The Hub

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…

For my current mandolin build, I set out to answer 2 questions: 1. Whether to use physical deflection or frequency analysis to measure stiffness, and 2. How well can I measure wood quality in rough sawn form? (T. Gore says it needs to be planed smooth and rectangular for frequency analysis.) I have 4 different topwood species available for my current build: California Sitka, Englemann, Lutz, and Coastal Redwood. The billets range from 37…

I watched the Guild F-20 video (https://dev2.loothgroup.com/groups/repair-and-restoration/forum/topic/cracker-x-braces-on-guild-f20/#post-60310) with great interest since I've been working on a Gibson L-3 with a similar problem. A little back story - The original repair request was to address a small pickguard crack on the sound hole side. After peeking inside, I saw 5 loose brace ends on the treble side. Still a pretty standard repair…

Hi all, I got a cheap Facebook marketplace guitar (“Olympia by Tacoma”) to try my hand at a bridge re-glue. The removal went okay, though I definitely learned a lot and will do better next time! The finish wasn’t masked in the bridge area, which is to say the bridge was glued to the finish, not the wood. I don’t know if that made it more prone to tearout or if that’s entirely explained by my lack of finesse with the pallette knives. Any…

Hey y'all, Got another interesting job I'd like some advice on. It's a 70s yamaha classical the current owner inherited from his father. At some point it developed a rather nasty top crack, to the point that I'm thinking the job would involve fresh spruce being applied in there. That's routine enough at least, albeit uncommon for New Zealand's climate in my experience so far. (Also open to suggestions on cleaning out the crack to accept…

Hi all, just sharing a couple of shots of my latest build, an A5-style mandolin with a goth soul 😉 Tonewoods Top: Alpine Spruce (Italy) Back & sides: Flame maple (France) Neck: Birch (Sweden) Fretboard & bridge: African Ebony Dimensions Scale length: 352.4 mm Nut width: 30 mm Fretboard radius: flat Total length: 660 mm Body width: 260 mm Finish Hand-rubbed stains and acrylic satin finish Features Hammered steel pickguard and truss rod cover Moose antl…

Brazilian rosewood back and sides, Sitka spruce top with heavy bear claw, curly koa binding, Brazilian bridge/fretboard/headplate

Searched a bit but didnt see anything on this I have some chipped finish on the soundboard - was a satin burst finish of sorts on a torrefied spruce top. I was thinking of putting down some shellac and then either black fill n finish or black lacquer on top. Then some scotch brite or 0000 steel wool to make it satin. Is this a reasonable approach? Anything others have to add?

Well, it is what it is, I seem to have found myself “the guy” to bring basket case Gibsons too….. I have the following 55’ J-45. The top has some serious belly, and has had not one, but two different directions of bridge on it at various points. I’m trying to flatten the top out with Thompson belly reducers. I first tried the standard plates used for the bridge plate n the guitar, and although it helped, I still found the top to have a m…

Here's my latest build. Carpathian spruce and mahogany dreadnought 😁😁

Hello, Just heard of this group and decided to join. My name is John Read and I live in Indianapolis, IN, USA. I have been building Martin style acoustic guitars for 5 years and am on scratch build #28. I am also the website administrator for both kitguitarsforum.com and asiartisans.org/guitarmaker.org. Loothgroup looks to be a fantastic, next-generation communication tool and I look forward to joining into the conversations. Here's my c…