Nuts!

I got the Tigra Mhor (Jumbo) and Meilein Parlor guitar back from my man David Wilson last week all beautiful and shinny. They have had strings on for a week now and had a fret dress, so now it's time to set them up.

This is how I do my nuts. I use bone as standard, I have used Corian which is great however a little brittle for nuts on the bass side.

I first cut a rough blank for 6mm by 8mm stock, then use the magic half pencil to give the exact string base height.

Then the spacing, as with everything it has it be perfect. Equal space between stings is marked out and slots cut using my fancy nut saws. Files are a nightmare I could never get the slots to the correct width but these things are great they come in all the gauge sizes and cut a perfect round bottomed slot.

Next the nut is checked for correct break angles and for no pinching, then sized and polished.

After this is done the saddle is intonated and the parlor guitar set up. I'll go through that bit another time, its a lengthy process.

You Tube

I've put some videos of Toby Mottershead (the lead man from the infamous Black Diamond Express) up on You Tube for everyone. He's playing a new Indian Taran Beag, the sound was recorded by Robbie Wills. Toby played a great version of Roll & Tumble, quite a few folky numbers and some slow blues. 

See what you think and let me know.

I've got my website ready, I'm just waiting for a few things and than it will be up, I'm very excited!

New Wood

I've just got some Caucasian Spruce (Picea Orientalis) in. I've been reading alot about this stuff & wanted to see for myself if its true. 'Caucasian Spruce is native to the Caucasus and adjacent northeast Turkey'. Its got a very good weight to strength (stiffness) ratio. For tonewoods its cut high in the mountains on north facing slopes, because the growing season is short the annular growth ring count per inch is high making it very stiff. I'm going to use it on a few new guitars to see what it's like. I'm very excited! I've also got some British Columbine Sitka & Western Red Cedar which I'll be testing along side my European Spruce.


Here's some of my Honduras Rosewood. This is remarkable stuff it's got the tap tone of a piece of metal. Its little lighter than Cocobolo but a lot easier on the hands. Cocobolo is bad for my hands & the dust is toxic so I won't be using it again.

I'm still trying to track down some Scottish Sycamore as I would like to use some native hardwood in my work, however its hard to come across quality stock. But for now here's some of my Rippled European Maple. This stuff is beautiful in every way, I put one of the plates though the sanding master so you can see the Ripple. This set has Parlor Guitar written all over it, what do you think?

And lastly some European Walnut (Juglans Regia) not to be confused with American Black walnut (Juglans Nigra). The two are similar however European is a little more stable than American although not quite as dense its got a more interesting grain pattern. I don't have a favorite & use both for different reasons. You get a wonderfully warm mellow tone from Walnut, similar to Mahogany but with more depth.

Hofner Club 50

I've just finished restoring a 1958 Hofner Club 50. When it was dropped off it had no hardware apart from the pickups and was in desperate need of a re-fret and finish touch up. The control panel hole had been enlarged for some unknown reason so I made a Rosewood plate for it to sit on. Worked very well don't you think. The re-fret went really well bringing to whole instrument back to life.
The owner said that he plugged it into his value amp & could have been in the Beatles.
I always love bring these old instruments back to life.