The Hub

Hello to the Council of Elders! My name is Joe Byron, and I am president of the Stringed Instrument Makers of Southern California (SIMSCal). We have been around for over 30 years and have a large number of members and followers. Our membership includes both professional and non-professional luthiers. SIMSCal meets 4-8 times per year (both live and virtually), and we share tips, processes, stories, and show off our work. We frequently inclu…

Hey, I'm working on a 2017-ish Taylor GS Mini which has a delaminating headstock...see photos... I was surprised to see that the laminate was plastic... I reckon quite a few of the community will have done this job many times, so I'm after group wisdom :). Just a small request I know... Just Fyi...I haven't quoted the customer yet, but I reckon (with some other work I'm doing on the instrument)...our budget will be limited.…

I have a Taylor Acoustic in for a setup and I had a couple of questions: 1. My main one is how you would go about gluing the label back on? I'm probably overthinking it but I'm curious if there's a universally recognized way of doing this? 2. I have some very minor finish damage which I'm not planning on touching, but I am curious how one would go about repairing it. Would this be a case of drop filling lacquer? What would be the…

This repair came into the shop on Thursday. The crack appears to go most of the way through the neck but hasn't opened up at all. What is the current best practice to address cracks like this? Shout out to @member as the resident Taylor expert. Thanks in advance for your help.

So this 310 came into the shop and had a pretty gnarly crack that splinters some toward the lower left bout. Going to do a crack repair with the TJ Thompson crack corrector and some hide glue. The issue I'm inquiring about is the finish is delaminating around the area. I'm curious as to what type of finish it is. Seems a bit flexible and spongy to be a nitro alone. There's shards of finish missing, and dirt has found its way underneath…