RestorationAD

That is a gawd awful red. Do it Olympic White or Vintage Amber, gold, mary kay, white wash, even Pink paisley would be more attractive. Your guitar though... I am just saying.

Nice!

He is going to encapsulate them in epoxy! When he is done all you will see is the adjustable poles.

Thank you my friend for the advice. I plan to do what you said. I have a 2mm offset in my right forearm because I didn't "let it heal right" and it has caused a world of issues with riding motorcycles long distances. Causes my right hand to go to sleep if the bars are not bent specifically for the arm. A royal pain in the arse... hurts to ride my 850 T3 Guzzi.

Master is a relative term. And it is sub genre specific (acoustic, solid body, archtop, semihollow, etc...). While I agree with everything you said I will say that "Master" is a term you can not apply unto yourself as an artist. "Master" is a term bestowed upon senior members of a group of artisans. You earn the title Master through hard work and dedication to a craft. Usually as a result of a constant need to produce what the artist deems a masterpiece. I think the title Master is situational. For you and I we are not masters as we still know Luthiers that we look up to and learn from. For the up and coming luthier we become Masters to them as we ascend to experienced builder... I am excited that you are making the jump into acoustics. While I have built several over the years I am a noob to the artistry of acoustic building and think it could be the next frontier for me as a builder. What a rant... Keep sharing.

That is the plan. I tried doing some setup guitar work and that was a complete Fail. I must have hit the pinky 10 times in 10 minutes. Stripping wire left handed sucks. Soldering wasn't too bad until I realized I use my pinky to stabilize my hand. Now I am rethinking the splint over a real cast. I did the splint so I can still type... cause you know I program for a living.

No. I smashed it into another players elbow... It is broken. Fractured the proximal phalange. Probably out of commision for 4 weeks. Hurts like the dickens. Makes doing normal things a pain in the arse since I am right handed.

Sprained or broke the pinky on my right hand today at lunch (will know soon). No wet sanding this weekend...

Flood once until guitar will not take anymore oil. Let sit 30 - 40 minutes. Wipe up and follow up at least every hour for a few (until you are sure it is done weeping). Let cure for a time (at least 24 hours). Sand with 400 grit and oil, wipe excess cross grain. Let cure for a time (at least 24 hours). Flood again. If it stands wipe clean shortly after. If it soaks in repeat above minus the scuff with 400. Add two more light coats at least a day apart. Light coats so wipe on wipe off. Let cure. After guitar stops smelling of oil rub with clean rag before assembling. ** Here is where I often break my own rules and add a final coat of hand rubbed poly or varnish straight from the can. Or sometimes I shoot 2 or 3 thin coats of lacquer... Then I wait for that to cure... Re-post from a few years ago: When using Teak Oil, China Oil, BLO recipes the usual procedure for the first coat is to flood the wood with oil and keep a coat of oil on it until it stops sinking in. Then after the wood will not take any more oil wipe excess from the surface. Of course depending on the type of oil you may need to "chase" the oil that weeps from the pores several times after. I usually let this sit overnight (or 3 days...) and then sand the instrument with 400 grit to 600 grit wet/dry paper using the oil as a lubricant. The slurry that builds can be forced into the pores with a rag after sanding. Wipe excess let sit. After about 3 days you apply another thinner coat. This coat can be applied with a rag and the excess wiped away immediately to a few minutes after. Rinse repeat (usually two more coats) a few more times and leave to cure until the wood stops smelling of oil. Buff it out with a clean rag (no products).

+1 Amen brother. SR Clamp Police Approved Answer.

Its not ugly. It can cut the 24th fret on a 24.75 scale without touching the other frets.

I did the first pair with the grinder and belt sander trying to be very careful not to heat them too much (dousing them in water while working). No they do not benefit from getting too hot. If they turn blue while you are grinding it is too late you have lost... +1 what Carl said about making them too flush. Mine are very close to flush but still miss by a thousandth in hopes of retaining the cutting edge strength. I also cut the head of mine down considerably so that the actual cut is not much more than the full depth of a fret. This makes sure you are cutting as close to the pivot as you can making it easier on your hands and less prone to twisting/chipping/mangling the fret.

I am using Ideal 8" WireMan Diagonal Cutting Pliers w/ Angled Head ground flush and polished. They are the only pliers I have that can cut SS without chipping or dulling.

5 inch heels is the max for welding.

Like I need another hole in my head. Yeah basically. Mine always manages to remind me that her car has never been in the garage... Is mine the only one that brings beverages, sweeps and will put things I'm not using away? Yes. Mine spends money like a professional but she doesn't get dirty outside

I almost never buy then build. Most of my woods have been in the shop for at least a year before I work with them. Some longer. Especially stuff I order from the Internet that might come from the West Coast or Canada. I let that stuff sit at least a year. I do have a local supplier that keeps his wood inside climate controlled and I can buy a piece, cut it, glue it, and have it remain stable during certain parts of the year when the humidity is low and the temperature is mild (closer to the shop it is was in). Species matter as well. Zebrano or Zebra wood is moody stuff and it hates climate change. It will split, check and warp anytime it feels like it. Sapele and Khaya tend to be more stable and safer to work with during times of the year when climate is unstable. Bloodwood and Maple are almost always safe to work anytime. Cocobolo and Bocote not so much. Limba and Wenge can be moody but not a s bad as Zebrawood. Basically the more change in climate the longer I let the wood acclimatize before using. This way I see the least amount of fluctuation (expansion/contraction) of the wood. If I think I am going to have a run of sunny days and the weather will be consistent I work on major construction. If I know it is going to fluctuate I do simpler stuff... I still mess up as you guys saw with the 6 string bass last year and the 8 string body blank this year. But I know what causes it and try my best to avoid it. Storing the wood outside in the garage on shelves with air space around it allows the wood to stabilize as best as it can without real climate control. Worst thing you could do is keep a board in the house then take it outside, cut it, sand it, glue it and not bring it back inside the same day. Change makes wood unhappy. I left the last 2 S9 guitars out in the garage for almost a month before finishing because I knew if I took them inside the change in climate would cause them to "freak out". Once the finish is on them it is safe to move them... only extreme changes will affect them then (like freezing outside into the warm dry house in the winter).

It sucks and I am not good at it. I keep all my wood on high shelves never more than a few boards together on a shelf. I keep like woods together and for real exotics I wax the ends and sticker them (use wood spacers between the boards so air can flow). I try to do all my cuts and titebond glue ups in the winter when it is dry. I try to work out assemblies in the spring/summer and use epoxy so don't introduce any extra moisture. In the Fall it gets nice here and I try to clean out the shop and do some more cutting and glue ups. The real fix is climate control for the shop but I can't afford that. AC and Heat would be great.

Sanded flat. Of course the blush did not come out so I had to sand a bit more than I wanted and managed to cut through in to spots. Tiny tiny spots but still have to be fixed before I can buff. I shot some blush remover carefully over the hazy spots and it is almost ready to go. I am going to throw a light coat on it after touching up the cut through spots. The weather here has been atrocious for painting. Every weekend it has rained or been around 89% humidity so no real paint can be sprayed until we get a break with some dry weather.

I like the trussrod drill jig. I think I am going to make something like that for myself. I still struggle with trussrod access holes being perfect. I want them as small as they can be and still work so I need to make a very accurate jig for them. The one I made slips to easy...

Ha! No you can't have it! It is mine.

So that comment got me curious enough to revisit the whole thread.....and it is truly a great thread. Very full of info for those getting started. I understand the reason for doing a multi-guitar thread when you build a buttload of guitars each year, but man I miss your complete one guitar start to finish threads. It is so much easier to find info related to specific stages of the build than in those all year long threads. I recommend we pin this one. SR Yeah good thing about me scaling back to a few builds a year means I can go back to single guitar threads. However I am pretty sure that the CNC makes my newer build threads much less useful.

We are not out of the weeds yet... I still have to sand out that orange peel and buff it. Nothing throws a guitar across the shop like a big buffer!

Like I need another hole in my head. Yeah basically. Mine always manages to remind me that her car has never been in the garage...

It is an incredible instrument. It has sustain and clarity that puts it at the top of my 30 something guitar collection. (They are all special but some are more special than others) The main reason for posting the finished shots is I really wanted to make sure the thread was complete. This was the last completely hand built S9 guitar I did. I think I did a really decent job documenting the build process as well... full of tips and tricks. To often our search function fails us so having it bumped for a few days will be nice for the noobs I hope. Enjoy!