GoodWood

What a co-incident, as I hear we are going back to the "0'30's "......

Kool!@! Are all 6 the same, Dred, OM,??? IS the hybrid steel string? Or classical? I am planning to make my baroque '6 ' course capable (has mostly double strings) DId a test on the soundport design, and I will stick with the "simple one"... I may post a tutorial or something. Its a burl rosette with my logo, with black trim... My LMI 'student' grade Sitka was a pancake, so Im stuck with the adi (on both)...Baroque would usually call for Germanic stuff...like classical.... Oh, I made a cool circle cutter (manual), and Im trying to make it micro-adjustable, but the ($*)# won't email me back on the parts....but it still works great...need to post some pics... Yea, 6, whew....cant imagine, are all those spoken for Daniel?

Whats going on out there? Is the economy smakin you down? Anyone working on acoustic builds any more? Haven't seen Rich for a while... I got some wood thickness, working on final shape for Dreadnought, and a small Baroque style geeetar... Bending soon, just I have some Sapele for kerf lining I dont like very much....

I keep mine in home made plastic/duct tape bags with a hygrometer in each bag, to stabilize the humidity. That way I know its at a constant. Check hygrometer accuracy with salt/water technique. Its a pain to have to stabilize everything and let it aclimate, but unless youhave a constant shop humidity, its the smartest way to do it I can think of.

You should ask: What has been updated on Cumpianos/Kinkeads book. You can also get the guitar making book by Kinkead, which is good. There is a classical guitar building site: Moldmaking at OLF forum you need to look into the tools for building an acoustic, it can be extensive. Geting the sides pre-bent is a good idea. You can also get a precarved neck on ebay. Cumpianos book is good for plate glue up, thicknessing by hand if you go that way, neck carving. He added a bolt on neck instead of the oldstyle thing he used to do. Alot of the back and top radi stuff is done in dishes, but those run89.99 apiece with sandpaper and shipping. John Hall is well known for taking alot of phone calls from beginners also... he worked at Martin for a while.

Was the neck angle checked with a straight edge going up to the bridge area??

Yes, - Sometimes Drednoughts do shrink eventually into OM's or 000's. Thats where they come from..,If you use too much water, they can shrink into a Mandolin.

I have listed a very nice Ziricote Dred set over at the OLF! If you have ever wanted to try an awsome high end Rosewood, this is your set! PM me if you want some close up pics. I have it on for 20 days, then best offer over $165.00 or Ebay, or I keep it. Its a nice set at $50.00 off price. http://www.luthiersauctions.com/detail.asp?id=967

Have you considered just setting up a router jig to do it? It would be free and from the sounds of it safer if all your using it for is strat headstocks, could be a little time consuming for other stuff. Well, I never really thought of building a jig to do it because I assumed that the plane worked quite well, but from what I'm reading it's not that great. I'll probably design some kind of jig or system to do this quickly and neatly. I did a headstock today and took a few pics. The jig takes 3 minutes maybe to make, I'm thinking of making a permanent one though since I build one of these like once a week at least. I used to use a jointer for the headstocks but it's too easy for it to chip and this only takes a couple minutes longer. It's also great for backplates and veneers since my planer is a hand feed one it's a lot of work to use it for something this small. I use doublestick to stick the neck down and use a 3/4" bit since it's the biggest I have. http://i490.photobucket.com/albums/rr266/g...er/IMG_2853.jpg Man, that's a great idea. Thanks! I think you need a decent drill press to use the safety planner. Then you have to set it up properly, and then you have to have hold downs for the wood. I also have an enclosed vacume system for mine. It works well, but additional sanding will be needed. I run mine at top speed on my sears drill press 3500 I think. I like it, but you have to do alot of test runs on woods to get used to it, and to see what to expect, and to fine tune it. Then it will be your friend. A dust trapping contraption also keeps fingers away from the blade, yes, it can bite you! I think its great to thin down thick side sets to close, then I still have them thickness sanded, but it costs alot less. You do have to 'build another jig' to get it going though. I am 'planning' on making an adjustable jig (4") to plane thicker boards with it.

You need to go real slow also, when you take it off, you can tear the top pretty easy if you get hasyty. I tried removing backbraces from a back, and the heatgun scortched the back wood (too close) but the braces never budged (Hide Glue). I now have a practice glue up woods with hhg Im working on, just to practice this sort of thing. Go real slow, like this would take 1 hour minimum. Then, you might want to figure out how to clean the joint glue without much fuss for the next batch of glue. Not a fun deal to clean, and not easy to take the neck off without a bolt on neck. Good luck.

I have 5 backsets of Martin Sapele dred size up on ebay if anyone is interested. They are not perfect cosmeticly, but if you want to build acoustics they a good first/second guitar. Sorry, all out of side sets for now. They should go for around $6-$8 a set x 5, so pretty cheap. Measure 9 x 22 x 1.10. Some have a small crack, or pitch pocket, easy enough to fix. This listing goes until Jan 28th 7PM mst/

Or maybe a jointer is what you need, a planer does both ends and is for thicknessing I think.

How would you use the ferrules? Do you want to put them where bridge pins would be and just string it by sticking your hand in the sound hole? Also, you've seen these, right? Does this accomplish what you're looking for? Maple is neutral, rosewood is more bass oriented.

Ok, I am looking for some springsteel for side bending, (going to do like 4 sets whhhooooooo) What thickness is good for gueetar molding guys?? Anything less than $40.00 out there for a set of 6" x 36"???

Anyone using safety-planer? Here is a chip shaving catcher! Needs vacume attachment. (Saftey planers are great to thickness wood with a drill press, but they shoot out lots of annoying wood chips/dust.) Some wood, plexiglass, stiff foam to hold down the wood. It needs some adjustments but it works really good for guitar size woods. Vacume took most of the chips.

We all want to make great guitars, how many tools do you have for this? What is your woodworking experience? This is fairly detailed, sometimes maddening woodworking to thousanths of an inch tolerances.

Willie Nelson has an neat acoustic electric. I would think you may not want to scallop the braces if thats the way you do it. A great acoustic is not neccessarily a great electric, This Goodall sounds really good, but then he plays more, and they all sound about the same. Not sure but I think its just mic-ed outside. They don't say.

I am going to be using my student grade LMI sitka top for my second attempt, third top, it has a nice tap tone, and is visually just fine, $15 beeners, this may be a good start for you.

Get some Supersoft, and thin the most rounded areas. Never used it, but I would on tough rosewoods. Also, you may need to use a mold/blanket, not hand bend.

How does it sound? Gonna try to redo the braces? Ive been waiting for the humidity to fall to start doing mine again, and I think I am going for a drill press plane to plane my woods, my molds are still held up,but the wood is all cut, and they only take a few hours to build. I am doing 4 sets of sides, tops etc, I really want to crank this out. I have some martin 2nd necks/fretboards, so that cuts the time, all "I have to do is a few boxes"! If they sound like crap I will try to take them apart and redo, instead of building more. Go go go...!!

On the Stewi mac Herringbone Drednaught design (martin), he uses two 1/4 x 20 BOLTS coming out of the neck, so I may just go that way.

Ok, can you link to the lee valley stuff? Mattia, hate to ask, but what screw to go with the brass inserts? I don't see 1/4 20 anything for screws.

http://www.rtlfasteners.com/RC/q.html What size would the standard stock Martin dreadnought (kit) take? Anyone know??

Alright!!! How does she sound??