Official Luthiers Forum!

Looking at your pictures confirmed my suspicion. I am way too far to be on the level that you guys have right now. Hopefully I'll get to the point wherein I can post things like these.

Thanks Josh, I have so many questions about tornavoz making, installation, how to glue the bridge, etc. I hope you don't regret your offer haha.



I buy it from Rivolta in Italy, this is the second guitar (both FE-13 shaped) I've made with euro Birdseye maple (I think it grew in the Balkans but don't quote me) and I've found it to be a bit less dense and much easier to work with than the North American Birdseye hard maple I've used. I think the traits are the same as any other Euro vs North American maple even though it's flat sawn, probably near identical to NA soft maple in most properties. The main advantage for me is the color, it's much more of a golden cream hue rather than either stark white or grey like much of the North American varieties are

Cleaned up my work bench so I could get a good picture.

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Say what you do, Do what you say.

Student's J45 from Gore plans.
Bracings carved, tapered 6.3m x 13mm on soundboard, 20mm x 10mm back, final cleaning to finish after holidays.

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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's new in my shop? I bought a Grizzly bandsaw - a bench version. Haven't done much with it yet, but SOON. Also - buying a drill press from a family member soon. It's used, but that's okay with me. Photos and reports forthcoming!

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

Looks like I am going to have built 24 guitars this year....(173 total) That is my record! also I am working on a video with Robbie O'brian on building the ladder braced guitar.

Closing the box on #94, my first with Ovangkol. Double side with a Maple inner.

IMG_0393 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

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

How many people would see the photo above, and wonder what weird experiments you were conducting in your shop...
Is it a cage for an alien?
Are you torturing a small animal?
Developing a new source of renewable power?

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

I had the honor to restore a guitar Tony Rice owned , a Santa Cruz D405. This was an interesting guitar with special thanks to Santa Cruz Darren Webb for a lot of interesting information


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3at27HbrGT4

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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

Let's see...
- I ordered the Laguna drill press... used the DP:20 at the Maryland shop enough to want to commit.
- Managed to assert dibs on the 12" G0702 disk sander which was up for grabs after the boys upgraded to a 20" variable speed unit... need to build up a base cabinet for it, but thrilled to upgrade from the 9" disk on my little Delta combo unit.
- The guitar I recently refretted twice (once with 80 x 43 and once with 95 x 47) just sold for $35K over previous sale price (which was already a bit crazy for a recent-production instrument). While I doubt the sale was contingent on my refret effort, it was nice to know that the fretwork was not a deal-breaker!
- Still on the fence re: separate shop building and another week of vacation before I start the new 'work from home' gig... decisions are the very devil.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I'm learning Whipping Post by the Allman Bros note for note.....

Repaired about 15 guitars this week working only a few hours in the mornings. We are always over booked now for the last several years and turning stuff away unless it's a smaller job that can be done in a day and back to the customer.