The Hub

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…

I have repaired numerous top crack on this instrument built by a customer at a guitar building camp. The bridge was off and warped. That has been addressed. After gluing with hide glue and splining the crack these top two did not closed as much as I would have liked. The bigger is about 1/32 at the widest and the other about 1/64. The crack is tight at the bottom. If I can help it I would like to fill it rather than spline it as I have…

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…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWAuW40jAR_/?igsh=MW1jNDdoYzllMGFmMA== I’ve spent a few overly caffeinated days bouncing between modelling environments, different combinations of operations, tools.. subtle differences in how the coffee is brewed. In short… • Building Iso Curves in Sketch. Defining the surface structure and flow • NURBS Surfacing from curves, smooth intentional surface topology. • BRep Face to T-Spline in Form Environment. Org…

For those of you who regularly do semi-hemispherical frets -- how long do you make your frets? Specifically for a bound fretboard (although I suppose this would apply to either bound or unbound) do your frets come up a little short of the outside edge of the binding? And if so, how much gap do you leave? I did my first semi-hemis on a new build and made them end flush with the outside edge of the bindings, but it doesn't feel right.…

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

Hi all. I'm in the process of working with a landlord to customize a space for my growing repair and building business. The space is approximately 800 square feet and broken into a major space (around 400 square feet), and 2nd large space (around 300 square feet) that I'm thinking of as a machine/sawdust room, and 2 smaller areas that I'm considering as a spray booth and a wood/guitar storage closet. I'd love to hear about lessons learn…

Hi all, I am building a mandocello, Gibson style but with f holes, currently working on the top. I got to a point where I carved it to about 5 mm in the center and about 3,3 around the edges. If has some flexibility but still feels quite stiff. I tap and listen but having experience only with flat top guitars I don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of tap tone and flexibility. I know there is no correct answer to this, but anyo…

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,

I cut the fret slots for a baritone guitar build today, so I thought I'd share my method for cutting fret slots, as I think it is a bit unusual. I radius and profile my fretboard before I cut the slots. I print out a paper layout of the fretboard, double-stick tape it to the radiused and profiled fretboard, line up the saw by eye to using red hatch marks on the printout, and saw the fret slots with a 3" circular saw that rides on…

To the builders out there, how/where do you store wood for builds? Is it different for back+sides vs tops vs neck blanks? Any periodic maintenance required? Thanks in advance!

I’ve been building electric for a few years but decided to make an acoustic this time. I have some German spruce panels I was going to use for the top. While running it through my drum sander to dimension it, I noticed that both panels have matching 6-8” cracks so the original blank must’ve had a split pre resawing. Would I still have good results if I glue the panels and move on or should I buy a new top set? (I can’t return what I have…

Speaking of Trevor Gore... I've started using falcate bracing on my ukuleles and in making the braces, 3 strips of .0625" spruce are bent and then put in a bent lamination glue up rig using epoxy. Bending spruce is no fun on a hot pipe. It's slow, fussy, the fibers want to delaminate. I have been thinking about building a small dedicated steam box. Pulling all 3 of the strips out at once and bending them over a form with a metal back…

Hey! I have a friend who builds flat tops who wants to give stainless a try. I have done a handful of refrets and he was asking advice. He is using a compound radius from 14” to 20”. Jeskar sells the coils and they come in 10”. I have only done installs where the wire matches the board precisely. I bought pre cut pre radius bags for these re frets. Has anyone worked on a compound radius. Do you radius each fret on a bender or can you get…

Hey everyone, I had a question on guitar building and overcoming something of a mental hurdle that I have. Quite awhile back I had access to a CNC machine and routed some Stratocaster bodies which you can see in the pictures. I was mostly pleased with how these turned out, but there are a couple of issues. On the cherry bodied guitar, the seam is off center and I had some blowout at the upper horn location, which caused me to try and cu…

Hello. I am interested in the luthiers opinions about using Osmo oil as a finish on acoustic guitars? Advantages vs disadvantages. I am a new builder with small home workshop, mostly using hand tools to build my first acoustic guitar, an OM pre war style. Thank you all.