Official Luthiers Forum!

Seems kind of quiet around here. I can only assume most of you are BUSY building. Take a break and post some progress pictures.

Sadly, I'm on hold for a bit. Waiting on cataract surgery.

But I can't begin to tell you how heartened I've been by the responses from my customers. No ich or complaining and no requests for deposits to be returned (though I've offered).

Nothing but support, encouragement, and pretty remarkable displays of patience.

What a genuinely great bunch of people I'm dealing with.

Steve

I went through that a few years ago and I can tell you that having someone come at your eye with knife is rather disquieting to say the least; but having great eyesight was worth every second of discomfort. I asked the surgeon to talk me through the procedure on the second eye and it made the experience much more endurable. It's been at least 5 years and I can still see like a teenager.

I'm working on my Project EVS from JoeWoodworker, but the real project is a piano restoration that I started two weeks ago. An upright Ludwig from 1905. I'm restoring the keyboard, action, re-stringing, and replacing the hammers before refinishing it. I just finishing bleaching the ivory keys today. After this I have two live edge tables on deck, and then back to guitar work.

So far the biggest surprise has been that you don't just order piano strings---you have them specially made. And it's best if you send your existing strings in as a pattern. The turn-around is about two weeks.

Most of the action shots are in my Facebook album here, but here's a shot of it from the morning we received it.

Wow!, you're actually doing a piano restoration? I've been considering learning how to tune my piano (2006 Yamaha grand) but everyone in the business keeps telling me "don't try it, you'll just screw it up". I suspect my 75 year old ears are still good enough to do it but I just haven't gathered the nerve to begin the process.

Wow. There is so much amazing wood in old pianos. Looks like fun to me.

Here's one I just finished about 2 weeks ago.
Pretty standard fare.
EIR - back & sides
Spruce - top
Mahogany - neck
French polished
Yada yada yada...
It came out really sweet.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

WOW!
Your re- stringing it completely!? Have you ever done that before?
I simply can't get my mind around the size of that wrestling match.
Impressive.

Good luck, Steve.

A classical build, based on the Torres SE114 Lutz/EIR. This particular Torres is sort of the D-28 of the classical world, you might say. Top thickness called for in the plan was startling, but it sounds great.







BTW, Jim, what's your take on the advantage of the open bars?

Pat

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

Level and final coat to go.
Oh, and remind me not to use fish glue for bindings with water based again ....

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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.

What happened?!

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Pat

Assembly in progress:
Spruce Maple Simplicio 8 fan bracing.

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Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

Oh, and remind me not to use fish glue for bindings with water based again ...


Not sure what happened here but being an old timer I know that LePages wood glue (fish glue) was notorious for causing permenant gray and brown stains especially in the end grain.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Have an archie ready to set up. The Adi top had a little more runout that I expected.

Waiting on a custom tailpiece a machine shop is making. I plan to try one of those DeArmond Rhythm Chief reproductions that Guild is making. Have heard good things about them.

Anyone tried them?

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

For those restoring or wanting to learn how to tune pianos the Arthur A. Reblitz book is a good source of information.
You can be tone deaf and tune a piano - you listen for the "beats" rather than the pitches. Because of string stiffness the trebles are tuned "sharp" relative to the basses (the upper partials of the basses go sharp because of string stiffness) A grand piano with it's long and less stiff strings has upper partials that don't go as sharp as those of a short stringed spinet, and that is why they can't be played in tune together.
Someone gave me a square grand from the mid 1800's with a BRW veneered case. It was too nice to see it go to the dump like so many pianos do these days. It's on my list of projects (that my kids will have to deal with when I croak- ).

I carved these two electric bodies with nothing but the chisel you see here. Real "Old World Craftsmanship".
The CNC you see partially in the photo has absolutely nothing to do with these. Honest.

Okay, I might be fibbing a bit there.

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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."

here is one I just finished Cuban Mahogany forward shifted all Hide glue

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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

Pat (and Ken) because I sanded back to the wood after epoxy, there seemed to be a tiny sliver of glue joint exposed on the sides virtually all round the bindings.
When I sprayed the WB finish, the exposed fish glue re-dissolved and probably mixed a bit with the finish, so I could see this matt pinstripe round the binding edge.
Didn't have the problem on the soundboard side of the binding, probably because I fitted it really tight with rubber bands.

But probably due to the nature/shape of my routed binding ledge, even relieving the inside edge of the binding, there seemed to be a tiny sliver exposed.
Took several coats of finish and some superglue to cure the problem.

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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.

That's how most people respond when we say we want to make our own guitars, too. There are some really good videos on YouTube. It seems to be a matter of patience. There are 88 keys, and almost all of them have two to three strings. Piano techs are certainly skilled, but you have a skill set that puts it within reach with just a bit of time spent researching. And if you mess it up, they can come fix it!



When I saw the figured mahogany veneer on the case I thought, "they wouldn't just put that on anything." We actually have a Steinway dealer a mile from our condo and went to a presentation they gave last night on what goes into building Steinways. It was awe-inspiring. They had one grand in the showroom covered in EIR veneery, and another covered in Macassar Ebony. The Macassar seemed to have a gravitational pull to my wife. She walked over, saw the price, and said, "Of course it would have to be the most expensive one here."



I'd never so much as opened one up before we brought it home two weeks ago. The book I picked up has good instructions though, and there are a few videos on YouTube. There are around 40,000 lbs. of pressure on the plate, so it's a matter of strategically releasing tension, coiling the new strings around the tuning peg, hammering them in, and bringing it back up.

Finished an L-00 style : Mango back & sides, Engelmann top, Bloodwood trim







Water based KTM SV finish and fish glue for bindings - have not had the problems you did, Colin, will watch for those in the future

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guitarsbygiltzow.com

Love the "Islands" theme on your L-00!

Pat

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

Yeah, that OO is sweet!

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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."

Waiting for humidity and temperature to go down.
Redwood veneer on Mahogany.
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

Photobucket did it's thing and deleted all my posted pics on all sites from forever as seen here

viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=44834

I don't know how to post here now. Don't want to attach a pic unless that is the only way and not a financial drag on the site. I am building 2 harp guitars and a ziricote dred. Don't know if this problem has already been addressed here. If so, please direct me.

Thanks, Michael

Took me a couple of weeks to take a couple thousand photos off $'bucket. They kept trying to block my removing photos by crashing my album every time I removed a page not to mention removing almost every photo I've ever posted on any guitar or mandolin site.
No, not building anything, the two remaining guitars are over at St. Paul Guitar Repair for completion by Ron and Michelle.

https://stpaulguitarrepair.com/