The Hub

Hello again folks, how is everyone! So I'm curious about what people here think about re-tops, who's done them, and what sorta ballpark rates you've charged for past completed jobs. I've got a bit of a wild one here, so strap in if you've got a couple minutes for story time! Back in 2012, I traded an HD28V of mine for a cool 1966 D-35 that needed some work. Basically, the body and neck of the guitar were fine apart from…

Here's yet another acoustic guitar bridge tear off, this time the sound board came with and was damaged. The bridge is not damaged and can be cleaned up. But how would one go about repairing the sound board where the pegs? this is another skill building exercise - not a customers guitar. I included pictures of the bridge plate. If this has already been covered here, please provide a link. Thanks again very much to this great group…

Hey everyone, I'm a technician at a music production school in London. As the most 'guitariest' technician on staff, I've become the de facto guitar maintenance person. A big part of my work is taking a look at each guitar once a week. Usually my "routine" is to check action and intonation, making adjustments if needed, then cleaning/polishing. The thing I struggle with the most is getting strings feeling good. We use D'Addario…

It would be helpful what this group is doing regarding fret glues, no glue, wicked-in thin CA, slot fill medium CA +/- acceleration, aliphatic? What do folks like/dislike and why? Do you practice differently bound vs unbound? How do you minimize cleanup after thin CA? Does it matter acoustically if the frets are glued? It adds time and the risk of a CA mess to the job … Thanks

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…

Hi everyone, I'm Martino from Hub of Acoustics, a collaborative project created by luthiers for luthiers. Our goal is to explore and teach acoustic principles that are directly relevant to instrument making. In 2026, we’ll be running four courses in different parts of the world, all focused on giving luthiers practical tools to better understand and control the acoustics of their instruments. We’re excited to introduce our very…

I have a set of bubinga for an acoustic back, but one piece had a slight cup that made it difficult to work with for joining together. This is pre-thicknessed, with the piece at 4.5 mm thick. I tried wetting and heating it, as I do for sides, and pressed it flat during the process. I heated it to 300 degrees F, and then let it cool while pressed, and the cup got substantially worse. I then pressed it into a reverse cup using a radius…

Hi all, I'm new here. I've been playing guitars for ~15 years and recently started as a technician at a music production school in London, where part of my job is maintaining the guitars. I picked up this 50s parlor nylon the other day and it's in bad shape but I don't know how to go about repairing it. The main issue is the bridge. The guitar was kept high strung and the bridge has twisted and lifted off slightly at the base. T…

Hi Everyone, I believe this may be my first post here, so just a quick introduction — I’m Andrew in Milwaukee, WI. I’ve been building a few years. My luthier eyes were opened first by Charles Fox in Portland which led me to the Gallop School. I recently retired from a tech career and I am now based in Milwaukee, WI focusing on acoustic builds. I’m currently exploring wood-body resonator guitars, and I’d love to learn more from t…

Greetings, I was wondering if anyone has expierence with good a supplier for red spruce, preferably old growth, that they would point me to. This would be for acoustic tops/sound boards. From the reading I've done, it seems that the "Adirondack" variety might be the prized piece to get. Haven't decided if torrified is what I'm looking for. I'm also going to need to get brace wood of the same species. Any and all suggestions are…

I've got a PRS SE A50E acoustic in with complaints of high action. Checked the relief and it was sky high. Tried to flatten it, and it wouldn't go, so I started experimenting. When there's no string tension and the (single action) truss rod is slack, there's loads of relief. Tightening the truss rod works fine and the nut turns easily until the neck is flat, then resistance goes up but the neck won't go past dead flat. It behaves as…

Has anyone removed the stabilizer bar from a Fender Wildwood Acoustic guitar? I need to repair the bridge area and I cannot figure out how to remove the internal stabilizer bar. Any input would be appreciated

Hey all, Anyone have any go-to methods for making new replacement bridges look old? I’m about to make a new bridge for a relatively beat up 40’s Martin and contemplating ways to make it look more the part. With the replacements I’ve made up to this point I’ve always just sanded em real smooth, micromesh, oil, wax etc. I’m thinking maybe a wire brush prior to sanding for that shrunken grain look? The new bridge will be Indian rosewood. T…

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…

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

Hey lads I'm in a bit of an indecisive spot with a 70's yamaha acoustic refret. Pulled the original frets and the tang is .018" with no barbs just divots pressed into the lower edge. The slot is measuring .018". Struggled to find any suitable sized fretwire in stock in the UK that match what the customer wants that'll fit in the slot. Sintoms looked ideal but couldn't find any, so went with something with 0.20 tang and they're not pressi…

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,

The COE reviewed this bridge disaster in January, a Tanglewood acoustic given to me that had the bridge ripped off as well as some of the underlying top, and an attempted repair with spruce veneer (COE video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpOIWQrAlw&t=2685s). The general opinion was to install a bigger bridge plate. However, once I removed the existing bridge plate, I found that the underlying repair had not been fully done,…