The Hub

I have what appear to be violin tools. Free to a good home. Three items. If you know of a Violin maker/repair person who might need these please let them or me know.

Hello, Just heard of this group and decided to join. My name is John Read and I live in Indianapolis, IN, USA. I have been building Martin style acoustic guitars for 5 years and am on scratch build #28. I am also the website administrator for both kitguitarsforum.com and asiartisans.org/guitarmaker.org. Loothgroup looks to be a fantastic, next-generation communication tool and I look forward to joining into the conversations. Here's my c…

Hello everyone, this will be a long post. I usually describe my passion for luthiery as a "fire." I can easily remember the day I realized that I wanted this to be what I would do for the rest of my life. It started as pure joy; learning day by day was like unwrapping a new surprise. I did everything right: studied, practiced, studied, practiced. I built my own jigs and tools, and I even did a small apprenticeship with a local luthier. Wh…

Hi looths ! I return to a repair of a personal project. It had a crude end grain break, which was previously messed up with, so I cleaned one part of the break and glued everything back with epoxy. The plan was to excavate the wood from the sides and behind the break, then to add new wood, sandwiching the trussrod. Now that I've discovered the carbon fiber sheet repair, I wonder if it could be a good candidate for that, or if it'd first…

This was a large bed frame with end tables built almost entirely from sold boards from "The Tree". Having been a bed frame with cabinets and drawers there are lots of fastener holes and such to work around. According to some educated sleuthage and measuring using guitar templates, I estimate that there are 6-8 back and side sets with no holes or defects to be had with careful resawing. More sets for sure if a builder is willing to artfu…

This Lys (made in Canada) is one of my personal guitars. I noticed the string ends are dissappearing into the bridge plate. I thought about buying the SM Bridge Saver when they were having a discount sale, but it's been out of stock. The tool set costs more than I paid for the guitar, but I figure I could use it in the future for other repairs. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with this tool and if it's a better repair than p…

Hard to get a good recording of it but clear as day in person, I assume truss rod rattle? Checked braces, piezo system, bridge bolts,tuning machine ferrules all seem tight, anything else to check off? And as for fixes, what to y'all prefer these days?

I’ve heard a Facebook page can do more good than a business website for bringing in business. I’ll spare everyone my feelings about Facebook but needless to say, I’m not on it. You can’t have a Facebook business page without a personal page. I’ve thought about a simple alias just to create a business page but, it will be yet one more thing to take care of and post to. Probably not that hard but, I can’t stand Facebook. Curious to hear…

I'm interested in getting people's perspective on string height. I've seen recommendations for a standard string height based on the instrument type (such as https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/online-resources/neck-building-and-repair-and-setup/string-action-gauge-instructions/). But this doesn't take into account how the instrument is used, playing style, and personal taste. What would your recommendations be for the following sc…

I had lunch with a friend and client this week and we got on the topic of 'who did what and where' in the area, in terms of guitar repair. They brought up something that really felt like an object lesson in how rumors are propagated by people that don't understand the work that we do and I felt compelled to share. This was repeated person to person and originated from the shop it happened at: a certain someone at a certain music store…

I had a customer contact me and he told me that he has a Zager ZAD80CEOM and that the bridge is staring to raise at the back. He says the gap is about 1/32" and would like me to remove the bridge and reapply it. I have yet to see the guitar in person and I'm a bit hesitant to take it on. I've never performed this type of operation before, although I do have some theoretical knowledge of it, just not practical. Some of the question I hav…

I'm the proud new owner of a "new to me" Fireball Meteor CNC machine. It feels really odd to have a computer in the shop but I guess I need to get used to that. Fortunately for me, I am well versed in CAD, unfortunately not so much on the CAM side of things. My 3 kids are all experts and are steepening the learning curve dramatically, this would be overwhelming if they weren't helping. So far I'm using the Fusion 360 personal use versio…

Hi, just joined and this is my first post, excited to be a part of the Group! I've been building and repairing guitars and amps for about 15 years but am a better builder than repair person. I have a les paul that has a small but definitely there crack in the neck where the head to neck joint is. It's very tight but does look to be in the wood. Not sure the best method to fixing something like this. I have attached pics for reference. A…

I’ve only buying buying, fixing, selling for quite a while, no customer repair work. As I’ve sold gear I only work via emails which not everyone cares for. Those people are probably the ones I do not want to give my phone number to so it works fine. However, I’m considering doing repair work for customers again. If I know the person, not a problem, they either have or can have my number. People I don’t know, reaching out to me throug…

He Looths, my friend Armand Sentous from Argentina is looking for someone to repair guitars and hep in building his electric guitars in Columbus, OH. He has taken out a booth at the summer NAMM show and is making guitars for it now. His phone is: (614) 313-2551, and his website is: www.sentousguitars.com He is looking for someone for 6-8 hours a day, and depending on the persons experience can pay up to $2k per month. He is also willing…

So this one is a real doozy. Gorgeous Heritage hollowbody, destroyed in shipping. Owner got a full refund and they didn't want the guitar back, so he has no money in it currently. He's a collector and longtime friend/client/student of mine, which is the only reason I'm even considering it, he understands the potential nightmare this could be, and he builds very serious race cars for a living, so I can have in-depth and frank conversa…