Awesome! So glad you're making more of these and thank you for taking the time! Good time to do it too. I bought a steel disc for my drill press and it may be one of my most used tools now... came directly from one of your old videos. The one master class that would be really helpful is the dreaded dovetail joint between the neck and the body. Seems to have the most nuance/skill to it but hardest to find lessons for. I did a decent job on my archtop but seemed like there would be a lot of helpful tips for doing the final fitting.
Thank you very much for your lesson. The part on grain was great. Peoples in other videos talk that grain have to be strait but noone actualy shows this on examples and explains why. More videos with taping different woods and taptuning braces on tops and backs would be helpfull. I'm trying my best but it's still hard to hear with wood is good or when the top is tuned well.
Hey Richard great to see you making more amazing videos. This is so helpful. Thanks for the lessons. I am wanting to learn to make truss rods from scratch one way and bi directional if possible. Maybe you could advise? many thanks your novice student in UK
There are some good tutorials online, but you need access to welding equipment, and obviously need to know how to weld safely. To be honest, I have built several guitars, only two of which have adjustable truss rods. The rest have three .300" x .250"carbon fiber stiffeners installed in their necks, and they do not budge. The necks with truss rods however tend to move a lot. The drawback is in not being able to easily select preferred neck relief in those without an adjustable rod. The relief has to be built in, and you have select the neck wood very carefully and critically. I also don't radius my fretboards. It makes little difference after you get used to playing a flat fretboard, and it saves time as well as reducing error. It also preserves fretboard wood, making the neck just a little bit stiffer.
The standard Gibson truss rod is a piece of 3/16” steel rod. You thread each end with a 10/32” USA tap and source the adjustment nut from any luthier supply house. On the anchor end I use two square threaded nuts locked together; or bend the end and stick it in a hole. I’m now using the lightweight two-way rod from alliedluthiery.com,which is really state of the art.
Would you please make a master class on making an acoustic body? Thoughts on Ashwood or Beachwood for body and neck? I have lots of dry dead on my property
Be prepared to wait a few years for it to dry. However you won’t know if its any good acoustically until it’s cut and dried. Considering the time involved in making a guitar, the wood cost is almost negligible.
I like them both. Curly maple moves more than plain maple, but you just have to let season long enough. I list my trusted wood suppliers at the end of the video.
If you were a beginner and didn’t have your established sources for the wood, would you be trying to locate local saw mills or lumber yards? I’m also upstate New York and the local lumber yard didn’t have a single piece of hard maple to fit the bill.
I would buy online from Stewart MacDonald.Its good wood and they are cool about returns if you don’t like it. Or… take a road trip to Condons in White Plains NY. Amazing mahogany, plenty of maple. Not much flame unless you get there on the right day. Even better; take a road trip to Oxford PA and visit Hearne Hardwoods and Groff on Scotland Road. You will see the best on the east coast. Don’t bring more money than you plan to spend ;the wood is amazing.
Higher is better for the neck. Low “E” is around 36 cycles a second; near the bottom of human hearing. The stiffer the bass the more even the notes in volume. The body? Just make sure it really rings whatever pitch it is.
I do not doubt your craftsmanship or the quality of your instruments but as a “Master Class” on timber and its selection this leaves a huge amount to be desired. When you speak of quarter sawn maple being 25% stronger than plain sawn - I’ll stick to the British naming conventions - this is something I hear and read frequently on luthier sites. As a retired design and technology teacher with 50 + years of experience I can find no reliable source for such a statement. Even if we had such a source what type of “strength “ are we considering here? Tensile, compressive, shear inter alia. The piece you describe as being quarter sawn has considerable run out to its left hand edge. There are two advantages to quarter sawn timber. The first is its predictable shrinkage nature, obviated by that run out, or grain characteristics- eg silver grain in oak caused by the slicing of the medullary rays. (Incidentally quarter sawn timber is expensive because of its high wastage) Grain run out along a piece may well, in extreme cases, compromise the “strength” of the neck which is obviously important but its “resonance”? There is already a comment below about claggy timber not being dry which is absolutely to the point and correct. I suppose I could say that I’ve worked quite a bit of claggy feeling teak over the years (not for guitars though) which was beautifully dry and seasoned. Also the comment about letting timber acclimatise for, from memory, for 4 weeks well that depends entirely on it original moisture content and the acclimatising conditions. Master Class?
@@richardmccurdy9333 Since I retired I now only build for myself, and they are individually designed, and often a bit innovative. I currently have a semi solid in paint, and have a little more modelling to do on a hybrid - Taylor T5 doesn't meet a Godin. Next after that is a slimline classic guitar, which is currently at the initial sketch stage. Over the years I've done many more conventional builds having made my first guitar in 1970.
Well maybe...Lots of opinion here not supported by wood science. I doubt PRS (who is Mr Tonewood science guy) would concur with much of this. If wood is so wet it feels “clammy” you’re right - no need to put the moisture meter on it BC it’s probably well above 12%. HOWEVER if you want a consistent 5-6%, which in my experience is what it takes to have a really stable instrument or piece of furniture... you can NOT feel hear smell or taste the difference between that and 8-9% and so a high quality pin type (IMO - not pinless) meter is the only way you’ll know for sure. In terms of grain - ok I’m with you but not BC of resonance. Straight grain in both directions is stronger and more predictable. And knots are to be avoided. But a piece with a little grain runoff will absolutely transmit vibration end-to-end. Ask Mr Stradivari 😂
