Do you put bracing below the kerfing on the sides or butt up against? I think I saw you use s router to remove kerfing to fit the braces underneath in another video.
Black Walnut makes excellent guitars, sounds and looks good is easy to bend sides and carve into nice stable necks. Possibly easier bending than rosewood. Lumberyards regularly carry it Quarter sawn for about 10% over flat sawn. Pretty easy to resaw into back/side sets for around $20 each. I don't know why it isn't more commonly used. BTW, Janka hardness is not measured in foot pounds. "The Janka test measures the force required to embed a .444 inch steel ball into the wood by half its diameter."
For the past few years I have parked myself semi confidently in this debate. My background/education is electronics. The pickup makes the largest difference. But even saying that... there are so many pickups out there that deliver a "good enough" sound, that I couldn't tell you which one is being used on almost any recordings. The amp/speaker/mic are far more important. The build of the guitar affects how it resonates, which has a minimal impact on the electric signal/sound coming out of the amp, but it DOES affect how it feels in the hands. I have two guitars that play well and resonate really nicely and I'm sure that has caused me to be biased towards them.
Hi Eric, as an amateur luthier, I've benefited greatly from your videos and it shows on my guitars. I ordered the counterbore tool set and used it last night. I drilled out the tuner holes with a 3/8" forstner bit but found that the pilot guide was too tight so I opened up the hole with a 3 degree reamer and it worked just fine. Next time I may go one step up from 3/8. I was a little concerned that the 5/8" bore would be a bit too tight for the tuner, but I think the little bit of slop from turning the tool by hand gave it just the right amount of room to fit nicely. You mentioned that a T handle might make this easier - absolutely right - about 1/2 way done, I spent about 10 minutes to make a handle with a mortise to fit the tool and hammered it on. This made a big difference and was well worth it. Keep up the good work!
Sorry, but basically you're saying choice of wood in an electric doesn't matter because it is not an acoustic. Not very convincing. You are arguing more or less on wrong use of definitions, than on anything else here. So, no prove, just a rhetorical concept. Fact: it resonates, meaning it affects the strings vibration and vice versa. How much of an impact this makes depends on everything else: choice of pickup, electrics, amp ....
Hi, just wanted to say that you videos are excellent very well explained and educational. I am building a new guitar with Steinberger tuners, I am wondering if you have a video that shows how you locate and position these steinberger tuners to get a straight string pull. I would greatly appreciate your advice.
Whether tonewood matters a little or not. I dunno. But what I do know, is that if it does, its very little difference which you could get with some knob changes. I have never seen someone recognize some kind of 'tonewood in blind tests. In fact I saw some people preffering "lesser" tonewoods in those tests.
Very detailed video! One of the better ones in regards to cutting binding channels. The part at 8:35 where you explained the relationship of the kerfing to the binding channel was excellent! Thanks Eric!
You need a longer straightedge to sand with. Yours is too short. Thats why you are sanding the back concave. If thw straightedge is always longer on both ends then the back you will never not be perfectly flat.
I'm a fan of Paul Sellers' method of sharpening chisels/blades. I'm still working on mastering this method but I've some great results with some practice and not so great early on. Narrow chisels I do find it easier to use a guide for sharpening my chisels.
If you think the StewMac bender is the Cadillac, visit a ukulele factory and watch them dry bend ukulele sides. Very impressive! Figured woods, no problem!
Regarding sharpening... Based on Eric's experience I purchased a Worksharp 3000. It has worked well for me. My main plane is a LeeNeilsen low angle jack with a 2" wide blade. The blades I use on that plane (a toothed blade for thicknessing figured woods, and a standard straight blade that I use to shoot book-match joints) are easily sharpened on the Worksharp 3000, but 2" width is the machine's limit. It works well on all my chisel blades. I did purchase 3 CBD discs and for the Worksharp. I mostly use those rather than the sandpaper on glass discs that came with it. I keep the 1200 grit CBD disc loaded in the machine and strop with a very fine abrasive after grinding. This has made sharpening quick and so I sharpen without hesitation.
thank you Eric . here is a heads up i will admit to watching some unboxing videos. reason is there is so much in woodworking / guitar building i do not know . my background is Navy trained machinist ( in navy lingo machinery repairman) i was on a sub-tender making parts for subs and ships / boats after my hitch was up i kept at that job making things for the oil inderestie for a total of 10 yrs . bottom fell out. went to electronics school and fixed main frames , servers, computers .and cash registers for 20 yrs . bottom fell out again . then finished up as a corrections officer for the county sheriffs office what fun lol ( no) . yup i am an old geezer lol 71 . i retired and set up a wood shop . not played guitar in long time so i thought i would learn how to build classical guitar for a start but got side tracted due to wife"s and my health. i Love your vids you seem pleasant and your info is great. thank you oh i do not wear Tee shirts however i have one of yours .
Some of the people who ridicule a player for spending $10K on a PRS with a full factory warranty would think nothing of spending even more for a pair of 1950s PAFs that might short out on them after six months. And how many RU-vid tonewood deniers are pickup winders trying to sell their overpriced boutique stuff that’s made from plastic, magnets and wire, just like the mass-produced stuff from Asia? It’s impossible to prove that something doesn’t exist, and the tonewood question is never going to go away.
You can demonstrate scientifically that something exists by locating, defining and exhibiting it, but because the Universe is infinite or something like that, you can never prove that something doesn’t exist. Great minds like Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson could never tell us how matter came to exist or why gravity exerts a force on objects that possess mass. I wonder how many tonewood deniers are boutique pickup winders trying to get us to buy their overpriced wares, which are made from plastic, magnets and wire, just like mass-produced ones?
The video shows him waving his hands and NOT his face as he is talking... Isn't that odd? Tell us what a sunken concavity' is and what a regular wristwatch looks like ...
Thank you so much for imparting your wisdom and experience. I am 21 and would love to make my own electric guitars. I appreciate you for helping me reflect on what my intentions are so that I can narrow my focus. Definitely interested in lutherie as a hobby/side-hustle. This is important stuff regarding me finding out where to start and what my expectations are. Thank you again dude for your help
Thanks Eric, I always enjoy watching your videos and have learnt much from them. I like the tip for marking bolt hole in body. however, I tend to use 2 bolts, and drill body first then take the brad point drill bit and push through hole from inside the body to mark the neck, this is also very accurate, and works well for me
I love the look of wenge, but have not had any luck bending it. I haven't tried doing sides with it, but did attempt using wenge for binding and gave up after several unsuccessful bend attempts, both over a form and attempting freehand on a bending iron. I gave up after a few attempts and switched to mahogany for that particular build. Purpleheart and bloodwood also have given me trouble with bending, but I did manage successful sides with bloodwood. Honestly it may have just been my technique, so do you have any bending tips specific to wenge and similar brittle, splintery woods?
Do you have videos of the “rough milling early steps”, it seems the parts you are leaving out are some of the most difficult and certainly most important parts. A bad beginning can doom a job to failure before you even get started and all work is for naughty. For example, isn’t making the sides and properly sizing, cutting and clamping them become one of the most critical steps? If done improperly the top and back won’t fit properly, won’t sound appropriately and may cause those joints to failed prematurely. Similarly, the top and bottom blocks won’t glue properly and look atrocious if the sides aren’t properly set in the jig. I could rattle on about almost every piece, but do you videos for all the steps to get to the “beginning” of this video?
Just wanted to say that I really enjoy your channel. You don’t know it, but you helped me make my first guitar. I love how clear and thorough your explanations are, and appreciate your pleasant, cheerful, friendly way of presenting things. I also appreciate you showing your mistakes and how you fix them. It helps to take the stress out of learning. Many thanks. I’m going to purchase something from the store as a way to show my support.
@@EricSchaeferGuitars I saw that! It was a nice surprise. I ordered your rosette maker and got it in the mail yesterday. Looking forward to using it. Thanks!
thank you eric .all ways watch your stuff for years . agree with you on the unboxing tools . how ever take em with a grain of salt all info is good . just remember they are hawking stuff. ii do think ziricote is pretty stuff. at one time you used katalox for finger boards and bridges are you off that wood now or is there a reason for not using it now ? i do not think i have missed an episode .
que elegante esta el diapason delgado diseño no tradicional yo uso guitarra doserola de 12 cuerdas se miraria interesante con ese clavijero delgado saludos de los mochis sinaloa
Great work as always ,I hope ur vacation was great with ur little ax also I live in Pa as well any humidity tips u can give me ,I just want my guitars to last as long as possible,,, thanks
David (RE Falcate bracing and Gore's book) Assuming you have a library network available, borrow it from the library. Thats what I did and the full sized plans came along with the loan (you may need to do it as a inter library loan since not all libraries have it)
hello, I'm just a 16 year old boy trying to fix my uncle's old guitar, and I don't really have the tool to heat the fret wire. What would the consequences be and is it still okay to remove the fret wire without heating it?
It’s fairly easy to get all the parts including blankets from Amazon. Enough people have bought parts you can basically fill your cart with just their suggestions. Built my own for just $100.
