R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Nov 13, 2017 8:12:38 GMT
Thank you, lars; great photos and amazing application to the task. You have managed to put my own trials and tribulations into perspective! I hesitate to say it but... good luck with the rest of the build.
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Nov 11, 2017 20:31:14 GMT
Yeah. That's what I would have done, too.
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Nov 11, 2017 16:32:17 GMT
Did you know he was left-handed, Francis, or did you just switch the strings around at the last minute?
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Nov 5, 2017 22:34:21 GMT
I am even less of an expert than Riverman, who, I believe, is now actually a qualified uke teacher, but these people have designed and produced an instrument especially for beginners. Whether it's any good, I don't know but their heart seems to be in the right place.
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Nov 2, 2017 14:22:39 GMT
Nice butchering!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 22, 2017 19:48:06 GMT
I diffuse to believe that!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 20, 2017 8:26:29 GMT
My mistake. I thought "bureau back" meant back of the bureau rather than guitar-back made from parts of the bureau. Now it's all becoming much clearer for me...
Incidentally, tables rather than bureaux (on ebay) are the way to go. lovely big sheets of inch-thick mahogany with nothing nasty to avoid. Unfortunately my bandsaw isn't deep enough to allow me to slice it easily for backs and sides and I lose a lot on my table-saw even using a narrow-kerf blade.
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 19, 2017 19:28:29 GMT
This must have been a pretty classy bureau if the "back" is worth a second look. It's usually just a bit of old pine! Is it genuine 18th century, do you reckon?
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 19, 2017 16:22:41 GMT
Anthea Kool takes another step (or two) in the right direction. The unobliging bureau sides are already a distant memory.
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 18, 2017 7:33:04 GMT
Bad news, good news - pretty much an everyday luthiers' life The sides proved unsuitable for bending but I'm determined to use the back wood from the bureau. So I "phoned a friend" - Bob Smith of Timberline - who has sorted out a set of Old Cuban Mahogany sides for me from the same source as the neck wood. The good news is that the Road Trip "An Féa Caol" doesn't need to be a cutaway any more That's what I like to see: that nothing-will-stop-me attitude shared by all guitar-makers, best summed up by the old Def Aoite (Dave White) adage: "No fears! I am going to! I can't fail!!" (Níl a fhios! agam cad tá tú! ag caint faoi!!).
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 14, 2017 8:22:28 GMT
Sorry, lars. Not "an answer to my question" because it was supposed to be an answer to francis's original question! But, since you ask, you'll find a run-down on my personal french polishing technique here (last quarter of the page). Hope it helps but, if you could explain french polishing in a few words, it wouldn't be such a mysterious black art!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 13, 2017 21:30:55 GMT
I've used egg-white a couple of times as you and Colin describe above but only because I've read about it on this-here forum. However, nobody ever mentions that it's quite an unpleasant activity - a slimy-sticky smelly mess - and I'm not sure how much difference it makes to my polishing time. I tend to fill the grain by pulling the shellac hard into the grain when polishing with a rubber and then cutting back hard (with, say, 240 or 360 paper) and repeat until I'm happy with the finish. The advantage is that there's absolutely nothing masking the wood if you do it this way. I've not really answered your question though, have I?
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Oct 6, 2017 6:43:33 GMT
I didn't use a truss rod for this instrument, but made an enforcement of carbon fibre and ebony (1: couldn't find a massive cf-rod, so I took a square tube and filled it with an ebony core. 2: routed the slot too wide by mistake, so I filled up the sides with thin ebony stripes): Music to my ears: a compromise compounded by a cock-up - a man after my own heart. Things seem to be going pretty well, though, and a fine instrument will result. Keep up the good work!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Sept 30, 2017 17:46:47 GMT
The new workshop's looking tidy - for the time being!
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 1,135
My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Sept 30, 2017 10:06:31 GMT
I asked Bryn (the 15-year-old) this morning whether he thought this guitar sounded any different from the others I've made. He removed his earphones, pondered a moment and then said, "Yeah. It's a bit more kind of banjo-y, I suppose." He then replaced his earphones. High praise indeed; but I know what he means. I don't know if it comes across in the recording but it does sound more alive and, as Mike-the-tame-guitarist puts it, less milky. Anyway enough of the irrelevancies of the sound of the thing, what about the pictures? Well, here are some I took in the garden this morning. (Why are guitar-makers driven to make their products look like something that lurks in the bushes, I wonder - but note the metaphorical use of the artist's easel...). Anyway, here goes:
I'd better learn to play it now.
Rob
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