MIMF

Sorry, typo. FFT, not FFF.

.... In real life if the lowest back mode is tuned close in pitch to the lowest top mode the two will tend to be moving as a 'bellows' over a fairly broad range of frequencies. The lowest modes being the monopole modes? What constitutes "close"? Gore & Gilet talk about the back couple monopole bein...

Well, it worked out well, thanks for all your help! Drew the rosette in CAD, printed a couple copies full scale Cut out paper tiles, glued them to bits of shell and ebony. Cut the angles, left them long as Randy suggested Glued the tiles to the paper pattern, glued with CA. Glued paper with rosette ...

I have a bigger better band saw in my machinery shed, but bought a Wen 3962 10" Bandsaw for $260 on Amazon a couple months ago for my dedicated guitar making shed and have been very happy with it. You get what you pay for and this one is not an industrial tool, but seems well designed and executed f...

I think there a lots of people who apply the dye straight to the wood, but that never worked for me. Maybe some who does it that way can illuminate.

Same here, seal before color to prevent splotches. Then color, then clear coats to allow for wet sand and polish without getting into the color coat.

The downside of the wire through a hole technique, obviously is having to deal with small holes. The string usually stains the sides of the hole so you have to fill and cover the dark stain with a bit of enamel or some other touch up. True, but the holes can be very small. I have not had a staining...

All good suggestions. Only think I can add is working with a bright light inside the body to silhouette the crack, braces, linings etc. through the top can be more helpful than mirrors and inspection camera, both of which complicate hand/eye coordination. The mirror because the image is reversed and...

Randy, thanks again! Yes, this sound hole is round. My comment was to plead ignorance of round sound holes, heretofore, all of mine are oval or shield shaped.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions! I'll post a pic when I'm done.

Randy, thanks for the step by step. I don't usually make round sound holes, so just to confirm, what kind of circle cutter would you use in steps 2 & 3? Dremel router tool in a rosette jig ala Stewmac's? And a spiral router bit? A 3/64" bit would give me about the right width for inner and outer bor...

+1 on Grover 18:1 tuners, smooth, precise, reliable and very reasonable.

I have a commission with a request for a rosette made up of 24 pieces of shell and ebony. The pieces will all be identical in size & shape and will look like a keystone with rounded top and bottom to match the curve of the sound hole. I could do them by hand I suppose, but would probably be more acc...

Found this in the product description for Enduro-var Gloss on Amazon: .... "Can be mixed with Enduro-Var Satin Urethane (25451, sold separately) to produce a semi-gloss finish." Encouraging!

Has anyone tried mixing EV Satin and Gloss? I know they make a Semi-gloss but don't have any on hand and was hoping to apply finish today. I have both Satin & Gloss and thought a mix might give something in between. I read of someone mixing Satin and Semi-gloss with good results. If no one has tried...

Okay, yeah, I worry about whether I can keep them true enough. My guitars have some tight cutaways, worried about that too.

Anyone have experience with heat bending linings. I use a 1/4" x 1/2" un-kirfed binding on my guitars. I've been laminating them out of 1/28" veneers but this is a bit tedious and uses lots of glue.

The standard field test for paint and coating adhesion is the score the cured finish with a sharp knife in a 1" grid of lines, tape over with a strong adhesive tape and then rip it off. The results will be obvious.

Fretted a new neck this morning using the tips suggested in this thread. Enlarged my slots a bit with one of many saws I have laying around so the slot was .002" over the tang width, then used the Fret Barber to take the barb width from .036" to .030". Fret went in like butter, formed well and seeme...

Thanks David, lots of good advice there. I find I need a good .001-.002" of clearance between the tang width and the slot width. How does one enlarge a slot by .001"-.002"? Set saw teeth a bit wider than needed and dress it down to the exact dimension in the Fret Barber? Sticky back sandpaper on a f...

So. the next question is what IS the proper fit for fret tangs and barbs? I've gone on the assumption that the slot should be the same width as the tang and the fret wire manufacturers made the barbs to the "proper" width. How naive of me! :-) Assuming the first part of my assumption is still correc...