Search found 915 matches
- Sat Jan 23, 2021 4:47 pm
- Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Bolt On Neck Inserts - Isn't 8/32 is small ?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 115
Re: Bolt On Neck Inserts - Isn't 8/32 is small ?
Fun with bolt numbers. If a 1/4" bolt is Grade 2 it has ultimate tensile strength between 60,000 and 80,000 psi, which translates to around 3500 lbs. A 8-32 bolt, at .164" diameter, has a UTS of around 1500 lbs. Two of them can pick up a car (a little car, anyway). They both can create over 500 lbs ...
- Fri Jan 22, 2021 9:46 am
- Forum: Tools and Jigs
- Topic: Wow! Rulers Are Not the Same! Recommend An Accurate Straight-Edge?
- Replies: 22
- Views: 309
Re: Wow! Rulers Are Not the Same! Recommend An Accurate Straight-Edge?
I have a 24" flexible ruler that I use a lot. I use it to see what the scale length of a guitar is - that's about the measuring I do with it. I recently used it to center a neck I was installing - flexible is good when you need to bend the thing. When I carve archtops I use it all the time to judge ...
- Fri Jan 15, 2021 2:38 pm
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Hemlock tops
- Replies: 6
- Views: 170
Re: Hemlock tops
I've used eastern, or Canadian, hemlock for construction. Makes very rot resistant siding, decking, piers, blocking for rigging in factories. Otherwise it's kind of a junky, fast-ish growing softwood that splits and splinters about as fast as you can look at it. Can't reasonably be shaped, sanded sm...
- Fri Jan 15, 2021 12:17 pm
- Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Stupid question of the day. Finish then set neck, or set neck then finish?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 112
Stupid question of the day. Finish then set neck, or set neck then finish?
I'm doing a kind of Les Paul ish tenon neck joint, glued. Straight tenon so fit is critical. I've never done one before, so I can't make up my mind if I set and glue the neck first, then finish, or vice versa. I normally do bolt on necks, so I finish everything first right through final polish then ...
- Mon Jan 11, 2021 10:29 am
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Acoustic/electric dreadnaught, adjustable neck
- Replies: 16
- Views: 5201
Re: Acoustic/electric dreadnaught, adjustable neck
I'm at the "finalize the neck fit and start finishing" stage of a build, and I may very well modify the joint based on your ideas. I love the idea of an adjustable neck, and using string tension to keep it together. My favorite neck joint is the Howe-Ormes arrangement, and while yours is completely ...
- Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:37 am
- Forum: Glues and Finishes
- Topic: Titebond liquid hide glue
- Replies: 8
- Views: 201
Re: Titebond liquid hide glue
Thank you all very much. I was under a mistaken impression that it was a brand new product - the ad for it I saw kind of implied that. But 46 years ago is a long time!
- Sun Jan 10, 2021 10:44 am
- Forum: Glues and Finishes
- Topic: Titebond liquid hide glue
- Replies: 8
- Views: 201
- Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:18 am
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Sound hole placement...
- Replies: 16
- Views: 515
Re: Sound hole placement...
I build archtops, and I find that when I build a traditional F-hole top I end up with a strong air resonance around Bb or C. If it's too strong I end up with a dead sounding note. I built an archtop with F-holes and a sound port on the upper shoulder, it had a stronger resonance around D (open 4th s...
- Sun Dec 20, 2020 4:13 pm
- Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: grounding individual bass bridge units
- Replies: 3
- Views: 291
grounding individual bass bridge units
I'm getting ready to "dress" the J-bass I've been making for what seems like decades, but is only years. The guy I'm building it for gave me a bunch of random hardware that he had collected, including some individual bridge/saddle units. You mount them beside each other but they don't touch. I'm hav...
- Mon Dec 14, 2020 2:42 pm
- Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: neck tenon - how tight?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 355
neck tenon - how tight?
I'm doing a kind of Les Paul style neck tenon for my current build, I normally do dovetail or bolt on joints. The tenon is straight, around 3" long, flat bottom, and straight flat sides. It will rest firmly on the bottom, and get clamped while gluing, but I can't clamp the sides. How tight a fit do ...
- Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:55 pm
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Lacquer available in canada
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4992
Re: Lacquer available in canada
Thanks for your reply. Not what I was told by the other guys, but if you're doing it, that's it! I can follow up on my 2019 comment on Beautitone Acrylic Lacquer, from Home Hardware. Finally got around to refinishing one of the instruments I used it on, first of three to do. Good news - it's about i...
- Sat Dec 12, 2020 4:41 pm
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Lacquer available in canada
- Replies: 16
- Views: 4992
Re: Lacquer available in canada
How do you get around the supposed ban on shipping? I was told directly by lacquer manufacturers that they would not ship it to me. I'm in Nova Scotia.
- Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:57 am
- Forum: Archtop Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Carve neck before or after fretting?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1321
Re: Carve neck before or after fretting?
Thanks for the feedback, I believe I will fret first and carve after. As it happens I decided to bind the fretboard first, but I still think New York Epi's had the binding installed after the frets, I've seen a picture of that from their factory, and other Epi experts agree. It's quite unusual now t...
- Sun Dec 06, 2020 12:13 pm
- Forum: Archtop Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: Carve neck before or after fretting?
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1321
Carve neck before or after fretting?
Do you carve the neck before or after you install the frets? It's an archtop with a neck extension under the fretboard, so it's fully supported and the fretboard is glued to the neck and fully prepped for fretting. I can't remember how I did it before, and I can't think of why it would matter one wa...
- Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:14 am
- Forum: Other Stringed Instruments
- Topic: Mandolin - small archtop guitar or completely different?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1456
Mandolin - small archtop guitar or completely different?
A friend of mine wants to get a good but cheap mandolin (we are looking at used). I can't find her one within Covid driving distance to even try, and the ones on line near here seem to think that a 10 year old laminated far east instrument has somehow doubled in price from when it was new. So I'm bo...
- Thu Nov 19, 2020 12:40 pm
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: high neck relief in an old Regal Parlor guitar
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1619
Re: high neck relief in an old Regal Parlor guitar
I have a 1930's Regal made Dobro with a similar (identical) neck problem so I hope you post your solution. I'm currently ignoring it by playing it lap style with a riser nut, but in the back of my mind is this nagging feeling that I'm going to repair it sooner or later... I won't be removing frets o...
- Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:21 am
- Forum: Flat-Top Acoustic Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: I’m Stuck. Wash Coat Before Binding...
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1836
Re: I’m Stuck. Wash Coat Before Binding...
Late to the party but - I use the Zinsser spray shellac in a can all the time when I am building, I use it to protect the raw wood from dirty fingers, I use it to seal the binding rout, I use it to protect against glue staining so I spray it on the routed ledge and use CA glue to apply the binding (...
- Sun Nov 15, 2020 9:35 am
- Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
- Topic: Neck Joint Database
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1346
Re: Neck Joint Database
I was sure I saw this somewhere, and found it on Frets.net. A good starting point. I talked to a luthier who was doing a similar cut and bolt neck reset on a Yamaha, I think. http://fretsnet.ning.com/forum/topics/n ... et-gallery
- Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:35 pm
- Forum: String Instrument Repair: Practical and Political Issues
- Topic: Doing fret board and head stock binding -questions
- Replies: 11
- Views: 2231
Re: Doing fret board and head stock binding -questions
So many ways, and no one does it my way... although it comes virtually step for step from the Benedetto book. I slot the flat and square fretboard. I taper it to size accounting for binding width. I add the "purlfing" binding to the tapered, slotted fretboard, and slot the binding. I glue the flat, ...
- Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:10 pm
- Forum: Solid-Body and Chambered or Semi-Solid Electric Guitars and Bass Guitars
- Topic: slim hollow body with P90
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3731
Re: slim hollow body with P90
It's been done, over the decades (centuries), mostly an arch in one direction, with the grain. The nuance of a traditional arched top guitar, with the flowing curves and the recurve around the edge, is impossible as far as I can see. If I wanted to make a guitar like that and didn't want to carve th...