Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I am quite please to announce that Robbie O'Brien's Lutherie Academy now has a course on building an Irish Bouzouki. It was grand fun to do, if a steep learning curve sorting out video camera, radio mics and lighting while trying to remember what I was saying. https://lutherieacademy.com/courses/bou...

Lots of Brownie points for you efforts for lots of years. I has been appreciated
Cheers
Graham

A couple of weeks ago there was a post on an Australian lutherie tools and material Facebook group by a woman in the Barossa Valley, SA who is selling off her father's wood and fixtures and half built instruments, included three F-5 mandolins and several violins. He is gone into aged care and has no...

I have done a short run reprint of The Ukulele, my book on building ukuleles of all sizes. A high quality printing on good paper so the price is A$40 plus $15 p&p within Australia.

http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/ukulelebook.html

Cheers
Graham

I suspect that the Wattyl product does not have enough plasticisers to allow it to move with the soundboards. Anecdotal evidence over the years suggests just about every nitro lacquer manufacturer has had that problem at one time or another!

Cheers

Back in 2009 I wrote an article for American Lutherie, the quarterly journal of the Guild of American Luthiers, which surveyed just about all the books that had been published up to then on guitar building. The GAL has recently added that article to the 'web extras' page of their website www.luth.or...

Why would you use CA as a grain filler on a (presumably softwood) soundboard, which does not have grain to fill. I would think the spruce or whatever is moving with humidity changes, and the CA is not!

Cheers

Recently strung up is a mandolin quartet - 2 x mandolins, a mandola and a mandocello - made mostly from Australian timbers. King Billy soundboards, blackwood backs and sides, Qld maple necks with head overlays of gidgee and flamed blackwood. The fretboards are ebony with ivoroid binding all round. G...

Glad the book is helpful!

Cheers

Some of the members here may have had the pleasure over the years of meeting and talking with Graham Caldersmith. He was one of the world’s leading researchers into stringed musical instrument acoustics. He combined this understanding with great practical skill, constructing the very finest classica...

Think about a hollow neck block, with a mortice for the end of the neck to sit in. Embed a couple of t-nuts in the top surface of the neck (covered with the fretboard) and bolt the neck the neck on from underneath. Pics of a couple of bouzouki bodies to give you an idea. The structure is glued up fr...

From the beginning of last month (September), the USPS has stopped sending parcels to Australia. Everything else gets returned to the sender, who can then claim a refund. For a while, the most expensive Priority Express packages were getting through, but that seems to have stopped since Oct 1. The U...

I have been using it for ukulele and mandolin necks, albeit with a 6x10mm carbon fiber bar as well. Mostly old growth stuff I got from a couple of timber dealers on the mid-north coast. The only problem I have is that the little screws that hold the tuners tend to pull out . I have a mandolin here a...

I think Graham Hein sold the business a few years back.

Cheers

Thank you for the suggestions, but one of the violin shops in Sydney had them and scanned in those articles.

Cheers

Graham

I am looking for a couple of issues of The Strad, the British bowed strings magazine, from December 1981 and January 1982. They contain a two part article by Australian violin and guitar maker Graham Caldersmith on Cremonese varnishes. If anyone has an idea of who might have a stash of these magazin...

A warning to anyone who is thinking about using Pack & Send Australia to send musical instruments within Australia or overseas. They are, annoyingly, not very interested in responding to warranty claims for damage. I recently sent a guitar bodied bouzouki to the US (describing it as a guitar for con...

Had a nibble about bouzouki commission which would have to be shipped to the US. I haven't sent anything bigger than a mandolin overseas for several years and have no idea what might be the best option for shipping a bouzouki, likely to be in a guitar case, to America. As well, what might be current...

Thank you. I will draw it up this afternoon.
Graham

I am investigating making a small run of cast bronze mandolin tailpieces for a mandolin quartet building project. I am thinking that a 3D printed prototype might be used for the casting mould. I know little about 3D printing and less about casting bronze, so all suggestions welcomed. An alternative ...

Lillian I am sure we will eventually get to meet and have lunch, pandemics permitting. Your move could be another excuse to go back to New Mexico. You will have a very different climatic environment there. I was in Santa Fe for a few days some years back in mid-year and it was single digit humidity....

Try Interparcel. They got a ukulele to Mauritius for me last year remarkably cheaply.

Cheers

Rhodosphaera rhodanthema is the tree, didn't know it was called deep yellowwood. Thank you for that info. Could you take a photo of your tree and post it. I have no idea what the tree might look like! If I am still building in 15 years, keep me in mind if you cut it down 8-) It really is a very good...

Just strung up this morning, a classical mandolin, for want of a better term. 13" scale, with a body inspired by a carved top Italian mandolin I found a photo of years ago. The soundboard is Sitka, carved to an arching height of 1/2", graduated a little thinner than normal and X braced. The body is ...

You are making allowance for the soundboard before gluing the neck and sides together ....