The Hub

Hi all. Brand new member. I’ve been building a classical guitar via kit from LMI for a couple of years now. I keep putting it off but recently became motivated to get back to it. Unfortunately LMI is out of business so I now have no one to go to to ask questions. I’m at the stage where I’m putting the sides together in the form. I followed the dimensions for the form based on the plans as I measured them, but the sides overlap pretty ba…

I did a pretty big update to my web tools last week. These are updated from the older versions I had up on celestialinstruments.com. There’s an updated FFT tool now, plus mode detection for guitars and plates, wolf note detection, played-note energy transfer, monopole mobility, plate thickness calculation, and 1/2/3/4 DOF modeling that can be prefilled from FFT data. The part I’m most excited about is being able to fit a measured guitar re…

Has anyone here attempted to scorch a top, a la Michi Matsuda (with black powder or any other means)? If so, have you found any tonal changes from scorching or just the obvious aesthetic changes? If anyone has and would like to share pictures of the results, I'd be very interested.

I'm fast approaching the finish coating of 2 acousitcs. The sitka spruce tops are really bright. I'd like to tone them down a little and have been scouring the web for methods. Seems like adding amber toner in either the sand sealer or more likely the first set of nitro lacquer coats might be the the ticket. I see Stewmac has a Colortone stain called "Vintage Amber" that can be mixed into the nitro. Anybody have expirience with this pro…

For those of you who regularly do semi-hemispherical frets -- how long do you make your frets? Specifically for a bound fretboard (although I suppose this would apply to either bound or unbound) do your frets come up a little short of the outside edge of the binding? And if so, how much gap do you leave? I did my first semi-hemis on a new build and made them end flush with the outside edge of the bindings, but it doesn't feel right.…

I have a 74' D-28 im working on, just curious what you guys do in terms of process steps. Right now, im setting the angle, without frets(I reinforced the square tube rod with carbon fiber and will need to refret once put back together.) Do you guys shoot for the straight edge hitting the top of the bridge with, or without frets? Im wondering if I should undershoot my bridge just a touch so that then I can fret and have a good saddle hei…

The folks at maderas barber put together a nice guide on drying wood for lutheie https://maderasbarber.com/tonewood/en/blog/news/practical-guide-to-drying-and-storing-tonal-wood

Just something I stumbled across on YouTube. He has also built an acoustic guitar from a 5 gallon bucket.

Hello, One of my commissions is coming down the pike and it's going to be my first time using bar frets. I could use a once over for any helpful tips if you have any. About the guitar: Aged HD-28 but mahogany back and sides. I think Martin called this a HD-28 M? Skipping the truss-rod and using two carbon fiber strips. My process for Frets: 1: I CNC my fingerboards to a 16" radius and for T-frets I use a .023" to cut slots with a mat…

Hi all, I am building a mandocello, Gibson style but with f holes, currently working on the top. I got to a point where I carved it to about 5 mm in the center and about 3,3 around the edges. If has some flexibility but still feels quite stiff. I tap and listen but having experience only with flat top guitars I don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of tap tone and flexibility. I know there is no correct answer to this, but anyo…

So, I've stained the body and neck and I'm in the process of applying several (3 or 4) coats of epoxy to them for pore filling. I watched Michaels video on the subject. My question is: When sanding the epoxy I beleive I should stay above the wood (stay in the epoxy) since it is stained, right??? When doing this same process on a body and neck that is not stained, I could sand back to the wood without consequence if I'm consistent…

can anyone help me determine the neck angle on a 12 fret to the body neck Robbie Obrien says the gap betwwen the plane of a 14fret neck and the top of the soundboard at the bridge should be3.5 mm. does that hold true for 12 fret necks

Has anyone developed, or know of for sale, a fixture that can be installed in an acoustic body (dovetail neck) during finishing? I'm approaching the spraying stage of my build and would like to be able to have a "handle" on the body that I can use to hold & hang the body during that process. Regards,

Hey all, My father-In-law would really like to make a rickenbacker 4003. I’m based in the UK and I can’t find a suitable template/templates for this. I wasn’t sure to post this in the CNC forum but thought I’d post it here first. I have tried crimson but no luck, but they’ve mentioned many people have asked about them. Thanks for any help it’s much appreciated

Hi -- I am planning to have a maple Thinline Tele top painted by an automotive paint shop. They've made a glossy and a matt sample for me and it looks great. I wonder if anyone has any experience with this, and specifically: - if I bind the top first, will the paint stand very proud above the binding once I scrape the paint off the binding? - the matt looks terrific, but it looks like it will burnish and get shiny in spots or line…

I cut the fret slots for a baritone guitar build today, so I thought I'd share my method for cutting fret slots, as I think it is a bit unusual. I radius and profile my fretboard before I cut the slots. I print out a paper layout of the fretboard, double-stick tape it to the radiused and profiled fretboard, line up the saw by eye to using red hatch marks on the printout, and saw the fret slots with a 3" circular saw that rides on…

Hi folks, I thought you might be interested in this approach to having easy height adjustment for a GoBar deck. I learned this tip from my buddy, Don Parker. He lurks around here too from time to time. :) The basic idea is rather than having a booster platform on the base for use when gluing braces to plates you bring the roof down lower. There is a 3D printed spacer in black in the pics. I linked to a downloadable STL and 3MF of…