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#77
01-30-2015, 10:44 AM
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Since I thought we were talking about what I myself do, I will add that all bets are off when you bring other builders' work into the question. |
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#78
01-30-2015, 02:08 PM
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Tomorrow, Saturday Jan 31, there will be a Guitar Festival in Sebastopol, the town just north and west of me, and I will be strutting my stuff there along with many of the other local builders of note and not a few great players like Mike Dowling and Nina Gerber. I offered my band, but was politely declined. I have participated in the event several years running, and though it is no Healdsburg Guitar Festival, for those of you in the SF Bay Area it offers plenty of guitar related fun without the associated stress.
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#80
02-02-2015, 04:00 PM
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Today I got the carved back roughed to size. The inside is not yet scraped, and the hard line will be softened. Then I can glue it on to the body, bind it, and work the channels to "release" the back.
Session Six:   
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#81
02-02-2015, 04:33 PM
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It really is coming along beautifully Bruce. A quote comes to mind...
 A few more from today's session...   
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 02-02-2015 at 05:53 PM. |
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#82
02-03-2015, 04:25 PM
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There is so much misunderstanding of the role of the truss rod in guitar set up that I mostly do not recommend my customers mess with it, and prefer they let me do it, historically. But more and more of my work is too far from my shop for that to be practical, so I have started including a truss rod wrench (9/64" long shaft Allen wrench with a clever bend in it AND a bevel in the tip to help it enter the nut) with the guitar. I have had SO many experiences of getting my guitars back where someone had overtightened the rod! Once the nut is up against the stop, it is rare to have to give it more that 1/2 turn, and many of my guitars need nothing from the truss rod, and putting the nut up against the stop to eliminate it as a source of potential buzzing is enough.
About half my guitars in the last twenty years adjust from the headstock ala Gibson, and the other half adjust from the inside ala Martin.* A half dozen or so have carbon reinforcement and do not adjust at all.* I took a couple of pictures today to illustrate how my "inside" system actually looks, which ought to help anyone trying to adjust one of my guitars with the through the sound hole type installation. The hole you see in the second picture is accessed from the inside, and the nut is very close to the hole. It is in some cases possible to miss the nut and jam the wrench between the nut and the block, so pay attention.  
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#83
02-03-2015, 08:34 PM
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Bruce shared the results of his 7th carving session. The form can now be seen as well as the chatoyance in the maple's figure.
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… |
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#84
02-03-2015, 11:09 PM
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Quote:
This hits home with me, but unfortunately I learned my lesson the hard way! Listen to Bruce folks... I think he knows what he's taking about. 
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#85
02-04-2015, 01:54 PM
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This morning I have rough shaped the neck for the Memphis bound Mini-D. It occurs to me that I may never have shown photos of the standard to which I hold my neck sculpting. My goal is to have no bumps in fair lines of the neck to heel and neck to head transitions from any angle whatsoever. I do this by eye, and it has become a pretty easy thing to do. To me, the smooth lines are beautiful and also keep the neck out of its own way when being played upon.
 
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#86
02-05-2015, 03:25 PM
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You're a tough crowd, but performing is in my blood!
The Mini-D went into finish today: 
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#87
02-05-2015, 03:52 PM
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Multi-tasking
Bruce is getting ready to close up the box!
 Da Box... 
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 02-05-2015 at 06:40 PM. Reason: New image added... |
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#88
02-06-2015, 01:24 PM
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I have just made the binding for the JZ/2 arch-back. Instead of my usual maple or koa purfling we are going with pernambuco in its place. The binding itself is made from a wood I have called Imbuia due to its smell, but Bob has pointed out to me that it is MUCH harder than Imbuia, so we are now calling it “bordes apestosos”, which apparently is a joke, unfortunately a bit over my head. The stuff really smells noxious, which is the key to the humor, I'm told.
Here 2 strips are taped together prior to being hand bent on the pipe: 
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#89
02-06-2015, 02:26 PM
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Not so esoteric...
Bruce described the unknown binding wood as having a "biting, stinking smell" when it was cut, so I in turn named the unknown South American wood "bordes apestosos" in homage to its organoleptic attributes in its native language. I suppose that "bordas fedidos" would have been equally appropriate. In English "stinky edges".  
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A bunch of nice archtops, flattops, a gypsy & nylon strings… Last edited by iim7V7IM7; 02-06-2015 at 02:40 PM. Reason: added an image... |
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#90
02-06-2015, 08:18 PM
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I had been thinking of making an all Koa as my second Memphis guitar, but I got distracted by a couple of threads in the main forum, one of which asked what an all walnut guitar would sound like. I have made a number of all koas, I love how they come out, and they have all sold relatively easily. I have not made an all walnut guitar, though I made an all walnut tenor Uke once, and it seems as good as any of the all koa ukes I've made.
I am thinking this is a 000 slothead, but until I cut the template it could be anything. This is sister wood to the walnut L00 I made a few months ago. Haven't decided which is the top and which is the back, either: 
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