Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Dear all, My honours student in anthropology at the University of Queensland is doing her honours research project on native timbers in guitar building. The research project is called "The Social Life of Guitar Timbers: Exploring Nativeness in Luthier Craft". She is interviewing guitar builders in B...

I'll try to take a photo tomorrow Steve. The bridge is not installed yet, but yes, as you say Martin, I'm talking about the clearance measured with a straight edge along the fretboard. I have a bridge patch installed. Cumpiano and Natelson use a bridge 3/8" high so there's some room for a reduction ...

Thanks Martin, No, I didn't use wedges to lock in the sides. The sides fitted into the slots snugly, but perhaps a light tap or two I probably applied caused the upper bout to bulge slightly regardless? Steve, sorry, I have no photos of what it looked like before I laid down the fretboard. I guess i...

Hi everyone, I'm afraid most of my posts are of the problem, I-need-your-help type, though I posted with some degree of happiness a few pics of my previous first two classicals. I'm obviously an amateur, but I love the work, the conversations and info on this forum, all of which keeps me sane while ...

Thanks to you both! I had seen those on ebay but was hoping for a new one. Few places seem to sell them here. I decided to go with two old ones from ebay. They're perhaps more solid than the newer SOMAX versions, and unless something is missing you can't really go wrong I guess. I saw Peter Sellers'...

Friends, I'm having great difficulty finding a fine saw setting tool in Australia. I'm pretty new to all of this and realise the potential of things going wrong, but, as with my other hand-tools, I'd like to maintain and set-up my saws personally. I found a SOMAX 5-16 TPI tool and some other nice st...

Evening folks, Here's my second classical guitar. I really enjoyed the building process over the last year or so. This one is for the missus. A fair bit of work remains, and perhaps some aspects were overly ambitious (I'm such an amateur that, among numerous other gut wrenching decisions, I mucked u...

Hi there, It seems the only contribution I make to this wonderful forum is asking advice as a result of stupid mistakes. I suppose it comes with the fact that I'm a relatively new amateur builder. Just to introduce myself properly - I'm in Brisbane, originally from Holland where I built my first cla...

I'd be in for a Brisbane course.

Cheers,
Kim (a different Kim, sorry Martin)

Hello folks,

A friend of mine is cutting down his old backyard mango tree. It's 60cm width max, circumference about 2m (see pic, incl a 1m tape measure). I'm wondering whether it's going to be at all productive to try and mill some of it. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kim.

Hello there, Following on from the mango thread, a friend of mine in Brisbane is cutting an old tree down in his backyard. It's got a decent size but I'm not sure I can get anything out of it. If I post some pictures, would you be able to give me your thoughts on what could be done with it? If it is...

Don't forget the second part! Amazing guy. I like his view of guitar building as an attempt to make something humanly perfect, but, as he says, not foolish enough to think he would ever achieve it, 'I'd like to think I gave it a good go'. Check out the finished instrument at the end of part 2. What ...

Well, thanks for those kind comments. I suppose the pics didn't show the major mistakes all that well: a few flat spots in one side, some pores didn't fill completely, one string slot is out of whack a bit, I merged the neck into the fingerboard a bit too far, some cosmetic problems with the rosette...

Thanks folks, much appreciated. I'll do some driving around and, where prices are too high, keep the threat of another Kim's arrival in mind.

Kim.

I've just booked a trip to visit family in Tassie. I was hoping to also visit a few good timber places. I'm staying in the northwest but will also be in Launceston. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Kim

Hi all, Feeling slightly awkward to post these pics among the amazing builds I see on this forum. Please be gentle, it's my very first try, and as you can see much went wrong. I'm pretty happy though, considering I only used a Dremel for the rosette and binding channels, and hand tools for the rest....

I somehow knew it but happy to have followed my gut feeling and receive the message loud and clear. I'm sure you guys saved me a lot of grief; great forum!

Cheers,
Kim.

What's the opinion on using Titebond LHG to glue down the bridge? I searched the forum for a similar thread but couldn't find it (although I understand there seem to have been some concerns about the general quality of the glue in the past). I bought a small bottle from Carba-tec recently but though...

Thanks guys. I'll go for option 2 in Martin's reply: start again. I think the chisel work on the bridge will stay difficult for me so will try and rout the slot now. 3rd time lucky, I hope. What sort of jig do you use Martin, is there a pic? Also, how do you fill the pores on it? CA, epoxy, pumice? ...

After mucking up the string hole drilling on a previous ebony classical bridge I got a new rosewood blank. This time I made a mistake chiselling out the saddle slot, which turned out hollow. :? I thought I would put thin glue in the hollow to flatten it out again but am thoroughly concerned about wh...

@Markus - thanks for that, but filling and re-drilling seems too much of a hassle to me and not worth the trouble in light of the fact that I chose the wrong timber to begin with. @Martin - I make the bridge (and entire guitar) following Natelson and Cumpiano. It is the only time I have used the dri...

Thanks guys, message clear and undoubtedly familiar to other beginners: buy a new piece of timber and start again. Ah well, so it goes I suppose. I'm determined to get this bridge right. Will post a pic of the guitar when finished.

Have a great weekend,

Kim

Hello, I'm new to building and, perhaps as a result, I drilled some pretty poor string holes in my classical ebony bridge yesterday (these are the ones that are on a slight angle). The result is that 4 of the string entry holes (that is, where the drill bit exited on the inside of the bridge block) ...