Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Everyone,
Our next meeting will be this Sunday, 01/19/14 @ 2PM, at the Woodcraft store in Knoxville. This meeting we will be featuring a guest speaker, OLF member James Condino. James has offered do a workshop on historic bracing and then his personal take on it. It will basically be a sneak preview to his upcoming Guild of American Luthier's workshop this summer in Seattle.
We will also try and do some top and back bracing on our project guitar.
See you there

Yeppereee

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Perfect timing....getting ready to brace my first, and I'll feel a lot more comfortable doing it after this. Looking forward to meeting some fellow OLFers too. See ya'll Sunday!

I sure wish knoxville was a little closer

Zeke head over to Asheville Saturday hang out up in the mountains, and then your only two hours away Sunday morning Condino is a great guy and the real deal….. don't miss out.

If it was warmer I could just ride my motorcycle up. It would cost next to nothing in gas and I could make it up in no time. However the cold weather means driving my truck, a one ton flatbed diesel. It would take at least 3.5 hrs and a lot in gas. Guess I'll have to wait and make a summer or spring meeting.

It is great to get together and share info .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

We all got together this afternoon and James Condino traveled over to Knoxville to give us a workshop on historic bracing. He brought a vintage Martin braced top and other pieces/parts to illustrate his talk. We also discussed material selection, voicing, projection and glues. James stated he does a lot of destructive testing and proceeded to demonstrate using a completed set of ribs! We got to see the difference in flex between kerfed and solid linings (significant), how much of a hammer hit the sides could take before failure (more than I expected), and how well solid side braces stop splits (pretty good actually). All in all a great 3 hours and a ton of practical information. I can't thank James enough for taking the time to come visit us.

As always it's fun to get together with other luthiers from the area and there's always more to learn. John Arnold came by and added his expertise to the bracing discussions with James. Also got to meet a few new folks including fellow OLF'r Zac who came all the way from Virginia. It was good to talk to you Zac and hope to see you again over at John Halls get together in NC this summer.

We started out summer before last with a single meeting at my house but since then Paul Rigney, who works at the local Woodcraft, has jumped in and organized the Guild with regular monthly meetings at the store on the first Sunday of every month (this month was moved to fit Jame's schedule). All are invited if any of you get over our way.

Here's a shot of part of the group. Sorry, crappy Iphone photo.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Wish I could've come, but had a good family day.


Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Excellent afternoon, arrived just before 2:00 and left 4 hours later. Hats off to James Condino and Paul Rigney. James spoke at length about his journey building instruments. He still has the passion & a fascination with what makes things work. Had some great advice for beginning builders pick a proven design and stick with it for your first 50 instruments. Probably hard to go wrong with vintage Martins

Sorry I missed yet another meeting. Looks like it was a good one!

I did the math this morning, and I drove about 8 hrs and 500 miles...totally worth it! James Condino has decades of building and several hundred instruments under his belt, it was great of him to share his knowledge and experience with us. I really hope we can get together when I'm down in Asheville in April. It was nice to meet some fellow OLFers and see some of your instruments, too. There was some fine work on display and it was very inspiring to see what you guys are turning out. Don't know if I can make every meeting, but I'll definitely be back!

A big thank you to James Condino for coming over and giving his presentation. As a new builder I was in overload status right from the beginning. Lots of great info. It was a great meeting. We had approx. 40 members there. It was a great way to start off our second year. We have a vast amount of knowledge in the group and this is a great way to share. I hope we can do more meetings like this. Thanks to everyone who was there.

Zac, give me or James a heads up before coming to Avl. If you can get us off the bike trails, we'll arrange a shop visit. Maybe squeeze in a visit to Dream Guitars.


Ken Jones
Mountain Song Guitars

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Mountain Song Guitars www.mountainsongguitars.com

Ken, that's incredibly gracious of you, and I'll definitely take you up on that! I really love this forum and the kind folks involved here!

Just a quick reminder for anyone in the East TN area that this Sunday is our February meeting. As usual, it will be held at the Woodcraft store 8023 Kingston Pike, Knoxville @ 2PM.
We need to get some bracing done on the project this month. We have some donated bracing material(thanks John & Van), all we need now is someone to show us what to do with it. Those of you that are experienced in the acoustic build can also advise if we will need any specialized tools or a go-bar deck and bars. I have several cam style clamps if those will work.

A go-bar deck and some radius dishes would be nice if they're available. Another option is the dishes and some imaginative clamping to get pressure to the center of the top/back.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I could bring my go bar deck and dishes, just got the go bars today. Let me know

Good to see Paul, Steve, Aaron & the guys. Gary Watson brought an outstanding fiddle he made #8 . Cut out some red spruce brace wood thanks to John Arnold & Nathan Hampton. Lap joint 25' radius and glued it down.
Check out this go bar (Its bridseye maple)

Necessity is the mother of invention

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

My go bar deck is the underside of a desk!

Hi guys!

Will the next meeting be at the Knoxville Woodcraft on the first Sunday in March?
I live in Chattanooga and would really love to get together with you guys.

Our fearless leader SS0720 is unavailable March 9, next meeting will be April 13, your more than welcome