@markbailey Hi to you both and a belated Happy New Year. I’m pleased to read that things a picking up for you. Still hoping to get a workshop day with you sometime.

Another happy customer, called in this afternoon to collect his new build. Playing through a small battery amp. Violin bow repair gone also so time to relax for the rest of the day. Attachment : ...

Plane across the grain to take the thickness down to close to final, leaving about 0.5 mm depending on tear out.Sand or scrape the last part smooth.

@nsj I used Eze Oil from David Dyke Luthier Supplies. Works very well.

@russ thanks for sharing this film. I had never seen it before and enjoyed it, particularly the definition of a luthier.

T style neck after spraying, along with an S style. No polishing at all at this stage and after this I only hand rubbed it with polishing oil and Tripoli powder. Attachment : IMG_5172.mov At...

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@jamesbisset It does have more of electric guitar sound than piezo. Did the original models use flat wound strings or round wound ? A different magnetic response might produce a softer sound to the p...

@jamesbisset I was very impressed with the final result when I heard it being played yesterday. FB is nicely finished and I like the way you have worked around some of the lamination problems. It’s n...

@russ Thanks the banjo has gone back to its owner now and my stress level has gone back down. Difficult with jobs like this not to make the repair more than the cost of the instrument. Free wood help...

Forgot to add a pic of the old broken neck Attachment : IMG_6367.jpeg

Latest project finished yesterday, metal body banjo with a completely broken neck. The only thing holding it together was the FB. Made a new neck and added rosewood binding to make it wider due to the...

@robin Well done Robin it looks good and is certainly challenging

@robin Thanks I haven’t seen this before and only have his mandolin book. For a first build I would stick with Marks course and it will be a good guitar. Tap tuning is fairly advanced.

@peter-c-f The sound waves on bowed and plucked instruments are different. I watched a science demo when I attended classes at violin school using transducer pick ups and an oscilloscope. For bowed i...

@robin violins are tuned F front and F# back

@robin A# sounds a bit off. I watched a video on classical building where the top was an F and I think steel string is lower. Shaving a bit off to produce a G might make a better sound.

@robin Tap tuning takes a lot of experience. Some makers even tune after the body is closed by scraping the outside of the soundboard and tapping to get a ring.

@peter-c-f Braces are usually tuned by holding the plate very lightly till it rings. Some people can tell the pitch by ear but normal humans use a guitar tuner with a built in microphone Removing woo...

I would be interested in one if the price is not too much. Which one do you have please