Official Luthiers Forum!

Couldn’t find my
2fers yesterday but proceed anyway. Couldn’t understand why I was having such trouble drilling fingerboard dot holes…

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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.

I can see that happening!

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Not without the 2fers!

Hey, I got me that same set of drill bits!

As my none-too-good-to-begin-with vision continues to be a problem, I find the percentage of shop time that is consumed in glasses changing increases. At this point my arsenal looks like this:



These include plain safety glasses, +3.5 "reading" safety glasses, and 3.5x surgical loupes. All in addition to regular distance glasses.

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R.M. Mottola
LiutaioMottola.com

Author of the books Building the Steel String Acoustic Guitar and Mottola's Cyclopedic Dictionary of Lutherie Terms.

Yes the production time dedicated to wandering around the shop looking for the glasses that I can’t see is definitely increasing. Time to raise the prices, amiright?

Even with glasses I couldn't spot the issue on my smart phone. Now that I have it blown up on my big screen computer monitor......

That is hilarious!
I have 2 working mag visors, and 2 in reserve in the box. I am that dependent on them. Wondering if when I get my cataracts fixed if I will see better close-up.

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Measure Twice,

Karl Borum

My cataract surgery did not help with close vision - at the time I was told you can get close or you can get far or you can get multi-focal lenses. I opted for the standard far vision and now I just use readers. I am typing this on the computer without glasses so my vision is pretty good but details or real small print require the readers. After 15+ years I'm satisfied with my choice.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've put a few saw blades on backwards over time, pretty sure I caught that mistake before I tried to use the saw as I think I'd remember the results of actually using a saw with the blade on backwards...

can't count how many times I've had the drill on reverse and tried drilling a hole...

and I think I've even done this when trying to be fast with bit changes and not paying attention...

**it happens

I spent years as a contact lens specialist, and what I always recommended was 'shop glasses'. While we need good near vision, we also need intermediate vision as well. Reading glasses are made to focus at around 12". So for sighting down a guitar neck they're not ideal. Since we're not usually looking more than a few feet in the shop, a pair of glasses that have intermediate in the top and near in the bottom, are usually the best bet. Contact lenses are not good to wear when there's lots of dust or fumes. I have lens implants, and warped corneas that require rigid gas permeable contact lenses and glasses on top, so I know what people have to deal with.

I do wear contacts and I love them. My shop is pretty well dusted collected.

Are you suggesting progressives?

Plot twist.

I was going nuts trying to sort out close vision. I went from needing 1.5’s to 2.5’s in a matter of months.

Turns out, my eyesight was rapidly improving. I got a new scrip for contacts today and went from needing 2’5’s to not needing readers at all except for fine print. Go figure..

Haven't done that one . . . yet.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com