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I think you may be looking at his armrest.

Thanks to all. I consider myself educated. Possibly even enlightened.

I thought I knew about this stuff, but evidently not. A fellow in the classifieds is selling a (very nice) Sobell instrument that he describes as an "octave mandola." It looks like a mandola, as...

Thanks for the tip on the Strobel book, Graham. Just ordered a copy.

Edit: Also ordered The Mandolin: A History -- just so everybody gets paid.

Looks like Adrian and I were posting at the same instant.

Bob Benedetto has a comprehensive (4 DVDs) video course on building archtop guitars, and an accompanying book, that's sold through Stew-Mac. I own both, and they're excellent. Stew-Mac also sells...

Makes me regret not having known Bill Collings.

FWIW, I've had good luck on the two Guild neck resets I've done (on 1970s dreadnoughts). That doesn't make me special; just means I was lucky.

The neck joint is most likely a wide dovetail that's...

Adam's earlier solo album, Earth Tones, is also a very worthy effort. If you had told me I would listen to a solo gourd banjo album multiple times, well, I would have been skeptical. Fascinating...

Serious LOL material there. Clearly the instrument is being put to its highest and best use.

John- How do you grind your curved plane blades on the Tormek? Do you use one of their fixtures, or freehand it?

Thanks!

Thanks for the further clarification.

It's rather sobering to realize just now that Tim's Chameleon album came out 12 years ago.

If memory serves, he's playing his very excellent Giacomel short-scale Irish bouzouki on the record. Tim also likes playing an "octar," which is an octave mandolin built on an archtop jazz guitar. ...

Just bought the bundle. Thanks for the tip!

The plant is Red Tip Photinia. Very popular among landscape architects in NC and SC ~40 years ago. It grows at a furious rate. A lot of people used it for hedges or yard screens, then discovered...

FWIW, just learned this past week in discussion with a colleague that Don MacRostie chucks his new tuners in the drill press and runs them for awhile as a break-in procedure to ensure consistent...

My personal favorite rural directions story goes back to serving on a fire department in the far western North Carolina mountains 30 years ago. One night the official location of the call dispatch...

A long time ago, I made a living in marketing and public relations. (Please pardon me; I was young and stupid.) The referenced article is an attempt to gin up a product press release from Taylor...

There's a fellow in these parts who specializes in the Viola da Gamba. That's pretty much the definition of a narrow market niche. But he builds on commission and they don't gather any dust.
...

That's an interesting burst.

Your question gnawed at me for a couple of days, so I looked up an MSDS for Fiebing's Leather Dye...

"As I see it, each type of scraper has it's place,..."

Roger that. In matters of taste, there is no argument. For each application there's a proper tool, and that decision can be very personal. ...

The Carruth scrapers are 3.5mm thick. Much closer to an ice skate blade than a card scraper, and they work on the same principle. The working edge is hollow-ground; It's not a "burr" as on a card...

StewMac sells their "ultimate mini grinder" as the optimal tool for sharpening Carruth scrapers. It uses 3" wheels. I've found that diameter just right for the purpose. You can get what's...

Just to follow up on this thread, I want to give a shout out to the Dragonplate/Allred folks. They are super-efficient and prompt on order processing and shipping, and also do a great job of...

Okay, James, good point. I am satisfied with my purchase and will not complain again.