Search:

Really, the only sure way to fix a problem like this is to send the guitar somewhere cooler....... say ..... Tasmania.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/bloodymorgan/dark.jpg
Tired now. No guitar work for a while. Will live in this soon. Tired.

In my experience, the cheapest place to get good timber is the skip bin outside (or just inside) the old property being renovated. You'd be amazed what gets chucked out. Luckily I have a mate who...

I hear that north Tas Myrtle is different to south Tas Myrtle. Superior is what I hear, but I hear it from a Nth Tasmanian so I'm sticking with different.

Leave out the radiata. All the other timbers look fine together. If you have a dog, it might chase the radiata if you throw it. Mine won't (Tasmanian dogs), but some will.

If your joinery is...

Congratulations, well deserved. Only surprising really because proper Australian stuff seems to get no credit in the wider world as a general rule. I look forward to seeing Bluestones all over the...

Recent progress unfortunately doesn't involve an instrument. Haven't been able to find a suitable caravan to live in while building the homestead, so I've begun a "shed" which will be home for a year...

Nothing at all wrong with hand tools, Rick. Keep us posted on the progress - it's a lot easier AND a lot harder than it looks.....

Well, we have had initial and enthusiastic interest in our place from a nice young woman with a couple kids, so I hope things work out that she can afford it. Meantime we are waiting on a few prices...

Well done! Congratulations. Now git out there and make some mess.

I can't remember Stu, are you building on the new block? I'm in the same position (though I suspect on a much less grand scale sale price wise, being in rural Tassie). We're headed for a van and...

I will be dispensing (sadly not dispensing with) beer at the top pub on Friday and Saturday nights during the festival. Come in and say hello, I'm the surly old guy.

That bit of timber only just had room for a neck in it, so what is the final neck shape is still skewed across it somewhat and yes, I have to be re-e-e-e-e-al careful and some kind of jig will be in...

Not sure when the hordes are arriving, and how "social" I'll have to be, so I laid it out for a look at the roughness. I'm happy with how it is so far. Nothing is exactly sized yet, but I think it'll...

Many distractions later, I've got further with the new neck than I did with the old one before I buggered it up. I did manage to rout the truss rod slot on the wrong side, but cut the head end off...

Just over the hill from me. Maybe we will have a beer - either traditionally or in the local "face down" way. How are you finding dealing with the folk federation?

Just came across this, while looking for reverb tank schematics.

http://www.mojomusicalsupply.com/item.asp?pid=80073&pg=65970&id=2112225

That seems expensive for non genuine to me. I'm seeing $44, the seller is in Germany - seems to come out at $30 + $5 PP from stairway to Kevin, and you can drive over there and punch him if the need...

Well, I made a few mistakes with the neck. The cheapskate fretsaw worked just fine - but I confidently cut the 19th fret in the wrong position. Plus I discovered I had mis-measured the length. I...

Ahhh, I hadn't really thought of flexing in that direction. I've CA'd the blade to the board for part of it's length, but now I think I'll bolt a bit of scrap steel/al along the top edge of the blade...

Hmm. Well, I want to cut the frets while everything is still square and I have easy references. The wire I have has tangs of .024". The wallet I have has cash of $4.85.
What I came up with involves...

(steps up onto soapbox) At least it's a step up from everything, celery and myrtle included with regnans, chipped and sold for peanuts. (gets off soapbox)

Hooray!! Confusion!! Now you know how I feel all the time. Yep, this is throught the back, and I'm trying for a one piece neck on this occasion.

Bought a 6mm router bit, measured twice, then twice more, then a few more times. Put on a leather jacket and a bluey, held my breath and did the truss rod channel (in a few passes, because I wasn't...

Labros runs this place:

http://www.achilliesamps.com/

seems a nice bloke, having a go, and sells cloth,valves,tolex, etc as well as his own point to point amps.

I did see that, but somewhere the fog descended, and between two books and a few websites I got scrambled and couldn't even pick my truss rod out from a picture of different types. Now I look I...

Thanks Stu, just seem to have lost my confidence/arrogance with the long lay off. However, jacking up houses and wacking in new bearers, phbbrrrt. Do it one handed.

Well the back of the house is (almost) finished, and it's dribbling rain, so I'm thinking of getting back to the guitar. Thing is, I can't for the life of me figure out conclusively what kind of...

Try asking these people. They've supplied some stuff I wanted in the past, mostly electric gear but they probably know the lay of the land in NZ.

http://www.guitarparts.co.nz/cart/index.cfm

Easy. I got given a bit of timber when I was hunting round for fingerboard material. Mountain ti tree- it's scrubby apparently on the mainland (I'm new to the tree too, so this is all heresay) but...

Mountain ti tree. That's all I'm saying.

What kind of winding gizmo have you rigged up? Any chance of pic's?

There is a gem related club, or society type of thing in Hobart, and I believe you can go along there and get advice and use their machines.... maybe these are all over the country. Or maybe it's...

What Not To Do:

http://morganhell.blogspot.com/2007/08/this-thing-is-out-of-house-praise-lord.html

The bathroom (and back end of the house) is finished, besides a little patching and painting here and there, so I'll be back on the tele this week, I hope. AND I'll be needing advice....

God, and...

I like very much what you've done with some of our timber Bob. Give us a shout if you're down south and I'll fix you up with a "cup of tea".

You could try looking round that link I put up earlier in this thread. Loads of info and links to all Australian/NZ amp stuff, and fellow enthusiasts.

Good idea for a project, too. I have a...

Neil from Grouse Guitars is getting Moody Amps going again. A fellow up in northern Tas makes valve amps. There is a bloke in Nth Fitzroy who repairs, can't say if he builds any to sell.

This is a...

Mountain ti tree, King billy, celery top, myrtle, huon, horizontal, regnans - not in that order necessarily, and certainly not limited to them.

This may help. Yanks tend to go for hickory axe handles, blokes down here make them from blue gum. As to the correlation between axes and drumsticks..... can't help you.

I have been told more than once that the staging/set guys at ABC TV Melb stripped back and painted white (house paint) a Steinway grand. Not sure if they sanded it or stripped it chemically. Anyway...

I can see! I have new glasses! Straight lines are ....... straight! In other news,

don't DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES take up floor boards in a 100 and something year old house in Tasmania if...

That's turned out stunningly. Did you do your own neck on this one?

I'm kind of with Ray, I love the tele, and frankly I think it is the best solid body guitar there is. But I don't care to "replicate" the exact dimensions, or "relic" (as the saying goes) the look....

I rubbed a little tung oil on it. I'm loving this timber, not very traditional looking, but hey.

I've been thinking about the fretboard while I wait for my eyes (appt next Wed.) and seeing as I was going to get some sawdust for the garden paths anyway, I asked the miller if he had any horizontal...

If I had rosewood and cedar as choices, I would use cedar for the soundboard. I also think the uke is a much maligned instrument, the way hamburgers will be a much maligned food when people have...

Is anyone building timber boats/ships near Sydney anymore? Even repair yards for timber boats would have a thicknesser that could do your job i reckon. And they would be friendly people and if you...

You could try this:

Question: How can you make a "Rolling Pin" sander?
Answer: Take an old rolling pin and epoxy a steel rod into the existing hole in the center. Cut off one end just long...

The truth is they just fell apart. The hinges actually broke through the stress of opening and closing (the only thing they are designed to do) after two years. As I said, no quality. That's why I'm...