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The Hub
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Finishing over Signatures
I was approached by a local music venue about finishing over the signatures on this Dean guitar. I have finished over signatures before, but never an entire guitar. The main challenges, as I see it, with this endeavor is prepping the existing finish. Cleaning the existing finish without disturbing the signatures will be time consuming enough, but abraiding/sanding the finish will be cost prohibitive. I have already experimented on a test…
Acoustic Guitar Builders Club: The Perfect Edge, with Wolfgang Hess of Tormek
Two Letters from Joseph DiTucci
Magnifiers - inexpensive and invaluable tools
I am a retired dentist. One saying we had was, “You can’t fix what you can’t see.” And another was, “The day you start working with magnification will be the best and worst day of your practice.” The worst because you will see what you have been missing, and the best because you will never miss it again. So even though I have my Dan E. Model visor loupes, and my retired dental loupes on throughout the day, sometimes, it’s not enough. I pi…
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Resawing Wood for Guitars, with Michael Bashkin
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Council of Elders June 2026
Palm Bender Tips from Seth Lee Jones
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Proper Loothing: Back in the Saddle Again!
Looking for CAD expert
Hello all! My name is Jake and I run a repair shop out of my NYC apartment. I am looking for someone who's experienced in CAD to help me with a project. I am working on a 5 string headless bass build for a customer. The neck & body are to be CNCed by a local mill here in Brooklyn, NY. I have a 2D design (PDF and CRD), but I need help making some modifications, as well as translating it to 3D. Pay is negotiable. I will basically pay whate…
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Somogyi Neck Reset, with Jonathan Scott
Suggest an alternative to concave fret file
(for background context, I'm probably in the dozens of fret jobs so far, and no I don't let frets leave my house like this) When I got started getting interested in building guitars, I got the StewMac bundle of fret files/book, which comes with the concave toothed file. Over time, I ended up getting both the Narrow/Medium and Wide/Jumbo files. I don't do it often, but occasionally I do something like shown in the picture, where I'm clearl…
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Proper Loothing: Everyone Loves a Nut!
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Saul Koll and Creston Lea
Taylor GS Mini headstock - delamination.
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.…
Full-time Luthier Position @ Austin Straight Frets
Straight Frets in Austin has an excellent full-time position opening up soon. The job pays by the job, and equates to $70-85K a year for a tech that does: *neck resets *structural repairs *bridge making/reglues *refrets *headstock breaks with splines/airbrush We work on about 1,350 guitars a year (about 28-30 a week) and have had work shipped in from 22 different states at this point. We also teach setup classes on…
F5-L Mandolin Binding Repair
Employment opportunity at Elderly Instruments
Hello all- We have a job opening in the repair shop here at elderly. Looking for someone professionally trained, with 5+ years of experience preferred, but any and all are welcome to apply. Send resumes and inquiries to [email withheld] Tell him you saw the post on the looth group!