Archive for March, 2009

Dan Kabanuk  from LMI suggested to me one morning that I should try a set of “Lacewood”,he said that the Timber had originally been sourced for solid body Electric Guitar Tops because of its unusual figure.

He described the Timber as having  an outstanding cross-hatched figure, in a warm cinnamon brown color, the wood was dense and had a loud sustaining tap tone,and it had occurred to someone at LMI that it just might make a great ,back and side set,and so it turned out. I said,”send a set over”

Bent Lacewood on Festool worktable

The set sent to me was for a Parlor size Guitar, (I had not specified what size Guitar set I wanted),however, and quite coincidentaly, it had occurred to me ,that from the pictures that I had see , the Timber would lend itself to a Parlor style Guitar.

One morning, about a week later ,I was staring at quite the most interesting and beautiful timber that I had seen for a long time and so I got to work ,straight away (without taking Pictures of the set in it “Natural”,state), and bent the sides, selected a backstrip and stuck the back together.

It was after I had done this that the concept of a ”SHOWCASE” occured to me.

No Matter– I took some pictures and have “put up” a couple of shots with this post, which shows  the “Lacewood”,  after the sides had been bent and the back Joined, ready for the project to move into the next phase of the building process, as “SP3.”

Just look at the delicate pattern in the timber, it just looks like lace. The Photo below is a Macro Picture of the Timber and gives a very good idea of the Grain orientation and the Peacock eyelets that runs throughout the set.

.To the left is the joined back

CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND MOVE THE ENLARGED PICTURE AROUND THE SITE

Directly under this is the MACRO Picture of the wood

Bent Lacewood Pair of sides

All of the staff at LMI, Luthiers Mercantile International Inc. have played a large part in encouraging and assisting me in establishing Valleys Guitars, in the early stages they patiently listened to my ramblings,about what I wanted to achieve and tendered advice on a whole range of things from what basic equipment I would need to wood selection and various and many questions from me of one sort or the other.In particular Dan Kabanuck became my mentor, (so to speak),his whole demeanor however belied, what in fact was on the other end of the phone,  I imagined Dan as a conservative 35 to 40 year old, sales consultant that went home to a wife and Kids and possibly the most exciting thing that he got up to in his spare time was the occasional Gig at a Local community event or just,but very occasionally, at the local bar.

Was I in for a shock, Dan all you out there, is a “head banger” in a popular and up and coming HEAVY METAL BAND called  AFTERTAYST-– take a look at this Picture of mild

mannered Dan playing a Local Gig.

I nearly fell out of my tree when I saw this Picture —- but folks I am here to tell you that they get worse!!!!

Well I told you that there was more to come — LOOK AT THIS — our friendly Salesperson, “The Luthiers Best Friend”,  turns into a devil, still playing that Les Paul Standard and looking just as intimidating as in the first shot. The only question that comes to mind is, how does he get all that muck off?

THERE IS MORE TO COME AND IT GETS WORSE!!!!!!!!! BUT just before they do there is also a soft side here he is as the Christmas Fairy.

Dan is also a Luthier as are a lot of the staff at LMI, here is a picture of Dan holding a highly figured Maple topped Guitar built by Dan in the Les Paul style.

A new and very exciting addition to the Equipment in the my shop is Vacuum equipment both for holding Work in Festools fantastic Vacuum equipment or sticking or “Gluing up” Work, like the Fingerboard to the neck of a Guitar, veneers to the front and back of the headstock and the Gluing of Braces to the Back and Tops of Guitars.This can now be achieved by the use of very  Specialized  Vacuum Cabinets made by Quality VAKuum Products Inc.

Over the next few weeks I will take you through the shop and introduce you to this equipment and show you how I use it in Practice. It’s both convenient to use, allowing the Luthier much better asses to the work and time saving in a number of ways, one in particular is that the drying time for a yellow glue joints is cut by 2/3 if the joint is glued in a Vacuum drying Cabinet.

Of interest, expand the picture on the left ,underneath this paragraph and see just how powerful the suction from this Festool unit is. The jig is made from 16 mm high density board,( the board is only slightly porous) but enough to not only hold the jig in place, but it is also holding the Mahogany neck blank up ,in place in the jig, against the perspex and ready for routing—-now that’s GOOD—-you would have to agree! 

Festool Vacuum equipment has saved me may hours of time in the shop,holding by Vacuum, ALL manner of Guitar parts such as the neck Jig being held , vertically in the picture on the left.

Different heads can be added to hold necks for shaping,bodies for binding, the list of uses just goes on. There are ,of course, other manufactures in the Market, I use Quality VAKuum Products,Inc.–NU-Matic Air Powered systems and Pressing cabinets for Fingerboard,veneer and front and back brace glueing for the best and completely even gluing, in 1/3 the time —  MORE ON THIS TECKNIQUE IN A LATER BLOG —- However, I just can’t help myself and have included a picture  of the vacuum cabinet that I use in the shop, to the right of the cabinet is the vacuum unit that is compressor driven,as I have said more on this later.

Inside the shop This is the inside of my shop

It was  very important to me that if I was to continue with my PASSION with Guitars, that elusive search for the perfect sound, the excitement of looking at and handling the exotic and exquisite timbers that Luthiers are lucky enough to have accesses to and the never ending endeavor to build the perfect guitar,then I had to build my “Shop” in the right environment, with the right materials so that the “Shop” was enivating to work in. Finally that I could have access to State of the Art Equipment.

I want to make it quite clear that as a boutique builder,I believe that ALL of the Instrument has to be made by the Luthier and the use of State of the Art Equipment does not mean the use of CNC equipment. I cannot see how a Luthier can have a synergy with the instrument the he is making unless there is a constant  tactile relationship with the Guitar that he is making.

All of this was a big ask, however:

I was very lucky, I lived on a Property  in the beautiful Adelaide Hillson the Property was a very large (Eight Car ) Garage that was not being used (for cars), This was the perfect environment in which to Build my “Shop”,so I let a contract to Local Builder, off came the roller doors and  and work started   at the Valleys where I could concentrate on building a “Shop” in which I could start building the finest Custom Built Acoustic Guitars  possible.

It was important to me that there were certain  features included in the building,there had to be plenty of electrical points and central suspended electrical circuits,a two pack Poly floor,Wood stained windows,Air conditioning,Full sawdust extraction and the woodworking machinery had to be “State of the Art”.

I will develop under the “Tools” blog/catogary,for the equipment that I chose ,the reasons for the choices that I made and just how those Choices  made my life easier and in so, doing allowed me too develop my creative side, whilst still keeping up production.

The Picture on the left shows part of the finished “Shop”, if you look closely in the middle of the facing wall you can see the pneumatic air outlet and filter, also hanging from the roof can be see a suspended electrical plug (very handy).

Just as a clue as to what I have in mind, let me say that I decided very early in the planning of the Project that Festool and their modular system approach to Woodwork was going to perform a major role in my shop and I would use their Fabulous  equipment when and wherever I could. In this regard I was lucky to have access to a Carba-Tec store.

Living in Adelaide Carba-Tec is situated on Magil Rd. but they have stores in most states and if you have not been there THEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING!

CLICK ON ALL THE PICTURED TO OPEN A FULL FRAME VIEW

17" Band Saw

Back/Front Joining Jig

view across shop

Festool portable Tool safe