M_A_T_T

There should be a slight crown to the sole.

Thats interesting everything I have read online and in magazines says you should lap the sole perfectly flat.

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I've read they can work perfectly flat or with a slight concave in the sole.

C-clamps aren't THAT expensive if you find them on sale at Canadian Tire or Wal-Mart

I didn't relized you were

I only buy the Mastercraft C-clamps from Canadian Tire, and only when they go on sale for half price. They are the best I've used, nice and heavy duty. Army & Navy sell the exact same ones, but with 'Mastercraft' milled off.

The thing I have against spool clamps, at least with the ones in my previous link, is they simply have a wing nut to tighten them, making them very weak compared to c-clamps. I made my own spool clamps once too, and they sucked for heavy clamping.

They are fine for their intended perposes of applying clamping pressure to only the edge of violin top (and other acoustic instruments) to glue the top (or back) to the delicate rib assembly, where you DON'T want tremendous clamping pressure or you'd collapse the sides.

Any updates? Looking foreward to seeing this as it gets built.

Hey does my 7-string lap steel count?

Only if my 'ukulele does!

It ain't a geetar, but its has strings, so what the heck!

This is a 'ukulele that was commissioned by a member of The Langley Ukulele Ensemble in April 2003. It was modeled directly from the main instruments the group plays, which are built by a guy in mid-western Canada.

For the soundboard, back, and three side sections I used Flamed Hawaiian Koa that I got from a contact at Larrivee Guitars for REAL cheap. The internal neck block is Mahogany, but the tail & corner blocks are Spanish Cedar, as well as the kerfed linings, and Western Red Cedar was used for the bridge plate, cross brace & cleats (smells nice inside). I gave the back edges of the sides a slight curve all around, so the back is gently arched for stability. I bound the body and corners in Indian Rosewood.

The neck is a three piece laminate of grain-matched-for-symmetry Mahogany with a thin Indian Rosewood center strip, topped off with a matching Flamed Koa headplate.

The fingerboard & bridge are streaky Pau Ferro, and the fingerboard is inlayed with Pau Shell dots. Nut and saddle are bone. Geared 'ukulele tuners and three coats of polimerized oil finish it off. Took me 28days to build.

The young lady who commissioned the instrument has since left the group, though.

(Brian, if this has no place in GOTM, just let me know)

You mean these?

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Clamps,_...es.html#details

I would not use those, I would use C-clamps.

Here is a pic of a 5-piece laminated bass neck being glued. In this pic I am gluing the two outer laminations on, after the inner laminations were glued together beforehand. The blank is 38" long.

If you already have the body cut out, I would join the two halves of the top, then thickness, then once the top is aligned to the body, I'd cut it out slightly larger and glue it on.

I would thickness the body and top separately, I also would thickness the top before cutting out the design.

I'd personally get a very high quality plane, and a particularly long one, like a foreplane or jointerplane.  I've been thinking about getting this, possibly this weekend:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...298&cat=1,41182

My block plane has a big brother now.

Picked it up today. It is very nice. A very heavy, substantial feeling tool. I tried it right out of the box on some 3x3 Mahogany and it works VERY well. Long, fine shavings. I haven't tinkered with all the adjustments yet, though it is nicely setup out of the box. I think I'm hooked on these Veritas planes. Next one will definately be a Veritas, I'm thinking maybe a #4-1/2 smoother.

So what did you wind up doing with it in the end, it sure is beautiful!

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Nothing yet. It is still awaiting sentencing. I may use it for some bizarre experimentation but it is not tonally interesting so I might not.

Any ideas?

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Raffle it off. You could:

A - Raffle it off for yourself. Sell tickets for $10 - $20 a pop. At $20 a ticket, it would only take 150 people to get you what you probably want for the guitar, and I'd bet you could easily get that many people to pay $20 to potentially own that guitar (I would).

B - Do the same thing, but the proceeds go to PG as a donation.

C - Do a combination of A & B. A certain amount of the ticket sales go to you to pay you for the materials, then the rest go to PG as a donation.

Harmony Central's electric guitar section had a fundraiser like this back when those tidal waves hit south east Asia.

BTW, STUNNING guitars Drak.

alright then, i have a 14" jack plane i just got from the home despot and after checking it, it is straight and i still have to hone the blade, but im getting told i should take it back and get at least a 18" bench plane for building my neck thru guitar, would you all agree?

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The longer the piece, the longer the plane, I'd say. I'm going to pickup a Veritas 18" foreplane today, actually.

I believe low-angle block planes are better for end grain, and standard are more general perpose. You need to think of what you are going to be using it for, and whether you should maybe get a selection of planes, ie - block plane, scraping plane, jack plane, jointer plane, etc.

If you get a Lie-Nielsen prepare to plane end grain and curly maple to a glass-like smoothness right out of the box.

Myka's not kidding when he says this. My veritas standard block plane was SWEET right out of the box. All I had to do was set the blade for my cut.

One thing I'd like to point out with these high $$$ planes is, aside form being PERFECT right out of the box, they have better features (blades, adjustments, etc.)than the lower cost brands. I'd advise anyone looking into doing alot of handplane work to seriously look at the features of these planes and compare them with the other brands.

EDIT:

"'This thread is not meant to encourage anyone to stop using a jointer or planer. These tools are incredible time savers and well worth aquiring. I just want to support those who cannot afford a jointer or planer.'

If you look at $500+ for a mediocre jointer compared to $240 for an excellent hand plane that will do a lot more you will see where I am coming from."

-Myka

You got that right. I had a hell of a time with my lame Delta bench top jointer jointing the back plates on my violin. This is why I finally decided to seriously look for a good foreplane or jointer plane.

And why is it spelled MAX, in caps?

I just had a thought, you know how when the letter X is the first letter in a work, it can sorta sound like a 'SC'? Maybe the seller is just playing with us, MAX = XAM = SCAM??????

I would go for the bigger one. I mainly like the 1/2" collet, as you can get a 1/4" adaptor to accept 1/4" bits. Nicer HP, too.

Neat, though I wouldn't use a dremel to carve a top, it doesn't have the power and would take forever. I could see the one pictured on the website being useful for only logos and inlays. I would look at modifying it for a real router if you want to rout bodies etc. with it.

You mean truing up fingerboard gluing surfaces? I'd personally get a very high quality plane, and a particularly long one, like a foreplane or jointerplane. I've been thinking about getting this, possibly this weekend:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=...298&cat=1,41182

I have standard block plane by Veritas, and it rules.

Lie-Nielsen also make very high quality planes, but the Veritas are cheaper because Lee Valley makes and sells them direct.

Low quality planes have bad soles and poor blades, be aware.

EDIT: Whatever plane you buy, make sure you have a good, accurate straight edge, too.

just use a couping saw 15-20 bucks real thin blade get em at local hardware store

make sure you order fret wire with a matching "real thin" tang

P.S. A coping saw is probably not a good idea.

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I've actually used a coping saw to slot a board. It worked okay, the guitar turned out fine, but I wouldn't recommend it, the blades are too flimsy.

MATT the only reason I said it is because there are no other bids posted between, if his were automated then the other automated ones should apear too, no?

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No, they don't. You are automatically out bid if someone has proxied higher than your bid. It happens all the time on ebay. It's nothing unusual.

http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...item=7327335989

Looking here I think that it is complete BS, I understand that automatic bids are not shown, but a single bidder sitting in front of the PCwith more than 6 days left on an item, raising the price $659 to 3,898 seems a bit od for me. Especialy when there are seconds away, Unless this are automated.

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Ebay calls that a 'Proxy' bid. You type in your maximum you are willing to pay, lets say $4000, but the current bid is only $500, so your first bid will be listed as $550 or so. If someone comes along and bids $600, the bid will then be at $650 or so, with you still in the lead. It's does this automatically until someone out bids your maximum.

The thing about the bids being seconds or minutes apart is it was most likely the current high bidder, re-biding until he out bid the other guy.

you bet....i tried once to teach your old boss how to spell guitar...but he never could get it right. cool.gif

oooohhh! Shoots....and scores!

Your up Matt. *eats popcorn*

I miss the slam thread.

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Wuddya mean I'm 'up'?

I also hang on the Talkbass forums, and have noticed they have very helpful pinned threads entitled 'Newbie Links' in some of the main forums. What if we did something like this, that listed threads relating to certain 'recurring' topics? Here are examples of the Newbie Links:

Upright basses

Upright Basses Setup

Electric Basses

Electric Bass Pickups

Just a suggestion,

Thanks.

sinacle

cynical

and damn,matt... have i got a big future surprise coming for you and maiden in about a month...

shhhh!!!!i have said too much!

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A spellcheck feature?

Machined and Forged are always better than casted.

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how so?

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Don't really know, but would it be a strenght thing? Cast are cheaper to produce, I believe, that's why they are generally cheap to buy, not to mention they usually use cheaper materials when casting.

Pro Tip - use a nail, or three, strategically placed where the truss rod slot will later but routed, or in the sections of neck which will later be cut away. Dont go too deep though (in the truss rod area)

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I've used bolts in the waist areas, worked awesome.