Mattia

Well, I found myself a bit of luck as well! I picked up a 6" Sprunger Bros jointer. Built somewhere in the 70's, possibly 60's, possibly early 80's, belonged to an old woodworker who took absolutely fantastic care. Minimal spot of surface rust on the bed, oiled and tuned, clean bearings, sharpened blades (plus spares), upgraded with removable legs and soft-start. Basically looks like a Delta/Rockwell clone, it's quality American cast iron throughout - guesstimated weight is around 200 lbs I think. 350 euros ain't too bad a price Looks pretty much identical to this one, except green, different base and a cage around the drive belt: http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=6166

If I know the wood's dry, I don't seal the end grain over whatever's been slapped on there by the sawyer. I occasionally slap on some latex paint (whatever I have lying around) if I'm forced to cut new rough boards to length for transport and/or storage purposes. There will be occasional splits, generally in areas of the board that had small fractures there to begin with. I tend to mark off 2" past wherever I can see the split going, and cut that off and ditch it. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't; my limba is still being stored outdoors in it's rough-cut stage, but has been essentially air drying for an extra 5 years now. African mahogany, sapele, cedrella and bubinga boards, ditto. Only one of the African boards has a big split in it, but had it when I bought it (couldn't pass up under 2 dollars per board foot for largely quartered African...), few others have minimal checking. Buy boards in the rough? Expect to lose several inches at each end. I won't build a body with cracked wood.

I prefer Gotoh's 510 minis. Small, elegant, and their magnum lock models look like non-locking tuners. Excellent little bits of japanese engineering. Liking the build so far.

Very cool. I've been toying with the idea of a parker-inspired, super lightweight carbon cloth skinned guitar ever since I got a sample pack of carbon and carbon-kevlar cloth 8 years ago. Nice to see it's feasible. May have to move it up the list of 'things I want to build'

I so want a jointer it's not even funny. Keep looking, but there's little around on the used market that isn't either cheap and lousy, or industrial and way too big for my shop. And the only new options start with a 6" Jet for 700 euros or a 1000 euro 8" combo machine (think Grizzly equivalent)...

It is. Either will likely work, try both out on scrap and see what looks best.

Pick a logical, stepwise approach and stick with it. Either from an outside edge in, or from the inside out.

My person favourites are the allied lutherie rods - thinner profile than Hot Rods, nice dual action, well built.

Japanese maple leaf. Honest. http://totallylookslike.icanhascheezburger.com/2008/11/11/japanese-maple-leaf-totally-looks-like-pot-leaf/

These? Different look, but small footprint... http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tuners/Guitar,_solid_peghead_tuners/Steinberger_Gearless_Tuners.html

Nice! This is an automotive 2-pack?

Most things are improved by boobs. Except dudes. Dudes just look wrong with boobs.

Thanks! I approve of that 85L too. I wish I had one, we've only rented it a few times on special occasions. Hopefully again this summer for Yosemite. I had the 50L for a while but couldn't rationalize having something so expensive sit around a lot of time. I traded down to the 1.4 and haven't looked back. If the 50L was as good as the 85L it would be a different story but it just isn't. The 85 1.2 is magic. See, that seems reasonable I'm bad with the camera gear; can't seem to part with stuff! Feel particularly 'guilty' about the 70-200/2.8L IS that only gets used maybe once a year, but is so incredibly useful at those times that I can't really bear to part with it. Have a pretty full range of L zooms (mostly the F4 stuff) that are absurdly versatile, great quality, and particularly useful for travel - 24-105L and 100-400L is tough to beat for range and quality when backpacking. I'm photography crazed enough I think that's a reasonable amount of weight to carry Where I get into 'trouble' is that I'm really more of a primes shooter, way more interesting creatively a lot of the time and most of my absolute favorite portrait shots from situations where I have zooms and primes will be from the primes - I absolutely love 35mm and 50mm focal lengths, and the 135L is my new favorite outdoors candid glass; if the 85L is better than that I'll have a tough time resisting if I ever try it. I also like shooting old manual focus adapted glass, generally with AF confirm chips, because they're great fun to use, great quality, and really incredibly tiny, making a 5D seem almost reasonable. So small you can always carry one around; having LiveView does help sometimes though. My 'primes stable' currently includes the following: 28: Leica Elmarit 28/2.8 (waiting for adapter) 35s: 35/1.4L (fantastic glass), Contax/Zeiss 35/2.8 (great landscape lens stopped down, not as good as the canon at 2.8, but less than half the size) 50s: 50/1.8 (need to sell), Sigma's 50/1.4 (my copy focuses fine and is really, really nice), an old Contax/Zeiss Planar 50/1.4 (not the sharpest wide open, but really great microcontrast/look) and now a Leica R Summicron 50/2.0 (waiting for adapter to arrive), 2 Pentax 50mm lenses (I think a 50/1.8 and a 55/2.0, waiting for adapters...they were only 20 bucks for the pair at a thrift store) 135: 135L (magic for portraits), Yashica 135/2.8 (nothing special, came free with the two Zeiss lenses) Then there's a fisheye and a Sigma macro I got for not too much. Mostly I need to cut back on the old primes. Although I would like a Zeiss 85, maybe some more wide angles... I tend to shoot intensely but sporadically. Mostly on vacation or during (family) events, as I'm a landscape/candid people shots kind of guy. I got into the DSLR game with a 300D (the original digital Rebel) right when it came out after getting bitten by the photography bug with a compact digicam while interning in South Africa. Stayed with that for 5 years, slowly buying glass, got a 5D mark II a few months after release and never looked back! Combination of guitar building and photography hobbies not a terribly effective combo in terms of building a savings account, though....

Before applying ANY color (or finish) to a guitar, get the scrap out and practice! See what look you like - a direct dye with clear coat is a different look (sometimes more intense, but a bit less 3D compared to tinting the topcoats). I often use a combination, or one or the other depending on the final desired result. Here's a great video on hand-rubbed dye, demonstrating why you really need to practice. Also remember the 'dry' dyed wood will look very, very different from the same dyed wood with a finish over the top. This is why you need to practice on scrap! Video: http://www.finewoodworking.com/Materials/MaterialsArticle.aspx?id=30136 Few other points: 1. Dye needs to go on bare wood. You can sand back to accentuate the grain, and sometimes pure black isn't the best 'black' to choose, depending on the other colors. Dark browns with bit of black mixed in can play well with reds. 2. Yes, you can keep the sharp line, but to do so I would mask the top completely, then spray a sealer coat/lacquer coat on the bits you don't want to stain. And then stain carefully. 3. Order is Dye -> Sealer -> Lacquer for you. Neither maple or cherry have significant pores to speak of, and thus do not require any grain filler whatsoever. 4. Practice your full finishing schedule on scrap before doing anything to your guitar, particularly if you haven't done it before. I still do a bit of scrap for every new instrument, because I haven't built that many (counter's at 10 done, 7 in process I think..)

Scott, I approve of your guitars, your bench, your bikes and your choice of camera and glass (still really want that 85L some day...)! My old shop, indoor area: Outdoor shop with tools. Bit cluttered in this shot, but nowhere near the worst it's been. Honestly I do a lot of work outdoors on a workmate. Just moving house now, new outdoor shop is a little bigger, indoor shop is going to be one of the bedrooms I'm not using, mostly 'clean' operations/acoustic building there though:

CA or epoxy will probably work fine. I believe Larrivee actually glued bridges straight to their (poly) finish with CA at one time. Wood bridges, though.

I hear ya. My planned machine is getting an industrial spindle with a VFD, probably 2200 KW. I want something accurate and fast enough for fret slots but powerful enough for everything else - even with routers, handheld, I feel an easy difference between 1.5HP and 3HP machines when making big cuts, and since I want to build acoustic necks as well I'll want to run long (4", 5/8" diameter) ball nose bits. I like overkill a little though. Still dithering on the software end of things - I'll probably end up spending the money on Rhino (can get a student license) and MadCAM, but not entirely sure yet.

Or possibly your local K-mart or gun store...

Nice! What CAD/CAM package are you using? Also, why make a template for neck fitting for yourself instead of simply cutting the entire body (pockets, outline and all) directly on the machine? Purely a question of (lack of) spindle power with the Colt?

1) Spruce for the top. Less dent-y than Cedar. 2) Mahogany for the neck. Classic, easy to carve, easy to work. 3) Indian rosewood or Walnut for back/sides because it should bend like butter. Avoid mahogany, as not all of it is that easy to bend. Some is, some isn't, and the African varieties (Sipo, Khaya, Sapele) are one and all a little more likely to put up a fight than 'true' mahoganies - applies to all aspects, and I prefer 'real' mahogany for carving but mostly use African varieties due to availability and because the finished product is just as nice. Indian rosewood and black walnut are available at reasonable cost, so pick the one you like better in terms of looks and/or sound. Rosewood will be more 'shimmery', Walnut a little more dry, both will sound great, look great, and be pretty easy to work with.

Two things: 1) Use new strings if you aren't already. Older strings can stretch and start doing weird things. 2) Put a capo on first fret and see if you can intonate the 12th fret harmonic (on 13th now). If the nut's not cut properly/is out too far you may not be able to get optimal intonation, so take it out of the equation.

Get a good book (Kinkead gets a good rap), and go read a lot on other websites - I love PG, but this isn't really the place to get info on building acoustics. The MIMF.com library is outdated, hasn't been updated in ages but is still a treasure trove, and luthiersforum.com has a ton of useful info available. I built my first acoustic from materials I assembled, and it's really not that difficult to do. Preferred the approach over a kit. As an alternative, LMI does 'serviced' kits, where you choose which bits of the process you outsource and which bits you do yourself. Building an acoustic without a kit with a good result is certainly possible, however. A big caveat, though: if you want a nice guitar to play, buy one. Building is not a cost-effective way to obtain a good to decent acoustic. Look for a nice used guitar of your choosing and have at it. Stewmac.com has online tutorials that should give you a decent idea of the kind of tooling required to build from a kit - a little less than required to build from scratch, but not less. I love building, but I build for the sake of building and because it's fun. Now it's 'cheaper' for me to build than to buy a guitar, but only if I a) pay myself nothing at all for labour and ignore investments I've made in tooling over the years. The money I've poured into this hobby over the years could have bought me several really nice custom guitars from top tier builders by now - instead I have a shed full of tools and large piles of wood that can eventually - when I find time - be turned into guitar. Which is awesome, and a fantastic hobby/passion, but definitely not an effective method of just getting a nice instrument to pal.

Steve at Colonial is a great guy, with some really nice woods. Only bought from him once while I was in the area, swung by, had a chat, got to fondle a bunch of wood. Bought some Adi bracewood and a back/side set if I recall...he mostly had Euro spruce at that time, was really nice stuff, but since I live closer to the source I left it for the folks on your side of the pond

You may want to read up/buy a book on setting up a guitar. Setting intonation is basic, and understanding why you need string compensation (definintely at the body end, some folks compensate nuts as well - either a la Buzz Feiten patented method, or in general). The 'basic' intonation guideline is to play a harmonic at twelfth and compare it to the fretted 12th fret note. The two should be pretty much identical. If your nut is too high that'll throw things off, in which case capo at 1st and do harmonic/fretted check at 13th. Any of Dan Erlewine's books are good for this, either the guitar player repair guide for an extensive bit-of-everything plus repairs approach, or 'How to make your electric guitar play great' for the 'light' version. You also need to use fresh-ish strings, although price shouldn't be an issue. I often use bulk Martin strings that cost a few bucks a set, and the quality's perfectly fine...

You can use more or less any wood you like for binding. Slighly harder is slightly better, as it'll take knocks a little more easily without denting. I've used maple, padauk, ebony, rosewood, and have ebony, cocobolo, snakewood, bloodwood and koa 'waiting in the wings' for the right project, as it were...