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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.

A growing work flow in a small shop means I have in-process guitars stacked all over my work surfaces. I need to protect them and keep all the pieces together but also to have them readily accessible, and cases are less than ideal for that. Never mind the caseless guitars. I'd be grateful for advice on containers/stacking/shelves to protect and organize the growing mess. Thanks!

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…

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…

Hey all. I apologize if this type of post isn't allowed here but wanted to share anyway. I've been building a tool called Looth specifically for luthiers and repair techs, and I'm looking for a small group of interested looths to help shape it a bit more before it goes public. I got tired of managing spreadsheets and decided that it could be simpler and more automated. The core idea is simple: one place to track every build…

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…

I’m curious to hear from everyone in the trenches, how they manage repairs they really don’t want to do. At this point I am offering customer work again to a small group of people who know me and have worked with me over the years. I’ve had a few people email that I don’t know, being a little pushy wanting to know price and turnaround time because “I need this by the xxth of the month”. I’ve simply offered them a referral to another sh…

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.

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…

Hello! First time poster, long time lurker... I thought you guys might get a kick out of this. I got fed up of having to re-mount my workbench lid after pulling it off a particularly bumpy/cold/hot/anything truck ride and began searching for a mounting system that would hold everything up when the lid was open, but also crucially not fall off when it was closed after the show. I happened upon multiboard, which looked like it could do the…

I rarely use pickguards on my builds, as most of my guitars are intended for fingerstyle players. That said, I occasionally need to install one, and I've yet to find a cutting method that consistently meets my quality standards. I’ve experimented with several techniques for cutting clear pickguard material, but the results are always somewhat disappointing. Using a brand new X-Acto blade gives a reasonably clean cut, but there's almost a…

https://northampton.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NCC/details/Luthier-Instructor_JR3840 The staff and faculty of Northampton Community College share a single goal: to help students transform their lives through education. It's a goal that reaps rewards thousands of times over the course of a career. Employees at Northampton receive competitive compensation and an array of benefits while working on campuses located in a region with a very h…

Hi everyone, I was hoping to get some advice on training opportunities. My background and situation (briefly), I’m a self-taught guitar tech and electric luthier with 3 years experience (after 20yrs office work). I have a job in a high volume guitar shop doing setups and quality checks on outgoing/sold guitars. The store does repair work but I have not been included in this, despite many requests. I do not believe this is due to skill le…

Straight Frets started an expansion into a second city with a second Plek machine at the start of 2024. The initial spot had the wrong landlords that would not honor their HVAC agreement, and subsequently the failing HVAC units made prior to 9/11 never allowed the Grand Opening Event to happen. After bailing out of the wrong spot 7 months later, we are now up and running in a much cleaner location with a brand new HVAC, much closer i…

Hey Everyone! I am on the cusp of starting my own little repair shop from home. For around 8 years I apprenticed for someone who lives about an hour from me and has maintained a busy shop from his home for close to 50 years. The experience was great. I had a never ending supply of stuff to work on and was always watching someone else work on things throughout the day. In the first few years I was going on both my weekend days and would wo…

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.

I have decided to implement a fee for time spent researching and sourcing parts or project management beyond the 30 minutes I currently offer at no additional cost. Anyone else doing this? I'll report back my results for anyone who wants to subscribe to this thread.

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.