GoodWood

It sounds decent. The bass is a little loose/flabby and the highs get a little lost, but it still sounds pretty good. I hit the general tone I was aiming for. Even though it's heavy on the bass individual notes stand out fine and finger picking sounds amazing. So I'm pretty happy with the sound considering it's my first acoustic. A fishman pickup is on the way, so I'll be able to hear it over a pa.

Cool, do you have a soundcard and a mic? Can you run down some chords to hear it??

Ok, I think I answered it. But what are the differences for playing ,sound etc? I usually play at the top of the neck, fingerstyle.

Fret position calculator

21 17.392" 0.438" (20-21) +.125 (1/8") = top of soundhole.

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Newsletters/I...letter%2019.htm

Figuring for alternate scale lengths

Having constructed a lovely guitar from your book, I was going to do this summers guitar in a shorter scale length, say 25 or 24.9 inches... Now this is going to move the bridge a little closer to the sound hole if I use the same body measurements and soundhole placement I used for the guitar in your book... how do luthiers handle this? Do you move the soundhole back towards the neck a little, or do you build a slightly smaller cabinet, or do you just not worry about it at all? I was worried about the aesthetics of bridge placement, as well as insuring that the saddle's downward pressure through the bridge into the cabinet top is in a good central location for dispersing vibrations. - a simpler way to put the question: Do you use different scale length fingerboards on the same model of guitar body?

You might recall that the layout drawing in the book's early chapter specifies the layout procedure for a 25.4 guitar, but is actually quite generic, allowing you to plug in the desired measurements and create a layout for any guitar that you have a scale for.

Thus the soundhole for the 25 inch guitar (just as it does on a 25.4 guitar) will still start 1/8" beyond the end of fingerboard (actually the 21st fret cutoff point), and the string length will still be the scale length plus .15" , i.e., will lie at 25.15" from the nut. As far as the template, when you're only varying the scale by 1/2" you don't have to make up a new body shape template. Just look at the Martin 000 and the Martin OM: both use the exact same 000 template, but the former has a 24.9 and the latter a 25.4 scale.

I heard the 24.75 gibson was "warmer", and it seems it produced less pull, less tension on the soundboard. I was thinking about that, instead of standard Martin 25. Im trying to figure soundhole placement now (cumplianos book) so thats whats holding me back. What are the differences, are there any measurements for soundhole placement / scale length already out there?

Hey, thanks.

Maybe I am reading your post wrong, but you can't use threaded pipe for adjustability. Pipe thread is a tapered thread, not a straight thread like threaded rod.

Ohhhhhh....Ive seen adjustable gobar trays with pipe thread stickin out, or maybe it was Thread rod????. Google go bar and look around. Im builidng mine a bit lighter than some, because I dont mind not gluing all at once. Get the X braces in, soyou have an anchor, etc.

I don't know any formula, but on the MIMF library there is a PDF with 15', 18' and 25' radiuses, for this purpose.

You can measure the depth if you know it, and bend a strait steel rod X distance to get the radius, like 1/8 inch or so. There was s site that listed the measurement for a 25 radius dish. google it. There should be a site with this info.

I will try using 1/2 " thread rod for adjustability. Not there quite yet. Got fiberglass rods off ebay, shorter than ash. If you use pipe usually home depo will thread it for free, but you are talking like 3" or more thats alot.

I was thinking 3 200 watts with a dimmer switch, to turn in down after 10 minutes to about 150 or so. Or leave the large area with a 200 watter.

Great, thanks. I also just got this one, I couldnt resist, but its got a metal jacket. Should I use this in a shop GFI only? its not like I will use it around water. Can I hook up a shop GFI like a power strip or something to the regular 120 in the garage? This thing looks 1946 ish, before they put the red on.

Is there an issue with using plywood? I will shield it with aluminium. Can the heat effect the woodplys?

I have a dead drill, the trigger is messed and I cant get it out. It has a nice rubber chuck though, Id like to swap it for the crappy plastic chuck my current cordless has. Anyone know how to do this? Thx!!

Really nice build Godin, I want to do an acoustic now. -Vinny

Yea so do I, been working 2 days to get the mold/bender finnished, and only halfway there!

Looks good, How you gonna get the bridge in place?

Oops,I was too vagure, I meant what are you doing to measure it/set up? This is the most crucial measurement!! I d like to see the details when your done.

Looks good, How you gonna get the bridge in place?

Id like to see more pics and an MP3 of what it sounds like when your done in a month or so...!

Radius dishes would help, they are about $150 for 2 US though. then sandpaper, you could just use a roll of 4" sticky stuff. YOu may get by with just one radious dish also, maybe a 25, for both tops and bottoms, I dont know... You can make one if your handy with a router. I would recomend just having the woods thicknessed at a cabinet maker for 25.00 also, but who knows, maybe your real good with a handplane. I thicknessed to Kinkeads specs,a nd had to resand them again at the cabinet maker, after about 1 hour of scraping/sanding, which I felt would ruin the eveness of the job in the first place, and I wasnt even close. I went for 1.10 on the top (stiff Carpathian), 1.0 back, 0.96 for the sides, and have a little room to work.

Ok, just got a $100.00 Delta to do Kerf, binding etc, and man, I was not prepared for the dust this thing kicks up. I will have to enclose the bottom (and all open holes) but just wondering what your solutions may have been for this.

Thanks

Your going to lose a lot of material making binding and kerfing on a table saw, and making so many cuts will certainly create a lot of sawdust. Be careful to make good jigs to keep your fingers away from the blade while you try to stabalize those little bits of wood. Binding for instance(generally less than 1/8" thick) is going to want to just shatter when you run it through the blade. As far as dust I control it with my dust collector hooked to a table saw attachment(attaches underneath). It keep it down pretty well.

Good luck, and cut safe,

Rich

Yea, Blade guard is a must must, although a pain pain. I worked in a 'pro' shop for a while, he didnt have one (do any pro shops?). Got angry at girlfriend one day(girlfriend made him angry, take your choice) , lost tip of thumb.

Basily the leg brace forms 2 sections, upper and lower. Im enclosing the upper entirely. The bottome gets a ''collapsable' dust collection box that fits perfectly when opened, just have to deal with the corners so it collapses to get it out.

I was going to cut my bridge plates out of the maple slab I have, it has quarter-able wood in it, but I would have to angle cut it, and its 2X5X35, and its not worth it, tooo scary. Im probably a rosewood plate guy anyway. Oh well, maple bindings up the wazzooo.

I made a simple MUST HAVE feather board from Home Depo Paint stir sticks not Lowes, HD has real good square ones). I cut off 2" sections and glued them up in a perfectly spaced feather board, with about 10 long sections. Its a must have. I also did a "blade friction reducer" by mounting a strait piece of nice ply to the fence that ends at about the peak of the saw blade, so there is a gap when the board is cut through using a fence, so when the wood is cut, it doesnt go ' CHUNK'. It was messing up my mold cedar. I dug though and got some really nice quarter sawn cedar 2x4's at Lowes, for the mold etc. I cleaned them up, really nice stuff. Took 3 mos to dry out.

So your taking off the top?

It is rediculus the stuff that is blowing around. I just designed a solution, I will post a pic! Vacume nossle hookup is a must. I wear a respirator, not jsut a mask, whenever I go into the "dustbin" right now. Man, I have never seen this much wood dust. If I cut any nasty wood like Ziricote or Cocobolo, it would get immediate attention. This stuff will blow around for a few days, its not good, especially the exotics.

Ok, just got a $100.00 Delta to do Kerf, binding etc, and man, I was not prepared for the dust this thing kicks up. I will have to enclose the bottom (and all open holes) but just wondering what your solutions may have been for this.

Thanks

Ok, say your top is 1.10 Carpathian Spruce, how much would you" feather the edges" for more response? And from what point from the edge? Im thinking 1.5 Inches average, but how much do you knock it down? Kinkead doesnt say.

While I think holes-in-bracing looks pretty, I worry about the strength issue; there are stress points around each hole you drill, and you're not exactly saving a whole lot of weight (what, maybe 10 grams? Your bracing should weigh in around 100-150 grams, tops, your top about 3 to 4 times that, and then you've got your 25-40 gram bridge...)

Ok, and I was also thinking about hole-in my bridge plate, around the ends also. Not too much of course.

I dont know how the holes affect vibration, I would think they help it. But I have no experience, just the babble in my brain. Have 2 sets thickness sanded though. Making my side bender. I want a box or 2 SOON!!!!!! My Padouk set has a nice ring to it, hope I get it right!!

This is my first mistake, er attempt at backbracing. Based on what Ive read I came up with this design. The holes were not drilled out very even, Im not happy with the finnish, but its my first guitar, well see what happens. If it looks like this is going to be a complete disaster, let me know!

What Chris Said.

The engravers are for scratching/engraving patterns into the pearl once its inlaid. Can be filled with wax, ink, special filler (also on StewMac's site), techniques vary.

You use a hand saw (coping saw) to cut out pieces, and then you need to make some sort of matching cavity in the wood you're inlaying into. The easiest way to do this is with a rotary tool (Dremel, f'r instance) in a router base, tiny bits, and route away.

You can make the cavities by hand, but it's not that easy. You'd want a good marking knife, and a selection of small (miniature, almost) chisels. Nothing specialised, really, most hobby shops/good woodworking catalogs should have them, and if you want to spend hours chiseling out cavities, be my guest. It's possibly, and I do occasionally use my 2 and 3mm 2 cherries chisels to clean up corners on inlay routes, but the bulk of the work is done with my dremel.

Rgr That, -shut up and use the power tool!! Got it. Thanx fer da link

From what I can see, these are the same stuff as Stewart Mac has on catalog,

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_...ving_Tools.html

but its for engraving the pearl, not making the inlay negative. Any tools out there for specific inlay negative cavities?

This is the back for a guitar I'm working on at the moment. Self designed bracing pattern, and I quite like it.

What have you guys used in the past? I'm bored of the ladder

Looks a bit heavy, as though you used more brace wood than a ladder! How's the tap tone?