Prostheta

Many thanks Setch, Rich! I've got a pair of quilted and flamed sets in the post which are 2-3 times as wide as I need them. They're 1/8", which is probably twice as thick as they need to be but I can thin them no problems. I presume that these products do the same job: http://www.omega.co.uk/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=S...&Nav=heam01 Here is a 6x36" blanket which looks like it's just the ticket Setch: SRMU020636 which is a 2.5W/in², 6" x 36" blanket at £52.

What's the status of this build No.1? I hope it didn't go pear shaped, what with the perverted headstock.

Hmmm!!! Is that a bible I see sneaking around there...?!

Has anyone got any long-term durability comments on the Alsa Chrome? I gather that the dynamic flexible nature of wood between seasons can cause all kinds of problems with these finishes.

I believe the buffing is to remove loose flake/material from the surface.

Thanks Setch. Does anyone in the UK manufacture/sell heat blankets or is LMII pretty much the only source? That's probably my major hesitation, buying/shipping/chancing import.

I think that given the nature of this project, he'll make his own cow to do so ;-) Wow. What a birthing. This project has had all the aspects a builder can be proud of - analysis, design, development and implementation (*cough* sorry for the SSADM ref here). Everything was build by yourself - wow! This has to register off the scale on personal satisfaction....point in case (pun!) being that you made the headless tuner system from scratch with no apparent previous in metalworking. I again tip my hat, sir.

Thanks Rich - that's exactly the info I was hunting for. I was hoping flame might be more forgiving than quilted (or at least more manageable than as not) due to the shallow depth of the sides on the instrument build. 1-1/2" of depth seems more suited to flame as opposed to quilt. I'm definitely going to invest in a steel bending form, but a blanket and mould seem a little excessive for a one-off use - until I go through several sets of sides of course ;-D I've decided to design out the radii around the top and bottom horns and to sharpen them up like a florentine cutaway has (to extend the acoustic/solid cross here) so the major radii are the waist and body and seperate pieces for the cutaways. I'll bind the outer corners of the horns. The build is going to be a semi-hollow brethren of my wife's acoustic: Back Front Multi-lam binding with a super-Strat style design. Hell - i'm going to buy both sets. If the flame breaks, I'll go quilt.

What are the relative differences between bending flamed, quilted and birdseye maple for ~1.0mm-1.5mm sides in terms of grain orientation, amount of spritzing required and spring back? Which more likely to split (flame, IIRC) when bending, and which require more "babying", less/more water, higher/lower temp, etc? I understand that flame is more prevalent on quartered, and quilted on flat sawn which I guess would have an effect. I have a decision to make on which figure to use for the sides of a semi-hollow i'm making which has had the small radii designed out, but this is my first adventure into the world of bending woods. I don't have any hardwood scrap in the right thickness to practice on unfortunately, although if there is a good "break in" wood to learn from, I would appreciate a recommendation so as not to potentially waste gorgeous figured stock. I'm not making a mould for this one, despite being hugely tempted to do so. It will be a hand-form glued to a 1cm thick maple core, so there is some leeway in terms of how accurate the bend has to end up...perhaps... Thanks all.

Very very nice!!

Beautiful instrument, but the heel looks a little clumsy, perhaps. I love the bridge.

IIRC, yes are recommended a black base coat.

Damn :-\ Devon - if you have cash to spare, Stewmac sell a notched straightedge which is useful for testing your fretboard for it's level in case the areas between frets have worn concave. Doubtful, unless it's had some MAJOR heavy hammer. If it hasn't, then buy some cheap calipers (or a baby), grind the notch as mentioned previously and use that method to ascertain the amount of overall wear. Have the fret crowns worn a flat in the "heavy" use areas such as the first position or wherever you play the most compared to the fret crown between the strings? That would give you an indication of the difference in the fret size/wear since the last dress (if it was done consistently). Caliper time, baby!

Wobbly rapiers? ;-D

Interesting. I've only gotten good use out of it for running up into the heel from a ready sculpted neck. I found that the flat soled spokeshave was more "consistent" than the curved sole for profile shaping. Equally, the curved sole worked adequately in pulling out belly contours. Ugh! You can tell i've not done any reasonable amount of building for a while as i'm talking in the past tense

It's on the cards, I just have a few more things to do before I can crack on. For one, I need to decide on which pickups to rout for! Keep up the good work.

I really like the removable cutaway pieces...very economical! How's the stain on your bench Daniel? ;-D

Admirable work Andronico.

Spot on Erik - if anybody in the UK is wanting to split an order with Erik then i'm sure we can arrange something to keep the postage down. That said, it's a little more likely to get pulled on import.

I have a thickness planer which isn't wide enough to do one-piece bodies, but it works wonders on rough milling wood, and a little snipe isn't too problematic. I'll have to try the trick about wetting figured woods, but I try not to let them get near to the planer as it's a spiteful bugger. I'd love a thickness sander of course but don't have the budget right now. Instead i'm building a multipurpose overhead router table which can be configured for templating, copying, duplicarving and thicknessing. It seems a better proposition for the outlay. Thickness planers/sanders etc. seem to go up hugely in price beyond 10"

I also love spokeshaves, and can't get the hang of my curved sole spokeshave either!

Okay, enough with the freaky baby stuff I guess (fixing robots would be great though). I bought my first set of calipers for a specific job, and just having them around taught me more than anything else and I started thinking of other applications. I'm a born rocket scientist, I love learning and was taught to research at Uni. It's just a tragedy that this learning is being used to modify the young. I'm not sure what our equivalent of Harbour Freight is over here in the UK. I bought a pair which - to my eyes - look like the cheap Far Eastern mass produced set everyone sells with the grey plastic body and red/yellow buttons. For what they cost, and what I used them for, they were a bargain. I hope Devon either uses a caliper set or some feelers and comes back with a positive result on this, although an eighteen-year old guitar could go one of two ways in being heavily used or just-eighteen-years-old.

You can still make a 7-string ukelele....

You gotcha. Plus a diamond coated burr surgically attached into the pad of the forefinger to dress frets!

The wire sizes are freely available via the Warmoth site Woodenspoke, so they spec is as reliable as they are. 6100 frets seem stormingly massive...way too wide for my liking, but they look like they have plenty of meat on the bones with a height the same as 6105 wire. I couldn't live without my calipers. They should be handed out at birth to anyone who does anything more than twang strings on guitars! :-D