MIMF

Thanks Mario,

I may do that. I should have thought of that myself. I'll have a look at it this evening.

I haven't posted in a while. I've been rebuilding my shop (total overhaul with insulation, sealed floor and humidity control extra electrical circuits etc.) and quietly building guitars for the last couple of years. When I started on this forum ten or twelve years ago I was building solid body elect...

Thanks. I think that is what I will do. I figure a couple of screws inboard from the height adjustment posts countersunk so they are not easily visible.

Thanks, Sorry I haven't responded. I forgot to check the "notify me" box so I didn't see this until now. Your advice all makes very good sense dovetails nicely with what I've been thinking. It is very nice to get confirmation from experienced builders. I plan to go a bit thicker with the t...

Thanks Michael, Oddly enough, I just came in from spraying a coat on the L00 I'm working on and I noticed that I was spraying pretty close to the surface. I think I've done that because someone else told me to back off on the material flow and in order to get a good coat I've unconsciously moved clo...

No really good picks square on front and back but these are close.

I actually started this one about three years ago and then took a class (Dale Unger) where I built my first completed archtop. The body sat in my closet for a few years while I was doing other things. Now I am building some flat tops and I finished this one up along with them. It has a nice sound. A...

A few more pics.

I've built five solid body electrics and two archtop acoustics but this is my first flat top. I followed Robbie O'brien's online course and I found that it did an excellent job of giving me analogs for difficult things like how you know when the top is the correct thickness and how to know when to s...

I have a request from a customer. My first custom order. The guitar he wants is essentially a byrdland style guitar but he doesn't want a free floating bridge. His initial request was to put a block under the bridge and install a tunomatic bridge on posts a la Les Paul. Now he is thinking of a tradi...

Well Michael, I'd say you pretty much nailed it. I scraped quite a bit off the back recurve ( a bit at a time) and the sound is much better. It doesn't sound quite as loud overall but the low end is much rounder sounding. I've still got a bit more to remove but I think I'm almost there.

Thanks

Michael, Thanks for responding. I guess I did leave out a lot of important info didn't I? Size and general shape: It is a 17" guitar that is very similar in size and shape to a Benedetto. Even though I drew up the design and bent the sides prior to taking the class, the design I came up with lo...

I just strung up an archtop in the white that I have been working on off and on for a few years. I know I can play it and remove wood from the recurve to adjust the sound but I'm not sure what to listen for. Currently it is quite loud and a little brash with a lot of sustain. It sounds Piano-like in...

Mario has definitely used fish glue before but I think he left out one bowl of warm water. Maybe two.

I bend maple on a pipe at about 375 degrees or so. Go slow. Don't try to get to the finished bend in one pass especially in the tight areas. Make sure the maple is quartersawn not slab. It is much easier to break if it is not quartered. Also, I highly recommend Supersoft. It is a product for flatten...

Thanks Dave, Since I seem to be the leading authority on signing headstocks with sharpies let me throw out one bit of advice based on my vast experience. Buy a handful of Sharpies and try them out. They vary quite a bit as to the line thickness. I like the ones about in the middle of the spectrum. T...

This is the first one I did with a Sharpie.

It is sharpie. I've been doing it this way for about six or seven years now. When I have enough coats of lacquer on the instrument to sand level and polish, I sand the peghead down to about 320 or 400 grit and then sign it with silver Sharpie. This leaves enough tooth on the surface for the Sharpie ...

The class was really good for me. I was at a point where I had made 5 or 6 solid body electrics and one arch top acoustic (body only) and I knew I could bend sides and carve plates so the fact that the sides are pre bent and the top and back are ready for cutting f holes and bracing was not a proble...

Just to test the new forum... I've been slowly working on my next arch top. I actually started it then took a class with Doug Unger and finished the Unger guitar first. I have taken a break to redesign my workshop to be a bit more guitar specific including building a nice Fleishman binding jig and a...