demonx

Got around to putting this one together the other day:

Looking pretty flash!

Only thing I'll correct Scott is that Danish oil (as I know it) does not have linseed oil as its base, it's a Tung oil/vegetable oil and varnish mix. It doesn't have that nice linseed oil smell! Years ago I used to use linseed oil, I moved onto Danish oil as my "go to" and I haven't used linseed oil for maybe ten years? The Danish oil is easy to work with. However I only use that now for necks, I use "Aussie Oil" for bodies as of a month or two ago, but I'll be sticking to Danish for the neck as it seems to have a nicer feel. I've never used true oil, but I imagine it shares characteristics with the Aussie oil. Harder, shinier build. Oh, and the acoustic sounds great. I've just got some electric strings on it now, it'd sound even better with some dedicated acoustic strings

Moving along with the Redwood guitar: Back done: I wiped a coat of Danish oil around the surfaces, avoiding the next to be glued surface. It was a mix left over from an electric I was oiling and there was a bit left in the cup, so I thought I'd try something different. Also managed to get this strung up since my last updates: and a bit more work on this one:

Coming up nicely, as the title says, it's certainly not your normal SS!

I'm sure there's many that would say "just glue if up", but me personally, I won't use timber for a neck that's already trying to spring. It's just inviting future trouble. Plane the hell out of it until it's straight, then put two more pieces either side of it. Or, throw it out and use a bit that isn't springing.

If you did decide to hang up the towel, you would be the second luthier I've heard of this week that has decided to call it quits. It's a profession that always looks better from the outside, but once you're in the middle it's quite demanding and can certainly be stressful.

I wonder if this would happen on a modern Gibson since they claim to kiln dry all their timber to under 6% before use? Anyone got a brand new Gibson they don't mind stripping back to raw wood just to find out??!!

But if you build that guitar, and sealed it with lacquer, it would not have the ability to move. Strip back a gibson, fender, etc, and check what they use as "standard. You'll be surprised. Last year I did a repair to a guitar for a bloke that thought he'd try strip back and refurb his treasured ax. When he stripped the extremely thick paint off, the timber started falling apart on him after it sat around for a while in between his spurts of motivation. When it came to me there were massive crater splits all over it as the grain started opening up and splitting. It had been sealed in Japan in 1981, obviously a little bit still not dry enough and then stripped a couple years ago in Australia in the middle of our drought! I filled it all with epoxy, did some other repairs and then sprayed it all with no warranty and he understood what had happened and what it was up against. To my knowledge it's still all good and hasn't moved since being sealed.

Just to touch on testers, I use two. The first is the pin type that you shove into the timber, the second is a non evasive kind where it has a pad on the back which you hold onto a surfaced part of the timber. They both read/measure in a different manner, so when they return a similar figure I feel confident they are "close", as you can never rely on the readers alone. One example, a guy I know who owns a tonewood milling business was describing to me how their $3000.00 reader was suggesting a chunk of Gidgee was 20%, yet when he weighed the piece it was closer to 6%. So, even if you have testers, speculation is still involved somewhat.

There are a few high figures getting thrown around here and I highly recommend not building with anything over 8%. I tend to stick with 6 percent as a preferred percentage but will go up to 8%. I did a "test" body lamination a couple of years ago and sat it on a shelf to see how it would age. The back was kiln dried @ 6%, I put a top on it that was air dried @ 10%. For the first six months, no sign of movement. I was starting to think I didn't need to be as fussy as I am about sticking to 6-8%. After 12 months you could see some separation in the top join, but the body was still rock solid. It supported my habit of sticking with the lower contents. The test was a failure, but a success in the way it has shown that those extra few percent can effect shrinkage in the final stages of drying. I happened to look at it the other day as I was moving things and the top join was wide enough to put a screw driver inside, it had lifted very slightly at the edge, however the rear which was 6% to begin with is still a perfect join and straight as a die. Imagine if you built and sold a guitar like that. Play it safe and stick to the low contents. Also, be careful about testing even if your supplier tells you it's dry, as "dry" means anything under 18%. If you're talking firewood that is, but some sellers tend to use 18% as their benchmark. So test and test again to be safe.

A bit of Zebrawood to mix things up a bit. This piece of Zebrawood made its way to my workshop via the workshop of our very own RestorationAD. Thanks mate, my shop now smells like dog poo!

Without getting too technical, as I'm no expert either, the most important contributor to an acoustics sound is the top. So that would include the bracing as the bracing will hinder how the top will vibrate. The forward part of the acoustic, in front of the sound hole area contributes stuff all to the sound, it's more structural, so the cutaway does very little. There are many opinions on this, kind of like the tonewood debate and since I'm new to the field of acoustic construction, I'll follow the views of the guy mentoring me for the acoustic side of things. Since he's been building for longer than I've been alive and is world renowned AND has the best sounding acoustics I've ever played/heard, I'd tend to believe he knows what he's talking about. I will admit though he cringed a bit when he saw the direction this guitar was taking! He's fairly set in his ways with Cedar top and Rosewood Back/sides being the recipe not to veer from. This top still has a full X brace by the way.

Honestly, taking all the time off to get the familiar with the CNC has hurt my operation more than enhance it. I've got seven builds running along side each other at the moment, which is about the amount I like to have going, but they're not all spoken for. To be where I was at a couple years ago I'd need to have ten or twelve guitars running consecutive with at least six or eight spoken for. At this stage I should be doing double. I've had to pick up more shifts at the factory in the evening to make up for the drop in business. So on those days I'll be in the workshop all day, then go to the factory for an eight hour shift and get back home in the early hours. It makes for long days, but it's the life of a luthier if you try make a business from it. Best left a hobby in most cases.

The last week or so has been spent processing timber, I bought three ute loads (Americans call them trucks) of various tone wood, sorting it, labelling it and storing it took quite a while! One highlight of the haul was this English Walnut which was salvaged from a 100 year old tree that died in the local area. I picked up about fifteen slabs of this Walnut: One of the other loads was mostly quartersawn Blackwood and Redwood from more old growth trees that were all salvaged: I got around to sanding and coloring one of the SS6 radius top's I've been building, here is the cavity cover, the body is the same color: Scraping the binding on the Acoustic build. I've invested a lot of cash into specialized acoustic jigs and tooling and the next acoustic build will be a lot better than this one, but flaws aside, I'm pretty happy with this as a first acoustic build. Paint process started on the Acoustic, you can see the "flame" or "fiddleback" as some people call it popping out. Two more guitars started this week also, both will be SS7 flat top's with Floyd Rose trems. These are the neck blanks:

I've got slabs that are several years old and still not at a moisture content where they are usable. It really depends on the timber, the way it's cut, the way it's stored. Best bet is to buy a moisture content reader. I use two different sorts and then estimate an average. Even a moisture content reader is not 100% accurate but it can help you with your guesstimate and can be used as a rough guide if you don't know how to tell any other way

Only the color. I've got Plain, Burl and Tiger Myrtle here and none of it looks like that. Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle would have to be the best variety. I've just started a seven string today that has Tiger Myrtle caps and plain Tas myrtle strips in the neck along with Qld Maple and Tas Blackwood.

Hurry up will you, I want to see more! Looking good.

At the figures he's mentioning, he's not a business he's a hobby and he shouldn't be needing to pay tax. Which brings it back to the same thing everyine is saying - get an accountant.

I've been stung in the past buying parts from ebay only for them to arrive as fakes, so these days I buy from authorised dealers, even if it means I'm paying twice the price. Floyd stuff, Grover stuff, even Hipshot stuff I've been stung on, theres nothing you can do with it but throw it in the bin as I cannot put it on a customers guitar and sell it as real when it's not. Moral of the story, buy from Authorised dealers.

Been a while since an update, so here we go... This one has made it to paint process: This pic shops it covered in clear grain filler but I ended out sanding it all back and deciding on spraying this one without grain fill. It's supposed to be a "relic" themed guitar so I decided a sunken look on the paint would suit better. Wish I had have come to that conclusion BEFORE grain filling as it's a real pain to sand off. Spent some time assembling new shelving, this is the neck blank area with a few bits and pieces thrown in: Ebony binding on the Maple board looks great with the black Numerals: Installing truss rods and carbon fiber. Acoustic net finally glued to the body: Fretwork - this pic is fresh bevelled and before they get milled and dressed. More fretwork: More fretwork: Starting another Acoustic. Redwood top with Plane-Tree back and sides:

The Floyd Specials that I buy from a authorised Floyd dealer are made in Korea, not China. It is well known that a large majority of parts on eBay are fake.

If you think tax is a bitch, there are so many more evils than just tax. If I sell a guitar for $3000 (my average price), approx $1000 of that goes to tax (in reality its not that simple, but to keep things at primary school math, lets just say 30% of income), another $200 +/- per guitar goes to insurance (depends on how many guitars I sell that month how much it's divided per guitar), another $1000+ depending on specs goes to materials (freight to australia adds a LOT for freight of raw materials and hardware) then I have to allow for other business expenses like bank fees (sounds crazy but they add up to be hundreds over the financial year) plus overheads like cost of the workshop building, security, utilities, accountant fees, all the general running costs that effect every other business. At the end you are left with stuff all. This is business. This is the same for all types of small business. Why do you think most guitar builder startups go belly up and run. It's not just guitar builders that this happens to. It happens in allelements of small business. Notice how many new little shoips pop up and then six months to a year later they're gone. Every time you see that, imagine that is someones shattered dream. It's someones life now dedicated to paying off a debt for their unplanned business which failed due to lack of knowledge and planning and research. I really cannot remember the exact percentate, but I think when I did Business management twenty years ago the percentage of businesses that fail due to lack of a decent business plan is 97%. One other thing I remember from Business Management is that most small businesses run at a loss for the first year or two years. Yet most of the people that do a start up businses do not have the financial planning to support themselves via these "start up" years, which is another reason they fail, but also comes back to being a bad business plan and a lack of understanding the business side. Most people start as a hobby and think it's great, then you add the business side and realise it's a complete nightmare. Last year my expenses were a bit over $70k. I didn't even sell 70k worth of guitars, so like many other luthiers I work a second job to help cover living expenses, in my case I work six days a week as a luthier and then I work evenings in a factory. You'd be amazed how many of the luthier brand names out there that people think are well know successful luthiers are actually working a second job to make ends meet. No such thing as a rich luthier. some might be able to support themselves, but they won't get rich off it. There's no fame in being a luthier either, it's not like you're up on stage in front of thousands of people every night. You may gain a reputation in a circle of society that is a minority, but thats not fame. You have to really love it to do it, or you're not going to last long when the hard times kick in.

Kades "Space Scene" SS6. I had a customer ask me to do a small spaceman inlay on the 12th fret. I said that it'd be no problem, however I asked why he wanted a spaceman and if there was any meaning to it (so I could get it right, make it personal to him), he said he had an interest in all things space related and sent me pics of his tattooed arm sleeves which were covered in space related scenery, so I then suggested he go all out on the board and match the inlay to his sleeves in theme and he loved the idea. The "Space Scene" was born. ====================================================================== There is just under 200 planet inlays on this board, approx 150 of them being the small stars. The fingerboard inlay materials include: Rosewood, Cocobolo, Bocote, Black Limba, Paua shell, Black Mother of Pearl, Gold mother of Pearl, Abalone, White Mother of Pearl, Malachite, Brass & plastic. Guitar specs: SS6 - Flat top body with oil finish: African Walnut top, Flamed Maple center over African Mahogany with Rosewood stringers and Ash back. Maple neck with Cameroon Ebony fingerboard Floyd Rose with Fatblock upgrade, Grover tuners & Straplock system Bareknuckle Pickups - Aftermath 16" radius 24 frets using dunlop 6150 fretwire 26.125" scale Stainless steel truss rod 2x Carbon fiber neck rods