Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Ren-Shaped Precision Mold Material Ren-Shaped Precision Mold Material by Ed Beylerian Originally published in American Lutherie #21, 1990 The demand for ever-increasing quality in end-use products has generated a concurrent need for improved modeling materials. Patterns and molds constructed from traditional materials such as laminated wood and plaster cannot maintain the precise tolerances required by model makers in the automotive, aerospace, foundry, and prototyping industries. With Ren-Shape 450, models can be built with a more stable medium, using precision numerically controlled (NC) machining equipment. I obtained a 2"×16"×60" board of Ren-Shape from Ciba-Geigy corporation, as well as the laminating compound and the repair kit. Ren-Shape is about the same hardness and density of a medium hard wood, and a tan color. The setting time of the two-part laminating compound is easily controlled by the amount of hardener used, and can range from one to six hours. The repair compound sets overnight. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Apprenticeships: Potentially a Great Opportunity for Mentors and Apprentices Alike Apprenticeships: Potentially a Great Opportunity for Mentors and Apprentices Alike by Bill Beadie Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 If you're reading this article, chances are good that you know more than I do about building guitars. The way I figure it, my experience adds up to approximately thirty-six weeks of full-time work, which has produced exactly two guitars, a few repairs, and includes some parts making and assembly work. While I can’t expect to teach you new tricks for neck sets or better ways to apply finish, I’m confident that I can explain why apprenticeships can be a great opportunity for both mentors and apprentices. Allow me to sidetrack for a moment and tell you about John Greven. In the thirty-six-week time frame that I needed to build two guitars and perform a few other guitar-related tasks, John typically builds about thirty-six guitars. And do you know what’s really depressing? I’m pretty sure that every one of them sounds better than either of mine. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Router Jig for Shaping a Neck Router Jig for Shaping a Neck by Mike Nealon Originally published in American Lutherie #62, 2000 This jig is designed to carve a guitar neck with a constant thickness of 5/8" from the nut to about the 10th fret. The shaft of the neck has a circular cross section and is cut so smoothly that only a minimal amount of finish sanding is required. To carve a neck to this shape profile while also tapering the neck width requires that the neck billet be placed at an angle to the axis of rotation, shown schematically in Fig. 1. These particular necks, which I make for thin-body (2 1/4˝) acoustic guitars, are cut to the specifications found on the Martin dreadnought blueprint (except for the taper and the length of the heel). Since the heel is only 2" tall, the router can pass over the top of the heel. The necks are 14.05" long from the nut to the body; the region of constant thickness is 11 1/4" long, leaving 2 3/4" for the curve of the heel. The jig is made in two parts separately mounted to a base plate: an inclined router table, and a rotation stage. The router table shown in Photo 1 is a wooden box on top of which will be a template to guide the router along a straight line. The rotation stage consists of a long narrow wooden platform, Photo 2, into which will be embedded a steel rod. The rod acts as the axis of rotation and is parallel to the base plate. The top of the rotation stage is tapered at the same angle as the router table. The neck billet is clamped, fretboard surface down, to this platform. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Stalking the Wild Pine Rosin Stalking the Wild Pine Rosin by Dave Raley Originally published in American Lutherie #78, 2004 Having read Louis De Grazia’s article “Rosin Varnishes” on p. 167 of The Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, and seeking an undercoat that would not turn cedar red, and also not wishing to breathe the fumes of any of the various synthetics, I set out to buy some rosin stock. Couldn’t find it. Eventually I thought to check out the pines in the yard. Sure enough, not a hundred feet from the porch there were nodules of rosin and rosin-coated bark free for the taking. We are talking about good old pine pitch. Gathering what I could from three trees, I chipped away some of the excess bark and filled a baby food jar loosely, topped it off with 190-proof ethyl alcohol and crimped aluminum foil over the top with a rubber band. The rosin dissolved in about a week and I began to make test pieces using the same stock the instrument was made of, to wit, cedar shingles. The tincture was darker than I had expected. It didn’t stain the test pieces a lot, but more than I wanted. Gotta have more rosin. A half-hour’s walk in the woods turned up enough mixed stock to overfill a quart baggie. About a third of the pines had at least a trace, and one in ten yielded worthwhile amounts. I had intended to fetch some cedar rosin while I was about it but couldn’t find any. Even the cedar that I had taken a branch off of last fall was clean. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 11, 2021March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Frets and Fingerboard Care Frets and Fingerboard Care by Randy Stockwell Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 7, #2, 1979 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 Neck Shapes. I credit Leo Bidne for his perceptions of the relationship between the fingerboard bow and the string’s motion. I use heat treatment to obtain these results when the problems are severe enough. But I find that most instruments, while needing some neck curve help, are not in serious enough trouble to merit the use of heat. Most can be put in the proper curvature through careful and diligent fret dressing and tension rod adjustment (granted sufficient fret height to begin with). When the frets are too low or the curve too great, refretting is usually called for anyway. The fingerboard itself can then be reshaped to the suitable curves. Of course, if the fault is bad enough to call for a major removal of wood, I definitely resort to heat, neck resets, major neck rebuilding, and so on. Even after heat treatment, I find it necessary to finish with fingerboard and/or fret-dressing procedures. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
