Official Luthiers Forum!

Bri

“I have considered a hole at the tail piece or removable strap button.
Finding a 20” long allen key is also proving a challenge, though having something fabbed is doable.”

I’m doing a bolt on M&T on my octave mandolins and go in through the hole for the pickup jack. It takes a bit of finesse but it’s not too bad. I use a pair of long needle nose to reach through the f-holes to put the bolts on the end of the Allen key which I made for the purpose.

My wrench is made from, in my case, a 4mm x 12’ t-handle, a 12” x 1/4”od x 3/16”id aluminum tube and a bit of JB weld. I made it 22” long so I can use it on guitars as well.

Top-tip: Use a piece of tape to hold the bolts in place when the neck is off. Saves a bit of messing around.

Cheers, M

The first thing on the old bench in the new shop is this 20-3/4” scale guitar-body octave mandolin. I know, it’s not a guitar but it is largely shaped like one...

I’ve got guitar camp about a week and a half away and hope to take this...in the white if need be.

I don’t know how many of you follow Dion Guitars on Instagram. He’s been finishing his necks with ecopoxy and I really like the look! I’ve got some of the stuff on its way and he was generous enough to share his application schedule. More shall be revealed.

M

I'm about to become a basement dweller. Moving from our home of 17 years where I had a small 200sf single car detached garage as a shop. The new house has a 31x15' "family room" in the basement that become my new shop. So a lot of planning going on for the move. It's going to be a fairly extensive remodel, walls coming down or moving, wallpaper coming off, complete kitchen remodel, etc. So I've got my work cut out for me over the next several months. But I'm excited about the basement shop. Over double the space, with a better layout. I'll probably put a divider wall in about 1/3 of the way to have a clean side and a dirty side. Carpet will come out of the dirty side. Dust collection and compressor will go in the adjacent utility room. Spraying will be done in the upstairs garage - perhaps even a small spray booth up there. So needless to say, building and any repairs have been put on hold for a while.

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Tony Thatcher
Bozeman, Montana

Hey Brian.
For bolt retainers I make the mortise a little deeper and use thin rubber washers from The hardware store. Works great. To insert the bolts I thread a length of rubber tubing through the head block hole and out an F hole. Put the bolt in the tubing and pull it back through. Hold it with the wrench while you put on the washer retainer.

My wrench is a length of 3/16 steel rod tapped on one end for the handle. The 4mm ball tipped Allen wrench is epoxied into a brass sleeve glued and pinned to the rod.

This wrench will fit through a standard reamed end pin hole so your jack can go anywhere. I actually like it on the side better than the end pin hole.

I have used this system on about 10 guitars and kept the first one which is about 8 years old and it is holding up well.

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

Brilliant!

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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.

Been recovering from a torn bicep. Just got back into the shop for some light work


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Ouch! Glad you're on the mend.

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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.

A little bit of this:



A lot of this:

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

I put my guitar in my galvanized trash can I use as a light box. I can't use the lid! I tried just in the sun, and the box, and got very little color in the wood. I made up some wood ash water, and it turned golden yellow. That will work. While I was doing that, I made a mock up of my inlay scheme around the edge, and tried Z-poxy as a sealer to attempt to get a smoother finish than I usually go for. I put my own varnish over it, and it works great. The back will be fairly easy to get smooth, the redwood is another story. I don't want it to look like an old barn. Some texture, but not old barn.




I also decided to fix a 5 string viola I messed up putting the purfling grooves in. Have you even KNEW that you should stop, but you didn't, and wrecked it even more? That's what I did. So I took the belly off, sawed a bear claw billet in half, planed it, joined it, carved in, put a bass bar in it, and glued it on. It took about 20 hours. I never counted before. I thought I worked pretty fast. Then I took the back off, and carved a new one. I'm about a dozen hours in, and the inside is pretty much complete; I may have to move one side over a little at the c bout; the outside needs more work. Maybe 4 hours. So it is 36 hours to get viola plates carved and glued on.

And that's not done yet.





I read guys saying that a guitar takes, 20-60 hours, and that's just so fast.

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Why be normal?

I don't know, I started logging my build time - the last one (the '37 D28 copy farther up in this thread) took just over 100 hours and that was using a CNC neck and fretboard from Andy Birko.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Olmorton wrote:
"Been recovering from a torn bicep. Just got back into the shop for some light work "

Good luck with your recovery.
I tore loose a bicep tendon a few years ago. Rather than opting to have it restrung like one of my mother's porcelain dolls, I just let it go. At my age, arm strength is not such a big deal. Honestly I think it is about as strong as my other arm. I haven't noticed a lot of loss of function, except for rotational things like using a screw driver where continuous use creates some pain. I deal with that by using a screw gun.

I have been busy rebuilding and X-bracing Harmony Sovereigns from the 60's. This is an early 60's H-1260 model that I re-topped with Adirondack. These sound amazing when X-braced and set up properly.

Chris that headstock looks like a couple of owls...

I think that's Chris' special Rorschach model.

Ha! Yep. Spalting always reminds me of Rorschachs!

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

First attempt with Royal Lac. 2 coats of Seal Lac


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I just finished up the epoxy pore fill on a Koa OMSized guitar. Now the troublesome task of finishing and hoping for no sand/buff throughs after all the waiting for nitro to cure.

Gluing on the bindings and purflings on my latest small body classical guitar. Anyone else use rope to hold the bindings tight while gluing? I prefer rope to tape because I can clean up the glue mess with a damp rag before it dries.

Some really amazing stuff going on there guys, keep it coming!

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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 just finished pore filling a Mahogany L00 using Aqua Coat.
Need to hit 1 more side with shellac and the tape off the top and then spray some nitro to finish.

I've been pretty busy. I am finishing up a zebrawood SJ, I think it might end up being a decent guitar. I am also trying out my hand at making a solid body, its been.... interesting. I also procured some new equipment.

Zebrawood w/ Sitka Top


L** P*** (ish) solid body. shhhhh don't, tell Gibson.


Oscillating edge sander, I am slowly running out of room in my shop...

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Starting the fretboard using SM TS blade and template.





I no sooner got this started when I got word from my daughter that my banjo that I let my grandson use now has a 2 piece neck. I may have to stop this guitar build and make a new banjo neck. This is the second time this neck has broken, two totally different places. It's jinxed. I'll glue it back together but I'd rather have a new neck with my own design and inlays.



On closer examination of the photo, it looks like it may have broken in the same place. I still don't have it to examine in person.

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Hutch

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

I'm finishing up a rosewood/sitka OO in my shop right now. Had a great time working with Indian Rosewood, such a great timber.

That SJ is a beauty, love the Zebrawood. I've got 3 sets perfectly quartered sets I've not yet used for too long. Got to get round to it.
I won't tell Gibson if you tell me what finish you've got on it! Such a beautiful golden colour.
I sympathise with your ever diminishing space problem, Im the same.

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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 am assuming you want to know what finish I am using on the SJ?
That picture probably doesn't have a finish on it, although I am using a Mohawk nitro. Now that I think about it, there is probably a sanding sealer on there. I think what makes this pop is the Z-poxy pore process I do. I used a brown (and a bit of black) epoxy dye to make the pores pop.

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-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube