@warmvalves (cool name) 

Welcome to the forum. 

I’m not sure of how to answer your question but @markbailey will be able to help you with this one. 

Cheers.

Boo. 

@warmvalves. I would imagine that the 16" caul would be the one you want. My head says 0.25" over that distance would not be able to be seen and the 16" being a little shallower would push the middle down. And since you want to tap in the sides first anyway I think that would be ideal. Please correct me if I'm wrong. That's just how I think of it. 

I would imagine that the 16" caul would be the one you want. My head says 0.25" over that distance would not be able to be seen and the 16" being a little shallower would push the middle down. And since you want to tap in the sides first anyway I think that would be ideal. Please correct me if I'm wrong. That's just how I think of it. 

@bpower I would say that is a reasonable assumption and I would probably do that if it was me. However @warmvalves I would just check with @markbailey that there is no obscure reason why you shouldn’t us a 16”. Better safe than sorry. 👍

Thank you very much for the prompt replys Boo and BPower

I wouldn't have thought that .25" would make that much difference, but I didn't want to assume so. I am just gathering tools and information to embark upon guitar repair and maintainance. Not in any professional way, just an enthusiastic hobbyist.You know, buy some cheap 'beaters' and work on them.

I played for years for fun and did wee adjustments and tweeks to my guitars over the years, now I'm retired from work and looking for a deeper project and an excuse to buy more tools  lol.

There's a college near me in Glasgow which offers 8 week guitar maintanance courses (beginner and advanced), so I may look at that for next year - this year's has already started.

Anyway, thank you very much for being so friendly and welcoming. I may be asking the odd question and searching your forums for info.

Thanks again all 

There's a college near me in Glasgow which offers 8 week guitar maintanance courses (beginner and advanced), so I may look at that for next year - this year's has already started.

Anyway, thank you very much for being so friendly and welcoming. I may be asking the odd question and searching your forums for info.

@warmvalves Wow, that place sounds interesting, I may have to look into that myself. Do you know the name of the place? 
I am moving to Scotland soon (next year) so I’m sure I can make it work. 

Welcome @warmvalves!

15.75”? What a weird radius! I wonder what the point was?!?

However a 16” radius fret caul will work fine. That 0.25” difference is nothing! 

A lot of Ibanez necks have a 17” radius board and until a few years ago there were no sanding blocks or fret cauls in a 17 so we had to use a 16 on these and they work fine. The difference is very hard to measure. Like Fender and that silly 9.5! Just use a 10, d’oh!

Once the board is radiused it usually doesn’t come out perfectly anyway so it can be a tiny bit flatter or rounder than your intended radius. It’s a piece of wood after all and it will vary. Then factor in how good you are with that sanding block, the thickness of your sandpaper and the accuracy of the fret caul and you’ll soon see that it’ll all come out in the wash.

Cheers!

Matt

@warmvalves

Welcome to the forum. There have been instrument making courses in Glasgow for many years but the college names change all the time. This may be the one you are thinking of.

https://www.glasgowclyde.ac.uk/study/subject-areas/39-musical-instrument-making

There are also some shops that run short courses in fretting, set up and maintenance.

Strung Out Guitars and Guitar Guitar. They are both in the city centre and have a Facebook page, so if you can’t get to the Bailey workshop they might be useful.

Hi all -

@Boo & @Rocknroller912 - the courses are at Glasgow Clyde College, Anniesland. It is, it says a Guitar Restoration Course (the short courses you mentioned). From the blurb and the few pics to be found, it's basically, you take in a guitar which might need electrics upgraded or fixed, or warped neck, needs setup properly etc and with the diversity of guitar issues seen, students get to see a range of problems and fixes. Probably, if your problem guitar gets sorted in a couple of weeks, you can bring in another to work on.(8 weeks, 2 hours per week, £100 for the course)

I thought that the course had already begun, but it starts on the 26th Oct. I've mailed them to see if there is any availability for the beginners course

@mattbeels, Great info there.

I know, you'd think just from a simplifying the process and tooling etc aspect, either a 15 or 16 would have been easier. I also have an old Cort X1 which is 15.75 as well. Weird.

Cheers

@warmvalves Welcome to the community!
As said by others, do not worry about the radius, just use 16"

the courses are at Glasgow Clyde College, Anniesland. It is, it says a Guitar Restoration Course (the short courses you mentioned). From the blurb and the few pics to be found, it's basically, you take in a guitar which might need electrics upgraded or fixed, or warped neck, needs setup properly etc and with the diversity of guitar issues seen, students get to see a range of problems and fixes. Probably, if your problem guitar gets sorted in a couple of weeks, you can bring in another to work on.(8 weeks, 2 hours per week, £100 for the course)

@warmvalves Thanks very much for the info, much appreciated. 

Hi @warmvalves   welcome to the group. I don't know much about fret cauls, on the two guitars I've built so far I've used a plastic faced hammer, works for universal radii. How close to Glasgow are you, I'm in Polmont near Falkirk?

Welcome @warmvalves to the Guitar Making Revolution. 

I've spoken to a couple of guys who have done the evening classes at Anniesland College and the guys at Jimmy Egypt's who highly recommend it. 

🙏🎶🎸🙂

Hi @Robin,

I'm in East Kilbride, a wee bit away from Fife lol. I played in club/pub bands decades ago and now just for my own fun. I was always happy to do wee setup things, but now with more time, I can look at doing more in-depth maintainance/repair stuff. I'm going to buy 'scrapper' guitars from Gumtree, Ebay etc to work on initially.

Hi @russ,

If Jimmy Egypt's guys think it's ok, that's a pretty good recommendation. I mailed the college yestrday evening to check out the availablility of places on the course, just waiting on the reply. These things can get oversubscribed pretty quickly, so fingers crossed.

If Jimmy Egypt's guys think it's ok, that's a pretty good recommendation. I mailed the college yestrday evening to check out the availablility of places on the course, just waiting on the reply. These things can get oversubscribed pretty quickly, so fingers crossed.

@warmvalves.

I've considered it myself or even the Full Time Stringed Instrument Making courses but I'd have a bit of a drive to get there. I could make a day of it in Glasgow each week. 

🙂🎸🎶🙏

@warmvalves Thanks very much for the info, much appreciated

Hi @boo. When you move to Scotland....... and if you're not too far from Glasgow......and if you've got the time......you could apply for their Full Time Stringed Instrument Making courses to get you on your Acoustic Guitar building journey. 

🙏🎶🎸🙂

When you move to Scotland....... and if you're not too far from Glasgow......and if you've got the time......you could apply for their Full Time Stringed Instrument Making courses to get you on your Acoustic Guitar building journey. 

@russ Yeah I could but I’m not sure I want to take on another full time course. I did an HND and then a BSc Hons degree in IT a few years ago and ended up hating it. I started it so I had to finish it and I’m sure I would enjoy building instruments way more than I did messing around with computers but I’m not sure I want to commit the time again, I’m a little long in the tooth now. I wish I had moved to Scotland sooner (20 years ago) and done an instrument building course rather than computing but it is what it is now. It’s also the affordability of it, I still have debts from my IT higher education courses so I wouldn’t be able to get any funding. 

My mortgage is taken care of now but I need to work to top up my pension pot for the next 20 years. I would love to do some short courses but nothing as involved as full time education again. It’s not as if I want to chase full time employment in the industry, I would have done 20 years ago if I had thought of it then. Obviously I will continue to build electric guitars for people but that will be as far as it goes for earning money from it (I think). I will also employ @markbailey to show me how to build acoustic guitars, when I eventually get around to it. One of Mark’s workshop courses would be ideal for me at this stage but I may use the online version too. 

Whatever I do, I need to buy a house in Scotland first. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Thanks for your suggestions though and I never say never. I just tend to put things off that much that it becomes too late. 😁

Thanks for your suggestions though and I never say never. I just tend to put things off that much that it becomes too late.

Sounds like me. 😂🤣

🙂🎸🎶🙏

Sounds like me

@russ Yep, you are 3rd on the leaderboard and you haven’t even built a guitar yet. 🤣🤣🤣🤣