Acoustic Builds

Hi friends, I was at a colleague's shop this morning. He’s a pretty well-known builder. A customer has asked for names (several… grandchildren, you know) being inlayed in abalone in a fingerboard and he’s feeling out of his depth for this task. I have volunteered to help find a colleague who'd be willing to do it. Anyone interested in doing this? Any recommendations for a talented colleague? Thanks friends.

When using epoxy (either silvertip or epoxy), I try to sand back the epoxy on the surface and only leave it in the pores. I'll start the process with sanding to 320g or so then using an air compressor to blow out the pores. The challenge that I run into is opening new pores in the process. I use a block of wood and long strokes in an attempt to avoid uneven sanding. Ultimately I'll get a good pore fill but I tend to apply several coats…

I've built a number of classical guitars with an adjustable neck and they seem to gather quite a bit of interest, so i'm currently in the process of looking to refine the design and build. It's quite a simple construction where the neck is held together by string tension and hangs on a pivot. I developed a 3d printed "socket" which acts as the interface between the body and the guitar and allows for some fine tuning of the alignment of t…

Anyone have plans/drawings for a vintage spec AJ they can share, or a link where I can buy them? I haven't been able to find anything other than J45 plans with general notes on the differences that aren't clear enough to follow. Thanks!

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/wppages/bargainbag_spruce.php The air craft industry uses 1/4 sawn sitka and this is a box of their "Scrap wood" that is a good value to have on hand, (usually like 36 in long and various width) imo if anyone is in need. It's an odd ball source, but just spreading info. Be well.

I am building an archtop mandocello (A style) and I'm trying to find out how to make the neck block. It would be more or less like an A style mandolin neck block, but obviously quite a lot bigger. More or less like the image attached. The blank should be aprox 10 x 8 x 12 cm. I'm trying to find a piece of hardwood big enough for this, would it be acceptable if I made some kind of laminated piece? And how should the grain direction be idea…

So it seems that a drum sander would be very handy for many parts of a "build from scratch". There are a few out there that cost under $3000.00 that can handle wood up to 4" thick and are wide enough to sand a back or top after the halves have been joined. Jet JWD-22-44 open stand, 22"width Jet JWDS-2550 open stand, 25" width SuperMax 19-38 opend stand, 19" width SuperMas 25-50 closed stand, 25" width Questions: Any recomendations on the sa…

I don't have a piece of mahogany that is wide enopugh to make the heel block on a dreadnaught guitar. Would black limba make a good heel block? I have a piece of black limbaquarter sawn and 5 inches wide.

Let me start with this; I'm trying to find the root cause of difficult fret wire installation of two different SM fret wires. I've spent a lot of time gathering dimensions and experimenting with techniques wich could cause the problem. I enlisted the help of a colleague who arrived at a similar poor performance. His solution was to glue the fret ends/ beat the frets in. My "rather" is to find the root cause so I don't have to go thr…

I'm using hide glue on this 1st build. So far I've glued up the kerfing, back braces, and the top "X" brace. I'm using the 190 grade glue. Working time is short at best. I heated the top "X" brace surfaces (brace & top) with a blow dryer and that seemed to help, a little. How can I get enough working time to glue the top, and then later the back, without having to rush and creating a real mess in the process? Suggestions and reco…

So the first real "full build" I'm doing is a Stewmac 000 kit. I was wondering about the back brace shape. I'll was planning to taper the ends at the side joint to about 1.5mm. Should I do some scalloping of the braces? Suggestions and comments are welcomed and appreciated. Regards, Gerry Images