crash6882

My next problem is.............. I'm trying to decide whether to joint the pieces straight or to cut the pieces at angles. I have laid out the boards at the angle and it doesn't seem to look all that much different. If I screw up one board my project comes to a hault, and i only have one more month to finish it. I'm trying to weigh the risk with the difference in looks. If anybody has pictures of a 3 or 4 piece back with boards cut at angles. or any suggestions on which you would do.

I started using the technique of holding the top with both hands and wobbling it like a sheet of metal. I was told that once the sound gets louder and more defined than the top is the right thickness. I just did this on a sitka spruce top and it seems a little thinner than i would have liked. I know that growth rings play a part in why different tops of the same species require more or less wood to vibrate the same.

I am working on a guitar which i am using curly maple for the back and sides. the planks which I am using are narrower than i wished but i'm trying to make due. I had pieces cut and glued together as a 3 piece back. once the sides got done the back is too small. I have since then seperated the back pieces to start over. I was wondering what everybody thought of doing a 4 piece back. structurally how would it affect my bracing???

Just wondering how thick everybody makes their tops for a steel string guitar?????

i need advise on how to remove a top from a guitar which has a crack. I was thinking that i would take a heat gun to it and try to loosen the glue. will this work??

has anyone ever made and used a pin router to cut inlays. I found pictures of a great design on www.luthiersforum.com by Keith MacKenzie? how easy will it be to use this to cut both the shell and the wood??

I have never built a 12 string before but i will tell you that the braces look good, I would get rid of the brace above A and just go with A. the block should have enough strength. don't forget the small piece of wood inside for the bridge plate.

thanks Rich for your help. i was looking at this set on ebay, the guy wanted $5 for it. I don't want to get it if it is going to be ****, I will just order some spruce from LMII. the last guitar i built i used bearclaw and it came out awsome, but was trying to find a cheaper top.

also do i want the growth rings closer or further apart for a good quality sound??

I am looking at a stika spruce top, it says that there is some compression, a thin pitch streak and grain runout. Each piece measures 7/16 x 8-3/4 x 22". Growth rings per inch are 13 at the widest and 17 at the tightest. will the runout and pitch streak make a difference in sound, and integrity of the board???

I was looking at getting a CNC router to do inlays with. The high price is the only discouraging thing about them. I was wondering if anybody uses one and if so can you cut the shell with it as well????

awsome work!!!! I love the cross inlay, how did you scribe it into the fingerboard so perfectly???

it is Black Acacia, Rich you must have remembered from before. I ended up doing a French polish, due to the lack of time. I was up all night finishing it and then drove it down to NJ from Mass. and delivered it. I was nervous due to the fact that i didn't have time to check it and see how it sounded and make any adjustments. The guy loved it and was totally surprised (it was a wedding present for the groom). It sounded Amazing!!! He played a couple of songs and only found one fret buzzing, so i fixed it, then he packed it away. The next night at the wedding there was one of his buddies who was playing a song which he wrote, I asked before we left just to make sure it wasn't the one i just built, due to the fact it had only been played for about 10 minutes. well sure enough that night the guitar was played in front of almost 200 people, my heart was in my mouth praying that nothing broke. all went well and i got about 5 orders. this winter will be a busy one.

well i finally have time to post some pics of a project which I was working on this past winter. Many guys here helped me when i ran into problems, (which seemed to be every day). well anyways here is the final product, i don't know how to upload pictures so here is a link to my photobucket album.

guitar 08

awsome inlay, I'll post pics of my completed one shortley

I am limited on time to get enough coats of finish on my current build. Polly has to dry for at least 24hrs and this will only allow me to put two coats on. My question is if I can use SHALLAC. I know that it will be a softer finish, but the way that I am looking at it is all the old guitars had it ( polyurethane wasn't invented then). Has anyone ever used Shallac, and if so how did it look?????????

I am working on finishing the guitar I am working on. I am trying to finish the inlay for the fretboard (it's a lighthouse). The problem that I am having is that I bought a nice chunk of Mother Of Pearl from a knife maker. It is about two times thicker than the green abalone that I am also using. My question is how do you suggest i make the mother of pearl thinner. My next question is how do you get your design off of the shell after you have cut it out. I suppose this will just sand off, but I don't want to scratch the nice shine it has. And last but not least, after I sand the Mother Of Pearl how do I make it smooth and shine, do i have to buff it????

-thanks for the help

that's correct the issue is not the depth (as of right now, who knows what else i will screw up)

the wood I am using is Black Acacia (Australian Blackwood). The sides were too wide, the length was fine. I took the blocks out and am working on gluing it back together. I have not built the top yet (luckly). I made a new mold for this project, I did not however check to see if the mold was the same size as the original (newbies mistake ).

Well I was rushing on my current guitar project, because I only have one month to finish it in. Well in my rush I was trying to do many things at once. I was gluing the blocks in the sides, and while that was drying I cut the back out (left about 1/4" -1/2" extra) I used my original template . I got the braces on and everything, the sides were all ready and I went to place it on the back just to see how it fit. Well as you can tell by now, My sides somehow turned out about 1" bigger than the original template. Now due to lack of time to get more wood, and lack of funds, I don't know what to do. any suggestions other than starting over on the back???

you don't want to know what kind of saw I used. I learn't my lesson that sometimes the faster way is not better, I was using a chop saw, all the other cuts were fine up until the last one. The problem is that I could only find one of the two pieces or else I would just glue it back to together.

It's the lower bout, it can either be top or bottom whichever way is needed. I was thinking about just making a larger graft but it chipped a little further than the block goes so it will not work. I was just thinking that I make a big end graft and just add a little square piece it would be fine, but yet again it would be very noticeable. I would switch to a different set of sides but I would have to order the wood and I need to finish this guitar by April 12 so I cutting it close anyway.

I was trimming down my bent sides getting ready to glue the blocks in when a side chipped out BAD. (if I knew how to upload pictures here I would). I was thinking that I could cut the area into a rectangle and just glue in another piece and brace it on the inside, This would be Very noticeable in the end I think. My other option is to cut 1/2" off of each sides thickness, but I don't really want to do this either, and I don't know any way to do this due the sides being bent already. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem.

P.S any help on uploading photos would be great.

-thanks Jeff

thanks for the advice, I will pick up some kraft paper and try it on the next side.