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Ian Davlin DiscussionGeneral

New Feature - Follow

Discussion cards now have a new feature for following posts that you neither posted or are replying to, but still would like to know when there is action on them. You can select to either be notified on through the bell icon in the header, or you can be emailed, or both. Hit the manage account button in the profile header and you can manage the posts you follow. You can even select the frequency of the emails to something less spammy.

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Private member
@member this is a test.
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Martin D-35 with cracks everywhere!

Hello looths! Long time lurker, first time poster here all the way from New Zealand. I have recently acquired this 2008 Martin D-35 for a very cheap price ($1000 NZD - around 600 US!) it's dried out in a very cold environment and has two substantial cracks running all the way across the top, one large side crack, and a previous side crack repair that's been done quite poorly. I'm only about 3 years in to this repair journey and this is d…

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Ian Davlin
I thought I might add an outlier of an opinion here. I understand the temptation to close the cracks with higher humidity, but you're asking a lot of adhesives, reinforcements and human attention span…
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Help needed to pinpoint my mistakes please!

Hi all, I am a newer guitar tech and after dozens of repairs this particular Simon & Patrick Luthier Cedar top SP6 acoustic dreadnought from the 90-ies with a bolt-on maple neck has been an incredible challenge. It came with a maxed out and stuck truss rod with a considerable up bow in the neck, extremely low saddle with barely any string break angle, so it needed a neck reset. Later on I figured out that it also has a pretty dras…

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Ian Davlin
I never got the video.
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Seagull Acoustic Neck Reset...

Hey everyone, I wanted to do a bit of a follow up on a repair I'm doing. A customer brought in a Seagull acoustic guitar that had been dropped, causing the heel block to separate. I managed to get that glued back together with pleasing results, however I did need to take the neck off by removing the two bolts which thread into the heel block, and unglued the fretboard extension. All went well here, although I'm left with a situation whe…

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One other issue with the guitar that I wanted to mention was a fairly sizeable split in the back. At its widest, there is a gap of about .015" and I'm curious to know how you all would handle this? I…
Private member DiscussionAmps, Pickups, and Pedals

Help with wiring

Hey guys, a little help? I'm trying to recreate the old PRS wiring (rotary switch) but instead of the rotary, on a 5-way superswitch. I managed to get almost everything but I can't seem to figure out the series/parallel positions and it's starting to hurt the brain. I've looked everywhere online but I can't find exactly what I need. Here's the image of the positions I need, for reference.

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Thanks Gerry. Well yeah, it's still super noisy, I've no idea of what can be causing it
Private member DiscussionFinish Repair

When chips happen--customers, expectations, and responsibility

Hey all, I am really enjoying digging through the looth group. I have not yet watched all the ding kings vids or read all the amazing comments and articles here, but I've been appreciating some of the loothing for dollars stuff, seeing other people's intake sheets, discussions about dealing with customers, and it led me to this question: How do people deal with customer expectations, liability, and the inevitable accidents that can happ…

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@member some really solid perspective here, thank you. You're so right regarding the bit about some of the more abusive customers being the most obsessed with cosmetics, to paraphr…
Private member DiscussionGeneral

Luminlay alternative?

So, nothing against Luminlay which is an amazing component, with a top notch quality level, but they're quite expensive for what they are. I was messing with ideas and formulas over the past couple weeks, and I think I reached a nice level of quality. On the left my own 'luminlay', on the right the genuine one. Still need to manage how to control the bubble formation but I can finally see the finish line.

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Hey there buddy. Powder is a common luminescent one you can buy on Amazon. BUT, you must be sure to not buy the average (cheap) one, which is Zinc Sulphate, but to find one made of Stronzium Aluminate.…
Private member DiscussionNeck Reset Database

1931 Maurer style 489 neck joint

Pretty standard dovetail joint with the pocket 1/8th inch further north. I angled the bit through the 13th fret slot (12 fret guitar) and managed to get the neck off without any complications. I don’t know how earlier or later Larson made instruments compare to this one.

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Ian Davlin
Awesome! Thanks for the intel.
Private member DiscussionAcoustic Repair

Modified Osmo PolyX Fretboard Treatment?

Hi! Someone described mixing Osmo PolyX with something else (I think to speed drying?) that one time I managed to make it to the Loothalong. Possibly @member ? I’d love to try it but my memory prevents me. What’s that mixer and ratio, hellllp?!? Many thanks in advance.

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Sweet, I’m glad I didn’t imagine the whole exchange 😂 Thanks, I’ll look forward to the recipe when available. I got some PolyX after that interaction and have finished a couple of my stick dulcimers w…