Recent content by Violent5

Well for me the jury is still out. I suspect the material plays a role (hence the original experiment) and a difference can be heard in the recordings I made. It's subtle but its there. There is no doubt the tusq has a muddier, bassier quality while the ivory has more clarity, less bass and...

Its almost finished. I need to make the truss rod cover and put the pickguard on. I'm just enjoying it for a few days first. It actually plays really well and feels very similar to my j45 I took measurements from to make the neck. Tone wise I was shocked that it sounds as good as it does...

Uh..."This brilliant individual" is still around. Look I'm no luthier, I'm just a guy that likes guitars. My original post was just an experiment nothing more. I prefer a hands on approach to learning so sometimes I try things you might think are stupid. This is my latest experiment, I just...

Yup, I'm with you. I don't know enough about how it will adversely affect the back to justify adding a brace nobody else uses. It seems smarter as a novice builder to stick with tried and true techniques. I think my bro is pretty determined to do it however. I guess we could remove the brace...

Haha I didn't know there was a good chance we'd all be allergic to it, thanks for the heads up. This back is freshly carved and not glued to the sides yet. He thinks its tapped tone pitch needs to be raised. This particular piece of maple has always had a lower, deeper tapped tone than the...

Hey guys I have another dumb question. My brother says he wants to raise the tapped pitch of one of archtop backs he's working on. He thinks adding a brace to the back of the carved maple back will stiffen it and raise its resonant frequency. I told him I didn't think I would do that so he...

Well this project is my first dreadnaught build. It has curly mahogany back and sides with a sitka spruce top. I made a two piece mahogany neck but bought a preslotted fretboard (gibson scale). I just finished binding the body with herringbone and curly maple. For the rosette I used abalone...

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it. I'm going to keep taping and taking notes. For such a simple thing (a wood box) the acoustics of a guitar are complex and mysterious to me. It seems the more I delve into building the less I know but thats what makes it so...

For you guitar builders is tap tuning an essential part of a build? Or is it bs? Anyone have experience tap tuning plates? Do you have any quick advice on the subject? I briefly experimented taping the braces of a back and top plate. Most of the taps on most of the braces would produce a...

Thanks Muttley, thats a good idea. He does own that book but its falling apart. I think I'll replace it for him. He and I have built a handful of guitars, amps and pedals. We're gathering wood now for our next projects.

It doesn't quite have the bass response of my gibson acoustic but I really like what it does. I used it in this song just to try it out if you want to hear the guitar. For one of the guitar tracks I used the light half of a pack of strings for a twelve string on it and left if slightly...

I got this My brother built it for me. It's got a hand carved top and back. The back and sides are mahogany, the top is spruce. The inlay is hand made buddist mudra hand symbols and my initials. The bridge is temporary until we make a one piece. Cool brother eh?

Yeah the nut material effects the tone also. People say peg material does too but all I have here is plastic and I'd have to hear it to believe it. To my ear the mammoth ivory saddle sounds a little more complex than the synthetic tusq. I think the tusq sounds louder when I'm sitting here...

I was goofing around with saddles this morning and did a little recording. I used a 2003 J-45 for the recordings. I swapped out a fossilized mammoth ivory saddle and a tusq saddle and played the same bits. I didn't do anything fancy. I just brought the levels up and hit record then swapped...

Thanks qvarko, yeah I made the neck. I duplicated the contour of my American Standard's neck but went with a 12" radius ebony fingerboard rather than the rosewood 9-1/2. I probably have as much time in the inlay as I do in actually making the neck.