Official Luthiers Forum!

Congrats, Wes! I love it when luthiers make a profit.
Perhaps you could offer seminar on how that's done?



Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Glued up an acoustic top for the first time ever. It's not perfect, but close enough that I'm proud of myself, and far enough that I've left plenty of room for improvement. Now I'm working on the braces. Good times.

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David Morris

I am working mostly on a spec guitar, Cocobolo and Swiss spruce. This will have a slanted 24 fret board, bevel cut and the new Gotoh stealth tuners. I am very excited about it. I just closed up the box and did a little sanding prepping for binding/cutaway work tomorrow. Here is a photo:



And I showed these in another thread but here they are again, the stealth tuners with some homemade Walrus Ivory buttons:



I also finished up my Sonic Sitka guitar (finally!) for ASIA and have been playing it in the shop for a bit until I take it apart and re-buff it before deciding what to do with it. I tinted the top and used one of my nicer Indian rosewood sets on it. I had no idea what to expect, it was not a top I would normally have chosen to use and it was a new shape for me. So far, I like the sound. It has a clarity some of my other guitars don't have which I really did not expect from Sitka/EIR but there you go. Absolutely no mud in the bass but still some depth and really crystal reverb tinged trebles. It was a nice surprise. Here are the pics(sorry for the glare):





And last but not least I have really succumbed to some tool hoarding. I have been buying a lot of tooling that all needs a bit of restoration work and the line just keeps getting longer. I am excited about all of it but I feel a bit obsessed and need to get over the acquiring mode and into the fixing/using mode, fast. My acquisitions this week were especially satisfying though. First is a really clean base off of a Stark universal milling machine. A little machine, but beautifully made 2 towns over in Waltham, MA a long time ago. I will need to graft an extra lathe head on it but that shouldn't be too bad. I will love having this in the shop. Second is a much bigger project, a Rivett 608 lathe. This was made 2 miles from my shop in Brighton, MA and if I can get it back together in the manner it deserves will be an amazing machine to have in the shop. We'll see if that happens. I hope it does. Right now it is in pieces and every part needs some sort of attention. Here is a photo of everything minus the Rivett bed:



Happy 4th everyone!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

French polish on my first, so close now I can feel it.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I'm but a humbled newbie who's done every step once then had to go back and redo each step at least once. I've been at my first build for 10 months now (I'm only averaging about 4-8 hours a month) and this week I'm focusing on getting the rims ready. I'm on my second set of sides and second set of blocks. Yesterday the neck block in the plans for Michael Payne's OLF medium jumbo has threw me for a loop. Seems like I had nearly an extra .4" of height on the sides at the neck joint in relation to the height of the block. Seems like I messed up somewhere...

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. I was vacuuming off my cnc and discovered that it can be pretty dangerous if you have an .0236" diameter carbide endmill sticking out of the spindle. It's amazing how fast it can jam through the back of a hand, and how much blood can come pouring out. Thought I'd end up in the ER, but I got the flow to stop and today I'm fine. Remember to take bits out of routers folks, they can hurt even if it's not running.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

ouch!

SK

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

115-118 here the last few days, with dust and rain in the evenings so with the heat and humidity ain't NOTHIN' gettin' done around here that doesn't involve being inside and on the couch.
Bent this up the other day though. A koa tenor resonator uke.

I'm well on my way with guitar #2. This weekend I've re-installed the binding because the fist job was horrible and I'm happier with the result of the second attempt. I also installed the bone nut for the tail piece. The neck shaping is about complete and I'm in the process of cutting the re-curve on the top and back. I have a lot more scraping and sanding to do and I've learned a lot on this build from the first build which was a total cluster. I am looking forward to starting number #3 and I already have the top glued and ready to start carving! The top is Sitka Spruce, the back and side are Black Walnut. The neck is a 3 piece laminate with Black Walnut and Mahogany with black fiber seperating the 3 pieces and a Black Walnut head plate.

Very nice Mike..! Can't wait to see the finished product. Of course with the heat there, it could be awhile I guess.


Don

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Nice work everybody!
I have so many things to do,
that I ain't doin' nothing today!

Well I'm hoping to get the kirfing on the zebrawood guitar and Bend the sides for my bubinga dread cutaway and not screw it up this time.

I just finished up a 22.75 scale jumbo parlor for a nice lady who had been in an accident and needed something she could play for a while that wouldn't tire her out. I used medium strings and they feel quite nice in standard tuning. The top is Lutz spruce, the back and sides gonçalo alves and the neck cherry.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

I was at the Guitar Foundation of America's, Convention and Competition, just having the time of my life. Here is a shot of my table, albeit a poor shot.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Not sure that would be a very infomative seminar???!!! Hey, but I did collect my Dollar up front!!!!!!!!

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MK5acoustics.com

Just glued up two scarf joints for #2 and #3!! Taking each step one at a time, takin it easy and concentrating since the adrenaline of the first build is gone (which caused a lot of mistakes!! ) wish me luck ya'll and happy 4TH!

I got my experimental solid rosewood top glued onto the prototyping body and strung up a few days ago. It sounds great

Hopefully it won't go belly up (in the literal sense) over the next month/year/10 years. I think I was a little bit too ambitious in my shaving of the braces. Fortunately the area in front of the bridge is not caving in at all, but the whole bridge area has pulled up quite a lot (~1/8"), effectively giving the plate a tighter radius, which will hopefully hit its happy point of stiffness soon.

The top is about .065-.070" thick, 216g before bracing, 257g after, plus a 22g bridge (also Indian rosewood). Bracing is mostly standard X, but with 3 fingers/tone bars, some extra little (probably unnecessary) braces in the upper quadrant, and a large bridge plate. I forgot to measure exact thickness of the plate, but it's pretty thin too, about the same as the top I think. Obviously only there for stiffening, as the top itself is just as durable against string ball wear Looks like this:

The general idea was to pack braces closer together so there are no large unsupported spans of the thin plate, but keep them small to avoid excessive stiffness as well as mass. Next time I think I'll do a 4, or maybe even 6 piece lattice in the lower bout, as the tone bar style feels even more off balance in its asymmetry when the plate itself is so floppy.

I'll upload some recordings later after I make a proper saddle for it and get some fresh strings on.

Oh, and here's a picture of the guitar itself. Sorry I was too lazy to set up decent lighting or anything. Feel free to laugh, it's pretty goofy looking

Cool Waddy, nice shot. That cedar looks more like sinker redwood Looks like guitar heaven there.

Dennis, are you sure about those numbers. The bare top sounds right, but the braces weight quite low, even if you cut the plate overhang in between measurements.

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Build log

I have been working on buffing out my first spray finish job. It is nerve racking, but I am still enjoying it.



I also modified a plane plan from wood magazine and made myself a low angle plane. I even made the brass knob myself. It was amazingly simple to make and quite fun.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

It's definitely guitar heaven. Hard to see him, but the headstock on the guitar at the left of my table is covering Greg Byers. He had two guitars there - a Spruce and a Cedar. Killer instruments. His esthetics are way beautiful, and his guitars are so even, everywhere on the fingerboard. There weren't any duds that I heard about. A few people actually made sales, but most were just establishing interest. It 's a great place to be if you are into classical guitar. Staying with my table most of the time, I was still able to make two concerts a day. Worth the price of the table. Afternoon concerts at 4:00 pm included Ricardo Cobo, Nigel North (Lutenist), Gaelle Solal, and the Ensemble Showcase. 8:00 pm concerts included Alvaro Pierri, David Starobin, Solo Duo(Matteo Mela and Lorenzo Michali), Paul Galbraith, and David Russell. Then, on Sunday evening the Finals of the International Competition. Amazing! The winner was Russian Guitarist, Vladimir Gorbach. What a great week.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Thanks for the report Waddy, I'm glad (according to the reviews on the AGF and Delcamp) that your guitars were well received.
I am of course curious as to how many sales were made (and who made them).
I've often felt that the vendor fair at the GFA becomes sort of free entertainment for the attendees who seem far more absorbed in the competitions, classes and concerts.
I'm sure hanging with with Garrett and others was fun and glad that you enjoyed all the other aspects as well!

Best!

p.s. did people keep walking off with your chair?

Just back this weekend from a week of fire evacuation and resummed work on french polishing this guy.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hi David! We didn't have much problem. I brought two foot stools, and we seemed to end up with a couple of chairs at the corner of our table cluster. Most times it wasn't a problem. I used their chairs and they used my foot stools. Good trade. I know a few guitars were sold. Steven Walter sold at least two. One was a BRW/Cedar beauty that was sold to a Chinese player, in the $6,000+ range. Beautiful guitar. They paid cash! I tried to find out what his route to the hotel was going to be that night! Douglass Scott sold one that I'm aware of, Jim Gangi, Gangi Guitars, sold one I believe. There was another, whose name escapes me, but I think most just established interest as I seemed to do. Several players said they'd get back with me. I took it with a grain of salt, but who knows. There were a few who seemed genuinely interested. Yohannes Moller (2010 Winner) played my 640 mm #8, and really seemed to like the voice. Whether it really pleased him or not, it pleased me!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Wow, there is some absolutely incredible work going on out there. Burton, those buttons are awesome. Ken, that rosette is also incredble. Inspiring work you guys. I just got my #8 strung up.

I love that look . Were those holes in the wood or is that "made to look " that way

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