The Luthier Community

Yeah, Debbie is a friend who is paying me to build her a guitar, because she liked the way my maple cutaway looked. She isn't a player (yet), and she liked the abalone rosette. Since that is really what she is paying for I decided to go blingy on this one. Wait until you see the bridge and pickguard...

Installing the abalone purfling... First I removed all the pieces from the cardboard. They're glued on, and I probably could do it easier if I soaked the whole thing in water to remove all the pieces and the glue residue at the same time, but instead I sit by the TV and take the pieces off one at a ...

Lefty, The stuff on the cardboard is made up of 1 inch long pieces, and if you took all the strips and put them end to end it would resemble the outline of a dreadnaught. I had to take the individual pieces and fit them to this outline which is basically a parlor with an oversized bottom. Where my c...

Thanks Eben, Technically, I'm telecommuting today... Kept mumbling to myself all the way home last night... when I wasn't yelling that 'you people are idiots!!!'. I was amazed at how many people came to a full stop ajacent to an accident on an icy two lane overpass with people coming up behind them....

Tom, He goes by Inlaidartist. I bought my stuff from him over a year ago, and at that time he had a wide selection and great prices. Haven't shopped for abalone since then though. Raymond Added: I never paid full price if it said 'or best offer'. He was very reasonable and usually took my offer with...

Haven't been posting, but have been busy in the shop. Finished cutting the binding ledges and bent some walnut binding on my new bending iron... http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o274/feissli/Misc/Jan20001.jpg It's a $5 curling iron from the local grocery store. One with a 'high heat' setting. I al...

Well... when time in the shop gets a little harder to come by I guess I tend to stop taking pictures or posting. I went from just getting ready to cut the ledges for the binding to done with the binding and abalone purfling in pretty much one easy step... The purfling cutter worked well and I cut th...

Your Welcome. I don't remember where I got it from, but it didn't originate with me. I'm not that creative.