Official Luthiers Forum!

Haven’t had one of these threads in a while. I actually started this already, but it ended up in the classifieds.

I’m just wrapping up installing kerfing on a couple of coco bodies that I was a little too busy over the holidays to get to. I just got these SM finger clamps that were leaving marks on the linings- which drove me a little crazy. Easily fixed with a wide piece of purfling though.



Less sanding = less cleaning! [THUMBS UP SIGN]

Made some progress on my SG thing.
Learning how to use my chisels and scraper.
Too dang cold to work now.
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Fret level on a garden variety Strat, complete refret on a Gibson Spirit.

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

OM, lutz spruce, walnut BS, Mohoany neck, Maple binding, Macassar FB and bridge.
Pores fill and will start build coats tomorrow.

Looks Good, that fret board looks polished enough to see a reflection in. It's about 20 degrees here and dropping. I bought a heater for the shop and insulated the garage door though so it's sitting around 60 in there with 50 percent humidity. I didn't feel like going out and spending more money getting drunk over the holiday so I ordered some odds and ends and decided to work instead.

Happy New Year everyone!

Looks like several of us are building something out of cocobolo. Red cedar top, OM size, coco back and sides. I keep thinking this might be my dream guitar and the last I'll build for my self

Looks good. One of the coco bodies is for me as well but I have about 6 more dream builds in mind lol! Are you looking to keep building or hanging it up after this one?

Thank you - I need to pick your brains about some finishing issues. I plan to bind the guitar, f/b and headstock also in coco with a thin light fiber line and I'm very afraid the coco will bleed into the fiber (I've had this problem when trying to stain necks where I've used a light fiber to offset the headplate). Anyway, the plan is for Zpoxy pore fill and to pop the wood and either nitro or KTM-9. I'm thinking of doing the pore fill before binding with the hope that will seal the coco? Thoughts?

I'll keep building until the money runs out... I've got a commissioned barnwood tele also on the bench that I'll hand carry to New Zealand in March (tough duty, eh). And I'll probably come up with something else for my personal quiver.

I’ve been looking into that myself but I have never used either of those finishes so someone else will have to chime in. I have had bleeding issues though which I resolved by sealing with shellac and then lightly sanding with 320-400 grit. Both finishes are supposed to be compatible with shellac (flake shellac and alcohol) but someone else can better answer that.

I’m interested to hear what others say though as I just got a spray booth and will be switching to a spray finish for the body and the front/back of the headstock moving forward. Water based nitro is what I’d like to use as well. I’ll never stop using a matte Tru Oil finish on my necks though. I’ll just never use a coco neck. Oil takes forever to cure on coco since it’s so oily. That I’m 1000% positive of!


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Emma my just turned 18 year old has been playing my electric guitars and needs one of her own so.....found some salvaged Hemlock from a barn built in Hamblen county Tennessee around 1860, Curly Redwood drop top chambered with F-hole tele, some roasted curly maple necks and fretboards. The necks have an additional .250 offset than a stock Fender neck for a better break over the nut. Also these have StewMacs Low profile two way adjustable truss rods. Also fell into some incredible lightweight Alder the Strat will come in right at or just under 6 pounds

Just finished bending the sides and bracing the top on an 000.

I have never had a problem with humidity. I have a Martin 000-28 I bought new in 1974 and it has spent winters in VA, OH, PA, IN, DE and MD and it is still crack free. That said, I think it is nice to know approximate RH and I keep an electronic hygrometer/thermometer around, but thought it would be helpful to have something I can glance at as I enter the shop to see how things look. Saw one of these years ago and found a few on the innerwebs. I spent a couple hours on this holiday on this fun project. I picked wood that lives in my 39% RH shop, and this is how much it bent after 15 minutes in a 130° oven. I still have to do a little relative calibration and make a couple of marks.

Ed

Carving the top braces today on a bear claw Sitka top.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Happy New Year.....

Retired 9 days ago

Now going to get on with make this pile into a uke aL0 style steel string and a 4 string guitar tuned like a cello .. oh and plus the 29 string celtic harp that has been sitting half finished in my living room for months..

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My Website http://klw-strings.com
My Luthier's Blog...http://klwstrings.blogspot.com

Congrats. Looks like you've got plenty to keep busy!

Never did an electric body before. This one almost done. Owner got wood from 70 year old walnut tree his grandfather planted.

Cool, I always like wood with a family story!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Third coat of Tru Oil on tenor uke body and working on neck to body alignment on OO guitar, spruce over mahogany.

Ed

Currently I've got 5 guitars going, one in the booth, one ready for pore-filling, two ready for bindings, and one ready for brace carving. Today I'm working on necks and fretboards for the two unbound boxes.

Oh, Happy New Year!

M

What are u doing there? Looks cool

Are you curious about the fret marker scheme?

Is the light fiber line going to be right up against the cocobolo?

For the idea of doing the pore filling before binding, how much level sanding do you do of the sides/binding after installing the binding? I use z-poxy as a pore filler and in my case if I pore filled before binding, I would just end up sanding the z-poxy off (except in the pores) and would have to reapply it and then be faced with the potential bleeding problem again.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Nice! I like that.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Yes, the binding will be coco with just a thin light colored line in between. Here it is in Mad and Brazilian (sort of hard to see, sorry)



My thought was to close the box but not bind it. Sand the back and sides and pore fill - I've used Z-poxy before and am comfortable with it. Two or three coats, level it to the wood, maybe one more coat reduced with alcohol. Route the binding channels and possibly seal the edges of the coco with Z-poxy painted on with a small brush. I would keep it off the kerfing part of the channel. Install the binding (I usually use CA, thinking it would work fine here). Level the binding to the sides, maybe paint a thinned coat of Z-poxy over it including the fiber line. Start shooting the KTM (or lacquer if that would be a better choice).

When I make a slotted headstock I like to put a fiber piece between the headplate and the neck for an accent line. However I also like to stain mahogany necks when I use them with rosewood. The fiber just soaks the stain up pretty much leaving it the same color. Last time I stained the neck before gluing the headplate on, left a nice light line along the outside. That gave me the idea of doing the pore fill before binding with the coco - just wondering how others handled it.

Happy New Year to all.
Back to work after the holiday break with my Student's 12 string - he's coming a couple of days a week.
Fretboard slots done to final depth, fretted, fret ends ends flushed and bevelled. Neck joint marked out, mortice and tenon for neck joint cut and fitted, then bolt holes drilled and threaded the holes in the brass neck securing bar (fits in a square hole mortised into the heel), roughed out the heel and then started flossing the heel to fit the body.
I'll glue the headstock front and back plates on before he returns next week to finish the neck fitting.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.