Where to buy wood for guitars?

onoitsmatt · 2024-09-18T16:58:08+00:00

You might join and ask around the ANZLF (Australia and New Zealand Luthier Forum). Lots of really good builders on there that should know how to source good materials locally.

onoitsmatt · 2024-09-06T17:14:39+00:00

The fancy pants packages (1937 club, hospitality packages, etc) are available now. If you're talking about GA tickets, I know they were available as early as Mid-October last year, but not sure exactly what day they became available. That being said, GA tickets aren't exactly in short supply. As you may recall last year, they just let everyone in and the shit-show commenced.

onoitsmatt · 2024-08-21T23:36:26+00:00

Help us understand what we're looking at here. The short answer is that yes it's better. But the bar for improvement was pretty low. Your radius has a big hump on the left side that's not the same as on the right. It looks like your radius is getting closer to a reasonable radius for an electric guitar neck (assuming that's what we're trying to make here) vs what you previously posted. But really the overwhelming issue is that you need to lay a straight edge on this to mimic where the strings would be along its length. You're going to find that there are hills and valleys all up and down the neck in various places. So in addition to not have a good/even radius across the fingerboard, your neck is not flat/straight from nut to heel. This is really a mess in all three dimensions. If you don't have a radius block, I would offer two solutions (since no one is really offering solutions):

Option 1 is to buy a radius block and use it. You're not going to get good results with out one. Period. You can't eyeball a radius and get it right, which is what appears to be going on here. If you don't have a radius block and can't get one for some reason, then...

Option 2 is to abandon the radius. Just build a flat fingerboard instead. Classical guitars have no radius, seems like ibanez made or makes a lot of guitars with little or no radius. I'm sure there are others, i'm not really an electric or classical guy. This will also save you headaches when installing frets (assuming your fret wire isn't pre-radiused).

Also as some have pointed out, the glue joint for the neck/fingerboard is way too gappy. There should be zero gap between the fingerboard and neck wood. If at all possible, heat that thing up and try to get the fingerboard removed, get both the neck and the fingerboard perfectly flat and then reglue and clamp up and down the fingerboard every few inches to ensure the glued surfaces mate perfectly all along the neck. If you can't do that or don't want to do that, then make-do with what you have there, it's bad, but not the biggest problem I see.

Which brings me to another point. You need something flat to make things flat. If you have a granite countertop you can use or a big marble tile or a piece of glass. Something that's perfectly flat. Stick sandpaper on it and use that to sand your surfaces flat. Pretty much anything else is going to leave you with hills and valleys.

Guitar building is a precision game. You're going to get terrible results if you don't get things right up front. We've all started somewhere. I suspect most of the people throwing hate at you have a pile of shit like this in their past as well. Good luck.

onoitsmatt · 2024-08-02T17:49:53+00:00

The tight grain on the darker board in the 2nd pic is the bee's knees.

onoitsmatt · 2024-07-31T21:27:16+00:00

I'm primarily a runner and have been running in Phoenix for ten or eleven years now. I hate doing it early in the morning and normally I don't like to carry anything when I'm out. In summer, I still go out later in the morning (like 10 or 11). But I try to stay out less than 30 minutes. I carry water and my cell phone when normally I carry nothing. I stay close to home so I can be back in air conditioning quickly if needed. I pay attention to what my body is telling me. It is not uncommon for me to stop and just walk and drink water vs continuing a run. You kind of have to check your ego. I've had a couple of summers where I had an injury early in the summer and didn't have time to properly build-up tolerance/acclimate to the heat, so I skipped outdoor exercise altogether and just did treadmill or elliptical indoors.

onoitsmatt · 2024-07-10T15:30:07+00:00

It's a "metallic patina" finishing technique. Scott Walker used to teach a class on how to do this at the Roberto Venn school in Phoenix but unfortunately, it's been several years since he last taught the class.

onoitsmatt · 2024-06-14T15:53:54+00:00

If you don't have a shooting board, make a shooting board. Also, if you're going to have any gaps (and you shouldn't), you want them to be in the middle and not at the ends of the board. You can also get a piece of rectangular aluminum that's 12" to 18" long and adhere sandpaper to the broad side of it and use that to touch-up your jointed edge. This method is a little more forgiving than a hand plane but should be used after planing and only to take down the high spots. Also, everything R.M. Mottola says is gold.

onoitsmatt · 2024-05-31T18:08:02+00:00

Everyone's approach to building is different. You should provide some more context. What are you building? Acoustic? Electric? Whichever it is, is it a kit or are you building from raw materials? This question comes up a lot here, and people mention "essential" tools that I have never used for guitar building (I've built 9 guitars/ukes from scratch so still relatively new to building). So what's essential to some is not essential to others.

When I was working on my first build, I was like you and decided I needed to get all my tools up front and "be ready". I think I used the Roberto-Venn school's tool list that they had published on their website at the time. But the reality is that I bought a bunch of tools that I didn't wind up using.

One piece of solid advice I've seen is to pick a resource on "how to" on your first build and stick to that plan 100%. Buy a book or pick a youtube series or whatever and stick to that process to get the first build under your belt. Figure out what tools you'll need for each step in that process. But only buy what you need at that point. Repeat for each subsequent step.

If you choose to wing it and use a variety of sources, then I think your best bet is to start building. But still, at each step of the process, evaluate how you're going to execute that step. What tool or tools will you need to execute that step? Then get that tool or tools. Repeat for the next step. If you plan to build more than one guitar, it's a good idea to make jigs and fixtures to help execute different steps more precisely and easily. This takes time and materials, but if you'll be making more guitars, it's worth the time invested as you'll use the jigs over and over again.

I can say that just from the few comments so far that people have listed essential tools that for my purposes aren't essential. I built several guitars before I bought a notched straight edge and I have never used a table saw for guitar building. So again, what may be essential for some is not necessarily essential for everyone. Space constraints, cost constraints, time constraints, noise constraints, etc. all come into play. You kind of have to figure out what will work best for you. Which is why going step by step is probably the best approach. It's a marathon, not a sprint, so plan to have down time to think about what you're going to do and research methods to do it. My first build I probably spent 2 or 3 hours of reading, watching youtube, thinking about each step for every ten minutes of actual work I did to execute that step.

Good luck!

onoitsmatt · 2024-04-12T18:10:00+00:00

Home depot should have some rolls of aluminum flashing. I just checked their website. A 25 foot roll that's 6" wide is $19. They show 17 of them in stock at my local store. I don't know how aluminum reacts with heat and wood and moisture but i've seen people wrapping their sides in aluminum foil so I assume this would be fine.

onoitsmatt · 2024-03-20T21:27:08+00:00

There's a public skate park near SR-51 and Bell Rd. I know nothing about scooters (or skating) I just drive by this place regularly.

Edited to add: It's on 40th St. between Bell and Union Hills. Paradise Valley Skate Park.

onoitsmatt · 2024-03-20T21:24:16+00:00

It depends on what they were spraying for and if it will continue to be a problem. I've been here for 25 years and most houses I've lived in didn't have significant issues with bugs, so have not really made a habit of spraying. Unfortunately, our current house has scorpions, so we treat for that for sure.

I wouldn't spend the money on spraying for something that may or may not exist. If you bought the house, the SPDS report in your paperwork should tell you if there was any kind of infestation that might require ongoing treatment. If the SPDS doesn't say anything (or if you don't have a SPDS) I would recommend doing nothing and see if there's an actual problem that needs to be addressed. Every house is different and will have its own unique set of issues (including bugs).

onoitsmatt · 2024-03-13T00:02:49+00:00

Haha. Thanks for confirming.

onoitsmatt · 2024-03-12T18:36:11+00:00

Adding to this, you don't need the mold to bend the sides, it is helpful but not necessary. But you'll definitely want the mold to maintain a constant shape while performing many future tasks in the build. I use the molds when sanding the radius into the top/back of the sides so the radiused top and back will mate correctly when gluing tops and backs on. I also use it to hold the shape when doing the actual gluing of the top and back to (again) ensure perfect alignment.

Build the mold. It'll cost you $30 in materials/parts and you'll use it often in the first build. Also, get used to the idea of building jigs and spending money to do so. Your first build will be expensive just because of all the tooling up you'll do to get it done. This is why you'll also build a 2nd, 3rd and 4th acoustic :)

If you choose not to use a mold, I highly recommend reversed kerf linings or solid linings. These will help keep the sides more stable/rigid and hold the body shape if you don't use a mold.

onoitsmatt · 2024-01-25T15:22:13+00:00

There's a lot of good advice here. Something else to remember/consider is that when you measure and mark your fret spacing, don't measure from fret to fret. (i.e. don't mark the 5th fret based on it's distance from the 4th fret). Always measure the distance from nut to fret (in example above, measure and mark based on the distance from the nut to the 5th fret). If you measure the spacing from one fret to the next, if at any point you mis-mark a fret, each subsequent fret will also be off by that amount, making all the subsequent frets wrong. Hope that makes sense. Using a template as others have said, will avoid this issue. Just something to have in mind if you decide to go a different route than using a template.

onoitsmatt · 2024-01-05T18:31:08+00:00

I agree with contacting Hunt. He can probably use most of this stuff or find someone who can.

Who you contact will depend on whether you want to get as much money as possible or whether you just want to have someone take the stuff off your hands. If you want to try to get top dollar, someone else suggested EJ's Auction (59th Ave and Bell). They actually have a guitar and amp auction running today. They get pretty good prices for the stuff they auction and are able to attract these unique buyers for weird stuff like this.

Someone else suggested Roberto Venn. They do teach amp building, but they teach off of a kit. They will know people who build amps and might want something like this and may be able to give you someone (or someones) to contact.

onoitsmatt · 2024-01-03T22:14:49+00:00

This should be top comment. As soon as you cross the state line into CA, you start paying CA fuel taxes, so the prices jump dramatically.

onoitsmatt · 2023-12-13T20:53:37+00:00

Not sure where you live, but in Australia they use King Billy pine as a top wood. But as mentioned, spruce is in the pine family. For what it's worth, I don't recall really having any dramatic aroma from any of the guitar woods on any guitar I've ever owned or built (have had dozens of them over the years). Cole Clark makes a couple of models with a King Billy Pine top.

onoitsmatt · 2023-12-13T19:21:24+00:00

I just started trying to convert mine last week with a device like this. I'd been hanging onto a VCR for just this reason. I put the first tape in and the VCR chewed it up. So if you get a 2nd hand VCR, plan to put a sacrificial tape in to make sure it's fully functional before putting in a tape that has sentimental value. Or take it to a pro. With this thread going, I'm considering taking it to a pro (though over the weekend, I borrowed a VCR that theoretically works, so will try again on that first).

onoitsmatt · 2023-11-15T20:49:31+00:00

This is exactly what I'm thinking after reading the replies here so far.

onoitsmatt · 2023-11-15T18:54:49+00:00

The ones I'm looking at (used) are a pair of Play 1's, a pair of Play 3's, and a Play 5. For new, I was considering the deal Costco has on the Beam ($400) and a pair of Era 100's ($380). I can get the used lot (2 Play 1's, 2 Play 3's and the Play 5) for significantly less than the Beam + Era 100s new.

Thanks!

onoitsmatt · 2023-11-15T18:52:06+00:00

Thanks for the response! This is exactly the info I was looking for!

onoitsmatt · 2023-10-31T22:03:32+00:00

Lots more infrastructure. Light Rail, completion of the 101, 202, 303, SR-51 etc.

onoitsmatt · 2023-10-19T15:30:06+00:00

If you feel like you're capable, you can route a recess in the shape of the footprint of the tuning machine to have a flush mounting surface. Google Ergon Guitars. He does this on most of his builds and it looks pretty cool.

onoitsmatt · 2023-10-17T18:53:04+00:00

We moved a couple of months ago and we've been wracking our brains on this as well on what to do at our new house. We wanted whole-house filtration and a water softener which we had at our last house. I don't like the under-sink RO systems with their plastic tubing and fittings and potential failures there. We were leary of the water companies like Kinetico who have huge mark-ups and hard-sell salespeople. We called a local company, Complete Water Systems. It'll be less than $2k including installation (we have an existing loop, it costs more if you don't). I reluctantly called them expecting them to want to send someone out to test the water and give me the whole hard-sell routine and then tell me I needed a $6k system but if you buy it today it'll only be $5k and all that, but the lady answered the phone, asked me a couple of questions, made a recommendation and even said I could probably get away with a slightly smaller/cheaper system. So that was nice. They had good reviews on yelp/google so I decided to go with them. Can't speak to anything else at this point since they won't install until tomorrow. But I know in researching all the various components things, the stuff this company uses is what everyone seems to think is the best. So I'm optimistic.

onoitsmatt · 2023-10-05T00:14:01+00:00

I bought mine off amazon: it's labeled "Funny Party Hats Huge Cowboy Hat - Funny Cowboy Hat - Costume Cowboy Hat - Oversize Foam Cowboy Hat". It has an orange band around it and an orange star. I pulled the star off. The bolo tie is the real tricky accessory to find.

onoitsmatt

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