MIMF

I have a customer request for an archtop with no f-holes. I have never made an archtop without f-holes and I'm curious what the input from this group is on this topic. I have found a number of archtops out there on the market that have no f-holes, some have side ports some nothing at all. If you hav...

I am in the middle of a build for a customer who asked for something a bit atypical. This customer wants an acoustic archtop with a floating neck pickup but he wanted to know if there was a way to design the structure of the build to allow for the possibility of installed pickups at a later date if ...

Am I missing something here? The manufacturer of TruOil, Birchwood Casey is still producing it.
It can be purchsed directly through their website, I believe.

https://www.birchwoodcasey.com/gun-refinishing/wood/

Many years ago when I was getting started in luthiery, the field of guitar tuners was pretty small and Schaller was considered the top of the list by many (they were also $30 a set). Over the years so many new options have become available I thought I would ask this sage community for opinions based...

I use Bondic and other UV light-cured glued in technology repairs. It's great for surface coverage and protection applications and cable abrasion repair. successive layers can be applied after curing to build body and I haven't witnessed delamination in that scenario. Incomplete curing causes issues...

I have experienced spring back with Sapele and found that my pipe temperature was too low. Something to do with the lignin in there, I suppose. I have to bend Sapele with a much hotter pipe than anything else to avoid the spring back. This, of course, increases the odds of burn marks if you're not m...

Instead of mixing up a color batch for aging the look of new wood, have you tried Potassium Permanganate in water? It's an oxidizer that I use often to achieve the darkening caused by time and exposure to air. Kind of like speeding up time. You can dilute to suit the amount of oxidizing you need.

Hurray for the MIMF!

A quick update. It was indeed the string itself which was the cause of my intonation woes.
I was so focused on the scale math that I seriously doubt I would have considered that the problem could be with the string!

Thanks again everyone!

This is GREAT Feedback! I will explore each of these things and report back. Can't thank you all enough for helping me out with this.

I have a problem with a current ukulele build that has me stumped. I built a concert size ukulele with a 14.75" scale length. Pretty straight forward build. The problem I have run into concerns the intonation of the third string (C). Strings 1,2 and 4 intonate perfectly but the 3rd string is an...

I have used walnut for fretboards on numerous instruments over the years. While it is true that walnut is softer than many of the standard options, I have fund that the durability is often determined by the player. One customer has a walnut fretboard on an SG concept copy which was built 10 years ag...

Bob, I have felt your pain. Think of this as an opportunity. Bob Gramann's suggestion is the direction I would take first. If you have any scrap from the fretboard available to test on see how well it takes to a closely matching inlay. The grain of the wood should be matchable as it appears quite st...

I've used it for numerous guitars and have been very happy with the tonal quality. The wood I have was cut in 1890 and is from old vinegar tanks so the smell and taste is closer to pickles than skunk.

Here's that picture of the walnut fretboard. Curly maple Inlays give it plenty of contrast. Gave it a Tru Oil wash before radiusing, then a liberal application of orange oil after all inlay and finish sanding was completed. This shot is a just after the orange oil was applied. After a week the color...

I've used walnut in quite a few fretboards and have not experienced the softness mentioned by others. On fretboard is now 10+ years old and gets regular use by an aggressive player and it is fairing better than some rosewood fingerboards I've seen. I'll post a picture later this evening.

My biggest lesson learned was understanding humidity and its effect on the build process. I live in Minnesota and early on I built a few guitars in the summer and the following winter when the humidity dropped my guitars cracked in a BIG way - tops and backs. In frustration I made a call to a local ...