Official Luthiers Forum!

Stumbled upon this site last night whilst in the shop wet sanding...Does anyone really enjoy wet sanding?

http://theartoflutherie.com/

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process

It's not whether we like doing it, it's whether we like the result when we're done.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yep, wet sanding starts tonight on my latest

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I enjoyed that.
thx

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Wake up and smell the rosewood!

I LOVE Tom Bills' site!!! I just discovered it (I can't remember how) about two months ago. A few days after that, Tom opened up his online French Polishing video course, and I decided to take the plunge and enroll in his course.

it's a bit expensive, but worth every penny --- he took three years to make his video course of around 86 little videos, covering every single aspect and detail of the French polishing method he's developed over the years --- high-quality videos and very detailed, practical advice. He actually takes you through his own French polishing of one or two of his own guitars, beginning to end. And, to make it even better, he is VERY responsive and helpful to any questions/emails you send him as you're going through the process. (I don't know how he does it, as I'm sure he gets tons of emails all the time from people.)

After following his methods, I now am finding French polishing really enjoyable and much easier than I had found it before (I'd previously done French-polishing only two times) --- so much so, that I'm considering doing all my future instruments with a French-polished finish.

I'm sounding like a commercial, huh? (Sorry 'bout that!!!) Well, I'm that jazzed about Tom Bills' course and website tips! If you haven't see it yet, check it out: http://theartoflutherie.com/french-polishing/

Here are a couple of pics of my latest French-polishing results:

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

Yes, I wet sanded all my instruments before polishing.

I'd never heard of Tom before. I am liking what I am seeing.

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

Kathy, I'm so glad you posted your comments. I was just about to dismiss this as just more black hat SEO for some unknown vendor trying to hawk his wares.


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I hadn't heard of this site, but I'm looking forward to exploring it! The few videos I watched were gorgeous and had nice, natural audio.


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Kathy, the work in your pics is stunning!


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Terence: I had never heard of Tom before, either! (His guitar website is http://tbguitars.com) It kind of makes sense to me, though, because what I've found is that he is a very humble guy and doesn't seem like one to promote himself very overtly.



No, Tom seems to me, through his videos and through my several emails back-and-forth with him, like a very modest, humble person who would never do that kind of a thing....



James -- Definitely check out all the videos, especially the four videos that are towards the bottom of this page: http://theartoflutherie.com/french-polishing/ (Video #1 is especially good, because it explains what led Tom to committing himself to French-polishing all his guitars.) And, thanks for the nice comment on my French-polishing results --- I am LOVING doing this process now!!! (And I was so jazzed by it that, in my recent workroom remodeling, I have dedicated a space just for future French-polishing! (If you want to see my workroom, look here: http://theamateurluthier.com/matsplace/ ... odel1.html)

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Kathy Matsushita
San Jose, CA USA
http://theamateurluthier.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.matsushita

For those interested in french polishing on youtube. Michael Thames and stephen faulk have excellent videos on FP, and there are other luthiers as well to explain the basics.

I'm very interested in the french polishing videos, but admittedly $200 is beyond my means. I need tools that I don't buy in that price range. I am sure that you get better and more complete instruction from these videos, but I second Ernie that there are good FP videos on youtube. I found Richard Howell's video series very useful.

Ditto Ernie ---- The Michael Thames you-tube videos are superb as are the results that can be achieved.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

TNX for mentioniing richard howell in OZ, an his FP videos. I might further add for those on a budget. That these 3 luthiers have kindly given of their time an energy in answering my questions, which is greatly appreciated. FP is experiential one must just jump in with a few materials /instruction and start practicing ,with it comes experience and a better outcome.

I looked for these two luthier's videos as well as Richard Howell's. All were great to watch but I couldn't find the FP vids done by Stephen Faulk. I guess they have been removed or I just can't find them. Stephen had some other videos that were very useful. Thanks for mentioning these three builders.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

stephen faulk is on facebook. Try and contact him there, lives in japan.Your right. I could not find any of his FP videos on u-tube . I found his methods the most useful to learn from.

Well, I signed up for Tom's course mid-week last week. So far I've watched through the first few series of videos on shellac, preparing the surface, and sealing. Excellent pedagogy.

I sent him a question last week to see if he'd seen Robbie O'Brien's online course and to ask how the methods compared. He hadn't seen it, but mentioned a fairly steep discount available to members of his Luthier's Edge program. If you're interested, definitely check it out. I've sent him a few more questions since then and his responses have been consistently generous.