Ptt-Guitars

If you've got an acoustic lying around which is roughly the shape of what you need you can trace around it and take the measurements off that. In cumpianos "guitarmaking, tradition and technology" they outline how to make up your own plans and templates, its pretty good. I combined these methods to make my first guitar, it worked really well.

Something was bugging me about your question and i just realised what it is. You say its a nylon string...does it acutally have a truss-rod??? Anyway, your problem could be relief (or lack of) look up a tutorial on setting up guitars such as this one and follow the steps. If it doesnt have a trussrod im not sure of the proceedure for a nylon string,you might have to take it to a tech and get the neck reset and setup properly..

Were not trying to kill your enthusiasm, its great to hear that your so excited. However....if you planning on using maple for the soundboard, its gonna sound pretty tinny....better to stick with traditional materials and use your creative urges to make individual inlays and other pieces which don't affect the sound... If its electrified its a different story..

Awesome work, I like how the turquoise and the natural woods all work together, they don't clash....good on ya. Have ya strung it up and had a play yet??? As if you didn't work day and night to get it strung up!!?

I wouldn't make the soundboard out of maple, it's way too dense and you'll end up with an earfull of treble. The sizes sound way too big...is it an archtop?? The dimensions for the sides are huge, are you planning to bend 1/4 inch Padauk or carve the back and sides out of a solid piece. It's a bit unclear on what your thinking...unless its going to be electrified the woods you have chosen will look pretty but won't sound very good... Think it over and give us some more info, or diagrams so we can get our heads around what ur planning.

They probably could but the TK Guitar guy doesn't radius his fingerboards, he claims string bending is easier on a flat board.

The steel rods/frets seem kinda pointless, wouldn't it be easier to use jumbo wire? Surely the solid steel bars make the neck really heavy???

You forgot the wood chipper... Thickness sander for getting things to shape/size quickly.....now if only I had one? But drill press is definitly usefull!

W.O.M.D is an intereting concept, but I guess I'm a traditionalist and a sucker for a good inlay. Mattia gets my vote, especially after being resourceful with the borer in the top and turning a problem into a feature....nice work!

If you inspect the wood for flaws, knots, grain runout etc you should be able to pick up something near to instrument quality. You may have trouble finding book matches from a common supplier though. Some lumber suppliers do have grading systems but often you'll have to look through and select yourself. It seems the main role of instrument making suppliers such as stew-mac etc. is to bring all that is needed to one location and make it easier for the maker....

I love the design, its got originality yet still has a certain level of traditionality to it. The whole shape somehow works really well, it will be sick to see the final product. This is the perfect example of everyone thinking their way is the best. You obviously seem to know what your doing and what works best for you and everyone should keep in mind that their way may work for them and their design, tools, methods etc, but it won't necessarily be that way for everyone else just chill out and offer nuetral advice.....

You usually have to buy the nut blank and shape it yourself, otherwise the spacing might be out of wack. Theres some good tutorials around on how to set it up properly, and if your replacing a plastic nut with a bone one it will sound much better! As for your friends guitar it may be a compensated nut, if the intonation is fine it'll be better to leave it than to make it look visually appealing but sacrafice sound!!

Maybe I didn't word it properly, but its a 'file sharing program', so as long as you have something to share, is it not legal? It hasen't been outlawed like napster and the likes, how is it illegal?

:unsure.......Cough, Cough....'Limewire'....Cough, Cough.....any program you want.....and you didn't hear it from me!!!

Theres a heated debate about tonewoods and their role. Rob Bendetto made an archtop purely out of hardware grade pine, including knots and all, not much change in sound could be recognised, however the good old rule that the better looking instrument sounds better still stands. You don't have to use a piece of wood which looks great because you are painting it, but its definitely worth using a tonewood to achieve maximum resonating properties on the electric. Its also much easier to work with quality materials and achieve a satisfactory or excellent finish on a predicatable peice of wood.

I've never seen Grizzly here in Australia, its probably not the best poll to put up on an international site! Might just have to get a grasp of certain tools for each country.

It's a bit awkward answering your own post , however I found THIS SITE and its got some really good woods up for Auction. I'm thinking I might head on down and have a look...only problem is, that its in large lots with mixed grades and I don't have a lot of money. I might have to steal some.... (wood or money)!!!

Yeah theres some cool native woods around here, but Im yet to do some research on if its appropriate to use for instrument making. I know that our Queensland maple is good and Black-wood is a good substitue for Koa. I've also been on the lookout for anything at junkyards or Pawn shops. Whilst planning my next project of an electric guitar I've been looking for wood which is long enough for the through neck but I cant find any anywhere, even in the states.....any ideas?

Yeah I just found Perry about 5 minutes ago, unfortunately 6months too late. Any other suppliers or PG members who frequently sell stuff around here?

OMG it would be so good to have a list of suppliers for Australia, I spend hours scouring the internet looking for people that sell hardware and wood here. So far I havent found any which are competitive enough to bother with, and the range is usually pitifull, its still cheaper to get the stuff sent from the states. Anyone know of suppliers down here in Oz?

Yea you say that Ryobi has good quality for price, but thats a different story here in Aus . Ryobi sucks**** I have a Ryobi cordless drill, its totally gutless and the battery lasts for about five minutes, its only about 6 months old. When you guys mention porta-cable etc, I have no idea what your talking about, those brands dont exist over here, I guess its all relative to where you live.

...So far so good, the drill works, it does what it's supposed to do. Now that I know how to be a bit more gentle, there's no reason why it won't work for a while more. But if it breaks...big deal....the days when you expected a product to last forever have been over for 30 years now.... ← Alright so were not just talking the lifespan of the tool but the quality and the efficiency that it does the job. Sure most tools have a limited lifespan and thats to be expected these days, but id rather pay the money and know that the tools not gonna chew my work to pieces or make an innaccurate cut. Though with a bit of care whos to say a topoftheline tool can't last as long???

Go to the homepage of this site and do a search, either under refinishing or paint stripping....

Hey my name is Paris Gleeson, Maori/Australian, I'm 18 and I live in Australia (South Australia/Mount Barker). Im doing my last year of school and instead of exams we do projects, so I made a guitar. I have almost finished my first guitar (its curing as I write this), its a cut-away steel-string based on a dreadnought body shape. Im pretty heavily into individualisation, both physically and mentally, and i think peoples guitars often reflect their personalities. I've been playing guitar for three years with on and off lessons. I've done work experience with two luthiers here in Australia, this first one is an electrictrified instrument (guitars/basses) maker called Brian West and the second is a mandolin and jazz guitar maker called John Liddy (I think he's pretty big over there in the US). I definitly want to continue this as a career (with other jobs on the side to put food on the table) (or I could marry a rich chick ) and a good mentality I think to have is a passion and a lack of greed or want for riches. I will probably eventually move to New Zealand and set up shop there (our goverments corrupt, thanks to your government ) Anywho thats me, as you can see Im fairly new to the forum and to pretty much everything, I reckon im in the hobby builder whos morphing into the wanna-bemakealivingoutofinstrumentmaking. Heres a link to a website i just set up. My Webpage

I was having a look over the tools I have in the shed and the main ones which are still kicking after 20 odd years are "Black and Decker". It now has me thinking about the quality of their tools these days, it seems they sold out to quantity over quality like most other companies (I may be wrong). I also realised another thing, many of the tools the US gets are branded the same but manufactured at different locations to us here in Australia. That means it could have been made in China and a badge made in your country stuck on it and the campanie then claims its made in US or Australia. One good example is last year a group of us went to Cambodia to build a dormitory for students at a free university, anyway the hammers which we bought over there were claimed to be made in the US but as soon as we hit a nail the heads broke off (crappy casting) Another good story, we got to the stage of laying the floorboards and we asked one of the Cambodians where the wood for them was, he replied "wood still on tree"