and instead used this silky oak I took home from the Big Island a few years ago--where it apparently grows like a weed and they have too much of. It's a bit softer than the snakewood (of course), but bends like a dream...I figured maybe the snakewood was too advanced for me, or (more likely in my opinion), just a bad batch that was extremely crack prone. I tried being verrrry careful using a pipe at first and then my heat blanket and bending form. Nothing seemed to work. When I finally gave up and just for #$%'s and giggles experimented with that silky oak, discovered the (sometimes called lacewood) was very easy to use, as well as quite lovely looking.

I also had an incident with CA glue accelerator where I bought a refill bottle at Japan Woodworks in Alameda, and after putting some in my left over Rockler woodworking spray applicator, found it burned a hole in the bottom. Obviously I now know not to mix them. I thought all CA accelerators were created equal.
I also don't understand why Rockler's version is so much more expensive (small bottle $14, vs. Japan woodworker's at $11 for larger refill).

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Nice looking wood and work! I just came in for lunch after adjusting the neck pitch and side to side angle on an L-00 I'm building. I think it's just about perfect. I'd better stop for the day before I screw something up. :-)

Bummer about your dog being hit by a train. That's a real shame.

Mr. Rusty is awesome!

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George :-)

Nick, that binding looks awfully thick. Not only harder to bend, but you're going to have a lot of scraping to do.

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

I finally have the top and back glued on to #1. Now I am looking at what I am going to do about cutting the binding channels.
Mike

Nick,
Sorry about your doggie. I have to be ever vigilant with Rusty as he is a house/yard dog, has no street smarts and will follow his nose off a cliff for a morsel of food.

I'm working on a new build one step a day, thickness a back one day, plane the edge the next, glue and so on. Hopefully I'll soon get a full couple of days.
When I get the parts ready to assemble I volunteered to have a high school student help me. He is doing it for a physics project. I guess I should get him to lay out the fingerboard.
Bill