The Hub

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…

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

Greetings, I'm doing some research on suppliers for Brazilian Rosewood. I see there is more available than I imagined but pricing is all over the board. I came across a group named HanoverBrazil Marketing and Trade. Looks like they import product from Brazil legally apparently from stumps which are CITES certified. Anyone have expirience with them? Or, any recomendations for a reputable vendor for Brazilian Rosewood "000" or larger…

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…

Hi everyone - I recently ran into trouble making new nut for one of my necks that needed to be trued and re-fretted. I roughed in the nut as usual and then, with the bass guitar fully assembled and strung up, I started cutting the slots to depth. I use the StewMac digital nut slot depth gauge and have had good results in the past. I marked the nut's lowest points (radiused) using the guitar nut scribe tool (first time using this!) and c…

I've only built a handful of necks and most of them have been roasted maple fretboards. This time around I am using a beautiful and incredibly stiff/hard piece of ebony. I am doing a light hammering in of the frets to get them seated and then using the hand-held vice clamps from Stewmac with the correct fretboard radius to push them down evenly the rest of the way. This process works just fine on roasted maple. It's just a softer wood t…

Just joined the group and have only built 3 guitars so far but just ran into trouble on my latest project. Long story short: I built a '57 LP Jr that came out fantastic but the neck was set incorrectly and was nearly unplayable. I cut off the body and made a new one and applied the burst and a few coats of clear before gluing in the salvaged neck. To finish up the neck joint with a bit more black, I dusted off my 20 yo Paasche airbru…

What kind of pore filler do you use? I usually use aqua coat, shellac/pumice or stewmac water based mahogany grain filler. Interested in other methods, including zpoxy.

A client has asked me to build an acoustic guitar using crelicam ebony for the back and sides that he is getting form Stewmac. I have heard it's challenging to bend, and this will be an OM so the waist is pretty tight. Any thoughts or suggestions for bending these sides? I use a homemade bending machine modelled after LMI's latest design (may they rest in peace) and I have had good success bending rosewood, walnut, mahogany, and pau fer…

Hi! I just made a headless electric ukulele by misusing Steinberger's headstock tuner drop-in replacement: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0nVr_NWnV/ It's fun, and I'd like to make more, (maybe even actually sand and apply finish to one!) but it sure would be nice to get the tuners at a wholesale rate if there's a possibility of selling an instrument. I got these at 6/$100 from Stewmac (https://www.stewmac.com/parts-and-hardware/tuning-m…

Hey there folks - putting together a couple of StewMac ukulele kits and my partner asked a great question about whether to apply finish to the inside surfaces like we do the outside. We will be staining and applying wipe on poly for protection. The logic seems reasonable - protect from moisture inside and out. Only concern I could think of was trapping moisture between the layers but that was it. Anybody have experience with applying a…

I have dented the finish in the soundboard of one of my current builds while trying to clean up glue squeeze out after clamping on the bridge. I used a long piece of binding and I guess I held it at a bad angle and there you go. This is only my third guitar build and have steamed out countless dents already in unfinished wood, but I am unsure what to do to get out this dent in the finish other than sand it back at the dent and rebuild f…

I don’t know how many of you make your own binding and purfling, but the MacRostie Binding Trimmer from Stewmac is super helpful in a number of ways. 1. Allows you to make a lot of binding and purfling and have it all sized the same within a few thousandths. 2. I use vulcanized fiber and cut the strips using a utility knife which leaves a kind of burr on edge. Running the laminated fiber/wood or just fiber strips through the trimmer remov…

I'm currently using regular StewMac narrow/medium fretwire on this oddball stick dulcimer I'm making. https://www.instagram.com/p/CthLFjSOeSc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== It's diatonically fretted and I'm curious about offering one that's chromatically fretted BUT with the non-diatonic frets clearly indicated. I've considered something on the fretboard, some kind of inlay (I'm thinking to emphasize the diatonic f…