MIMF

I don't radius the rims - I just leave them flat and clamp the top and back to them as it looks like Cumpiano does. The difference in radiused and flat is about 0.010" at the inside of the lining for 15' radiused back, and 0 at the outside, which is a thin enough glue line for me. The 25' top w...

I don't know the answer - the last gallon of acetone I bought (here in CA) was several years ago, and it is real acetone, at least by smell and other properties, as far as I can tell. Apparently I can't get naphtha here any more, and I haven't bought any lacquer thinner lately - hope it's still avai...

I used Elmer's yellow carpenter's glue, which is what I use for almost all wood joints - just make sure you clean it up well and sand, as it won't take color with stain or lacquer. If you're using wood, I'd imagine any wood glue would work, like Titebond or even fish glue. For plastic bindings I've ...

This is off the wall, but I've used colored pencils to blend in feathered defects. I've got several sets of watercolor pencils (about 100) and I can usually find a close match, or by overlaying two. But nothing is perfect. If I wet them for use, I seal the wood with shellac first so the color can be...

Cleaned it up a bit, made a nut, and it's ready to go.

I was going to mickey-mouse one and call it the Bridge Nurse Practitioner. :) I had a conversation with the owner, and convinced him that although I'd make it somewhat playable, that because it's a cheap guitar, covered with sound dampening tape and pictures, and hard to fix elevated action, it woul...

Hi Jim - I already did one of these a couple of years ago, and you sent me the link in that thread too. :) https://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6172 For this one attaching the head stock is the easiest part. It had separated along the glue lines of the scarf joint and the fret board, w...

I did a rope binding years ago on neck, bridge cover and tailpiece of a reso guitar I made. I made strips of walnut and alder, cut them into small pieces with a simple home made miter box, and glued them piece by piece into the binding channel. It was easy but tedious, and worth the effort.

A friend of a friend wants me to fix his guitar so it's playable. Apparently his most pressing desires are for new tuners and "can you put some varnish over the pictures to protect them (it's a family heirloom)." Oh, and fix the neck. Should be interesting.

Alan: Brand and source for the fish glue. I'd like to give that a try... I got this a couple of years ago. I've used it for binding, and gluing on tops, backs and other things when I wanted or thought I might need a longer set time. No failures yet, but it hasn't been long. Apparently not very resi...

Slowly making progress. Body pretty much done, now that I found the courage to route the dovetail mortise without possibly destroying all the prior work. I made a template and screwed it in position over the body being held by clamps screwed to the bench too. Now onto the neck. I'll route the tenon ...

That is an interesting question I can see that having that part of the top (or back) held firmly to the end block along a single grain line, if there were a change in expansion due to humidity or temperature it might cause a crack to form there. By rounding the block (or at least the glue area) it m...

I'm not sure which edges you're referencing. Do you mean round the end blocks here?

I made an Irish bouzouki for my first acoustic instrument, because the Douglas fir floorboard I resawed was too short and narrow for a guitar, so that's a possibility.
Here's the link:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1821

Hi Beate - glad to see your still alive and kicking! It's been going slowly due to lack of energy from aging, but it's getting there. It's worked out OK, but probably would have gone faster and easier if I'd made a mold. I just need to put in an end graft and install a JJB under bridge pickup (have ...

I found this to be most helpful:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNbsZsSabPs

I made scrapers out of old hacksaw blades. Most important is using your thumb as a guide while scraping.

I understand neck relief (I’m also a player), but for leveling the frets I’ve always gotten the neck straight first, then leveled. Is this not the way? Yes. If I'm using a single action truss rod I plane some relief into the fret board when there is no tension on the rod, then straighten the neck w...

It seems to me that your action may be too low, or you haven't set enough relief into the neck. I assume you know that the neck shouldn't be straight, but have a slight concave bow called relief.

John Damon wrote: ↑Wed Apr 27, 2022 4:06 pm I string it up and note where it frets out or buzzes…

So are you saying you have strung it up, and with the appropriately set action some frets buzz?

Are the frets well seated, and not springing up when you take the level off? Does a fret rock across the entire width of the fret, or just in the center or the edges? If your fret rocker were a little convex, I can see it rocking on every fret, not every other fret, so I guess I'm at a loss too.