Love the spalting- where do you source the wood?

@deej Thanks man, I got all the woods from @markbailey He has quite a good stock you know. 👍

Hello, I would choose A. I think rosewood would look stunning for the fretboard and I heard that Jimi Hendrix had an advantage keeping the higher strings in tune longer the reverse way.

I could be wrong about this but...I just think it looks cool!

That's brilliant!!! How does it sound?

It may already be here not sure so my apologies if it is. Yesterday at the shop my cousin gave me 8/4 Piece of Black Walnut. 

==pair this with a piece of White Maple I have left over from my Studio desk to make something similar to a Rick 650D, or Bobs your uncle. Ive owned a few of these over the years, and they rock.

Im guessing you would carve the neck before glue up--but what do I know?

Im guessing you would carve the neck before glue up--but what do I know?

@bangy There is a YouTube live stream that Mark did last year about this kind of construction. Check it out. 

@bangy

Depends on the body shape but yes,  carving first would be wise. At least the transition. 

Another thing to look out for on a neck through are the wiring holes for the pickups. The thing to do is to route a channel on the edge of the lower part of the body before gluing it all up. Then after the pickup cavities are routed you drill in the corners into the channel, you know what I mean?

I suggest a course about typical repairs on a guitar. The other side of a luthier job when he is not constructing guitars. Thanks.

@mario

Repairs are difficult as no two are the same. You can demonstrate basic principles but in instrument making schools repairs are an extra after two years of new builds.

@rocknroller912 that’s true but I think they’re an invaluable learning resource. My first significant effort at fixing a guitar was when I was given one with a ruined truss rod. Removing the fretboard, replacing the rod working to cleanly repair bits of chipped wood on the old thing were all really useful things to tackle. It was actually through that my confidence to tackle a from scratch build came. A lot to be said for fixing up something knackered and cheap in the name of education!!

@tej 

I would agree with you about fixing broken instruments for education but you have to know your limits and not cause further damage or try to over repair something valuable which can ruin it. Factory instruments can be impossible due to the type of glue used. Don’t get me started on Titebond please !

I spent a few years repairing school standard violins for a friend who was a music teacher. The kind of things that were not worth the time to a professional violin maker. I still do a fair bit that’s why I don’t post much guitar stuff. Last year I got 3 cheap violins as payment from the local music shop which I’m setting up and giving to the school.

@rocknroller912 makes sense, the guitar I worked was given to me to play with ultimately so it didn’t matter if I happened to ruin it entirely it wasn’t an issue.

What’s your issue with titebond, this is what I’ve found most people use with guitar making? 

@tej

Titebond is very permanent which can be good but it’s a nightmare when doing repairs as the level of heat needed to soften it is bad for the wood in my opinion, particularly on acoustic instruments where the wood has been air dried as opposed to kiln dried. I’ve made instruments in the 1980s using hot hide glue that are as solid as the day they were made. Lots of people are terrified of glue failure but a failed glue joint is much easier to repair than a wood tear. Glue failure is usually due to a badly fitting joint or too much clamping pressure. Having said that I do use Titebond for things that I hope will never need to be taken apart, like back/front centre joins, crack repair, bushing peg holes, laminations. Water based glue can swell parts that are a tight fit, so for me it’s different glue for different jobs.

@rocknroller912 It’s a tricky one as generally people only experience glueing by practice/experimenting, rarely have I met someone who was taught what “enough” glue looks like and what “enough” clamping pressure feels like, I say rarely, never! I’ve never had anything come unstuck regardless of wood glue used. I only use titebond because that’s what I see everyone else use on demo videos 😬

@markbailey What I think is worth exploring more would be a more in-depth look at nut making. When making guitars, I always buy a new nut and hope it fits. If the nut is slightly too high, I just sand some off the bottom of it and if it’s too low, I just buy a different nut. 
I think being able to take a nut blank and craft it into the perfect nut for a particular guitar is an art in itself and I would love to be able to do that. 
If there was a course for nut crafting, setup and maintenance, I’d buy it. 👍🎸

Sure there are videos and guides online but it’s not the same as having a proper workshop application to learn this stuff. 

@boo Good call...Could be quite in depth - There are a lot tricks and tips that would help folks out...noted.

@markbailey  @boo

Sounds like a good idea, so just for further encouragement, sign me up for the nut making course too.

I’ve noticed recently while buying parts online that there are some expensive templates for measuring nut spacing. Wonder if anyone has used one or if there are any opinions on how useful they are. 

I'd be happy just to see *anything* - quite miss the Saturday sessions in the workshop.

🙂

(And the Weds sessions too, but I don't want to be greedy!)

Posted by: @rocknroller912

I’ve noticed recently while buying parts online that there are some expensive templates for measuring nut spacing. Wonder if anyone has used one or if there are any opinions on how useful they are. 

@rocknroller912 I have a string spacing ruler somewhere, a StewMac one I think. I’ll dig it out. I haven’t used it, I just added it into an order I got ages ago, thinking it will come in handy one day when the opportunity presents itself. 

Posted by: @tv101

I'd be happy just to see *anything* - quite miss the Saturday sessions in the workshop.

@tv101 Yeah I’m the same, I really miss it. What I do instead at 1pm every Saturday is cry for a couple of hours as I miss the live streams that much. I’m crying now and won’t stop until shortly after 3pm. 😢😭