Official Luthiers Forum!

Okay, Padma, my friend,
You've built lots of instruments (and appointments around your shop) with lots of really superior, time-consuming attention to detail. Carved embellishments, nifty inlays, and on and on. But you kept this instrument really simple in most respects. Sure, we see a little inlay here or there which might be hiding a boo boo, but those little details look so PLANNED. You really didn't leave yourself much room for anything but perfection on this one. It seems to me that you approached this one from a whole different mind set than normal. So, here are a few questions that I hope are not too provocative: Am I right? Different mindset? If so, why? I have a hunch you were operating out of a slightly different channel of your very creative mind when you launched this one. Regardless, I like it and I don't think you're going to hear much criticism. You might show us some progress pics to hip us into the internal details. And I think you ought to get busy on that sound clip, too. That ought to provoke some response--most of it good, I imagine.

Patrick

HITS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCpRbWXO-Es

And the winning prize goes to Flipo for seeing through me game here.

Yes, hits it is.

Regarding the diatomic scale...see google.

Regarding mirages being as illusionary as a moon lit stroll down the garden path...well gee...ya! Like ain't that physics 101 now days.


@ boy....Flipo way ahead of you.


@ Patric...good old buddy pal

well the truth me known, yer right, well sorta...see me quite simply grabbed a hunk of cedar, pulled a couple of billets out and went at it...didn't even measure the scale length...just aimed for around 24 inches. No plans, drawings, no thought....just wap me out another stick to pic on was the only thought in me head. Then when me finally opend me eyes and eyeballed all them booboos , well the light she went off and me started doing the inlays. Simple eh. and me being truthful. THis was nothing more than a wam bam, string the sucker up kinda build.

Now Patric...its these type of builds and this reckless abandon approach that offers up the very best of me builds....IS true! Them premeditated wood butchering builds leave me feeling cold and sterilized
in side. Not only that...they look and sound it too.

So there you go.

More B.S. from ?adma


blessings

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Hi padma . The background shot of the kootenays made me vy homesick .We got married up in invermere bc in 85. The instrument looks good too! greetings from KC

Almost worth crushing a perfectly good dulcimer to end up with a beauty like that one!

I'm really curious about those "squiggly" braces. How squiggly are they, and how did you do it?

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D..

Hi erni,

them pics were shot in me back yard looking north over the west arm of Kootenay Lake way down in the valley.

As you know this place clouds over end of November till end of Feb. Well when me saw that blue sky me n doggie was out there with the camera so fast and course. with no ceiling, she was bitter cold that day. Oh what we do in the name of looferin.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Ya well me don't know about that...The one that got crushed was me all time personal favorite. Me remember the day me strung up 4 of them still in the white and one right after the other. Well as me was bringing up the last one into tune ~ me knew right there and then that her and me never gonna part. In fact me played her like that for 5 years before me finally slapped some oil on her. Tried to copy her twice. Just not the same. Then after the amp incident me pulled some stock and went at it. She is no wheres like me old one. She be much better and prettier too.

Regarding squigglies.

Is a really good question Dennis.

Well parallel braces, (more like trapezoidal) would have placed the sides of the braces right on the edge of the oval sound hole in this build.

So...
Sometimes me bend and lamb up some 1/8 stock, scribe cut and then floss sand them to fit the plate. Yup...home made plywood braces.

As me also do me own wood break outs, me choose some billets with a knot and then frow out a pile of assorted stock braces...voila...squiggly and ready bent for scribing and fitting when needed.

Then sometimes me start with about a 1 inch and quarted square piece and narrow it down to size on the inside of the parallells up to the center of the bend and then on the out side for the rest of the length, leaving a "dog leg" shaped brace . It all depends on the place where the bend is needed and the body shape of the instrument. On these tear drop shapes, this is what me usually do and done did on this one as the parallels are so close to the ribs, me not too worried about the grain of the braces past the center of the sound hole.

Trevor Gore is the master of "falcet bracing." if you really wanna get an understanding of what and how to use "squiggly braces"....talk with him. Its really interesting stuff him doing.


blessings.

_________________
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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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You want a question? OK here's mine. Any part of that neck hollowed out north of where the sides start?

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

Yay! another really good question.

Umm no. It ain't.

The neck is solid right up to the 14th where the ribs are ripped up to and start to bend out. The remaining block from the neck continues on till about the 16 or 17th. On builds with an oval or round sound holes it is in this block end where you find the truss rod nut for adjustment. On F hole tops, the adjustment nut is north of the zero fret and string holder (nut).

As you can see in the pics, the neck flows into the ribs. All one piece or "Wishbone construction."

Although these pics are not of this build, you can see the ribs bending away from the neck to form the "split wishbone" ...and as these build are carved "F" holes, the neck does not continue down to the 16th.








Funkie eh!

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Very slick, and I like the corner treatments!

Next question: how do you cut and finish the sides to even thickness on this type build? Band saw? Chissells? Scrapers? I'm impressed with how sharp the corners are where they meet the neck. I use a drum sander to get my sides uniform, this looks like a whole 'nother ball game!

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Phil

http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

OK. The upper and lower bouts, don't match, the bridge is bent, and you couldn't even get those fingerboard dots in a straight line. What horrible affront to luthiery! That's my concern...

Actually, I've got a question about the tailpiece. Is that a reworked mandolin trapeze? What wood is that? I'm thinking of doing something similar for my new 13 stringer. (hard to buy one of those...) The last one was cut and filed from aluminum, which took lots of time. Seems like that approach would offer the sonic benefits of a wood tailpiece, without the bulk of a big block of wood.

OH thats another really good question....simple, me being a Canuk me keep a pet beaver under me work bench and just chuck him the blank...took a while to train him but he does a pretty good job eh.

Bandsaw...then planes and scrapers. Plates need to be thicknessed to proper dimensions. Ribs don't. Ribs Spyder, they be called ribs...and ribs only need to be flat on the outside...imperfections in thickness don't amount to a fluff in a windstorm other than it might make lineings go in easier. Sonically the thicker the better. Well thats my take on it an me sticking to it.

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Yo Greg...


An affront to looferie??? Go gets yers self some glasses.

Dude ...is gonna take a few decades before the "main stream Loofers" even start to come to terms with and comprehend my work in sonics. By then Padma be dead and then what?

Tail piece is a modified one of these...its cheap and not the best quality...but a good place to start from.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chrome-Trapeze-Tailpiece-Bridge-For-Archtop-Bass-Guitar-/181279033155?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2a35128743

Regarding the wood in the tail piece...go back and read me descriptive babblings found on the first post to this thread. Simple eh.


Blessings
the ?adma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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And I just threw out my tacky louvered doors. I knew something could be made, I just could not see it.
Great vision there

PAD.. Thanks for the write up on kootenay lake . I really like that shot with the mtns and the lake in the background.The day we spent in nelson was aug13 1985 , it was raining, My wife insisted on waiting to get married the following day aug 14 in invermere. .That night outside the prov campground near invermere. Thunder and lightning. I see where your coming from PAD with all the DIY stuff.In the usa generally speaking many don/t do diy things .I found this out shortly after we moved south in 1990.Keep up the creative work, and the spirit of loofery.