If you are planning on lubricating on lubricating, consider the following: The favored lubricant is Tri-Flow, a colloidal teflon based lubricant. ANY lubricant should be used sparingly. Any liquid...
If you are planning on lubricating on lubricating, consider the following: The favored lubricant is Tri-Flow, a colloidal teflon based lubricant. ANY lubricant should be used sparingly. Any liquid...
If the problem is intonation, the tuners don't really have anything to do with that as long as they work at all.
I'm currently using Epifanes Clear High-Gloss Marine Varnish. They offer another similar varnish with a bit less UV blocker, which would be fine for instruments (which don't spend nearly as much time...
Nice article, I will also add that John Montgomery, in Raleigh NC, has been maintaining the string instrument collection in the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian for over fifteen years. He has...
Ah, to me this is the other Becker. There are two Becker families from Chicago and both are remarkable for their skill and influence.
The one I'm familiar with is Carl F. Becker, violin maker...
Oud
https://i.imgur.com/CL5Zulk.jpg
Renaissance lute
https://i.imgur.com/QeEHc01.jpg
Tenor ukulele
https://i.imgur.com/xe7ociE.jpg
Jarana Jarocha
Quite accurate, during my career as a professional violin repairman and builder I encountered many times where the bridges of violins, violas and cellos were stuck to the top. A gentle tap freed them...
Priorities.
I remember well, a mandolin player friend said: "I'd like to have one of your mandolins but I can't afford one", just before driving off in his 4-door American made pickup truck to go...
I've got a huge amount of notes & blueprints that I have made over the last four+ decades of building instruments, in addition to several commercially available blueprints. I've been looking into the...
One of my students, Zach Dease, and I received a generous Folklife grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to build a matched quartet of our choice from all North Carolina woods. This is my second...
Apologies if it's been posted previously.
https://youtu.be/IYcvfqzhxV4
Bondhus makes good stuff. They wouldn't sell a gimmick or garbage. Interesting product. I suspect it's primarily for socket-head screws, which is their primary product line. It should work basically...
I bought this product a year or so ago, and was disappointed that it didn't work for removing worn pickguard screws on a vintage guitar I was working on. Keep in mind, they were completely rounded...
The two mandolins for the quartet strung up today. A bit exciting! The mandola and the mandocello will get done next week. They sound quite similar, but with subtle differences. So far, doing what...
A post about a 1920s Stromberg-Voisinet mandolin a few weeks back reminded me that I had traced the body and head outline when I did a bit of work on one a few years ago. So here is perhaps the first...
I recently bought the Siminoff H5 mandola plans. I hope to get started soon and was wondering if anyone has experience building from those plans. I’m wondering if the graduations are a little on the...
Can't tell without the instrument in-hand.
Some of it depends on whether or not the crack goes through the neck block, and whether the cracks will close.
Cross grain fractures must be reinforced....
If the OP was looking for a custom tenor guitar build he could have been a lot more clear. He gave zero info to his query. Why even ask a question like that? :confused:
Is it me, or is that a BIG truss rod pocket; 'looks like you could get a sparkplug wrench in that hole....hence the break location.....
If it was your great granddaddy's mandolin or another with...
That is the original Indian rosewood bridgeplate, which is 3 1/4" wide. Those began in 1969 on dreadnoughts. Indian rosewood turns out to be a poor choice for bridgeplates. Chips and cracks between...
Turquoise is a lot harder than shell. When I've used real stone (vs reconstituted stone, which is stone dust in a resin binder, so it sands nicely), the best approach I found was actually to build...
I just came across this in passing and thank Dave for posting it. An academic with impeccable credentials, Thomas Rossing's musical acoustics books trended toward more and more generally accessible...
Some technical information:
Rosewood bridgeplates were factory original equipment from 1968 until 1988 on production line Martins, except for HD-28's and HD-35's.
Most of the rosewood...
Titebond wood glue works best with a clamping pressure of 100-200PSI (depending on the wood density and porosity).
Any screw-type clamp can exert a force relative to the screw pitch (mechanical...
It seems to me that filling the channel and re-installing violin style purfling would be an endless headache and would look like a patch job no matter how much effort you put into it.
Instead, why...