Stephen Faulk

They are cheeky if nothing else.

Thank you very much Dwight. I'm in the process of updating it with new pictures, yesterday I got 6 new photos on the front page slider. Pegheds are a very good product, I've used them on guitars and various small fretted instruments. The Rosewood issue inly effects international travel and shipping. Once you get it in your country bought from a dealer you can use it and travel around. We just don't know yet how it will impact guitar makers. Originally these laws and restrictions were set up to keep big furniture companies from raping the equatorial forests, and that is fine with me. Personally I've never been a rosewood fan, I prefer Cypress guitars over all. But that outs my on the outside as most guitarists only know rosewood. I've begun cutting my own wood on Kyushu or using aged Hinoki timbers from the lumber yard here. And I do use some rosewood, but if I buy it here and from US dealers, and so far no problems. If dealer in the US will ship out to me I usually don't worry to much, some dealers now will not ship rosewood out of the US. Coming into Japan they are looking for weapons and drugs aside from that they don't really seem to care. I have been preparing for the issues with rosewood for several years, I kind of saw it coming. I'm in the group leading the charge to make guitars with non rosewood species. Players are not dumb people, but when it comes to wood they have built in biases for rosewoods. In blind tests it been proven that the players can't tell their rosewood asses from a hole in the ground. All woods that are hard and not super high damping will make a good guitar. This morning with three friends ans two chainsaws I harvested enough wood from a Cinnamon tree to I think make 7 or 8 guitars- depending on how daring thin I can get sawmill boys to slice it tomorrow.

Thanks Dwight, I've used Pegheds on numerous guitars I have built. I like them, but sometimes I get customers who want wood pegs, I prefer wood pegs on my personal guitars too. Jim Bress was kind enough to caliper up some fractional cello pegs when he visited his supplier to himself some goods. I have a lead on 1/8 cello pegs that seems to be pretty close to what I want in size. 70mm shaft - 27 mm tall x 32 mm wide grip. It fits on my template for peg grip clearance...the grips don't get too close when they rotate. I'm going to follow that lead for now. Thanks again Jim!

https://www.internationalviolin.com/Shop/accessories-bridges-chinrests-endpins-fingerboards-tailpieces-and-more/pegs/cello-pegs The fractional cello pegs might work, unless there are bass viola pegs ... I say that's a joke son. But I have to call them and ask someone to put calipers on pegs until I find one I think might work. The last place I called got all pissy with that.

Eric Meyer will make them for you exactly to order his pegs are really a cut above just about anything. http://www.meyerfittings.com I'm saving this option for when I have more shop budget to allocate to pegs. I know he does great work. I was thinking there might be a peg size I overlooked, like a gamba peg of whatever. 1/2 or smaller sized cello pegs might be an option. I know about the Indian peg makers, too. The problem is there are no real 'guitar designated'pegs and so few of us make guitars that still use pegs. Viola pegs hae been th ego to pegs size for those of us to make peg head flamenco guitars, but the size of the grip would scale and work much better if it were about 4 or 5 mm wider and longer. Just my opinion. I don't have a nice lathe right now, I have an old Sears pen makers lathe, it has no guts, no power. It will turn pegs, but it's no fun nursing the lathe along. So until I get my own lathe or have someone turn a custom a pattern for me I'll be buying pegs. Buying the pegs always makes me nervous because some commercially turned pegs have shorter shafts and the pegs look stubby when mounted on the headstock. Last time i had to buy two dozen pegs to make sure I had 12 with long shafts because the person on the phone was pissed I asked them to compare shaft lengths and said it was too much trouble. So I just paid for double to get six pegs each for two guitars. For a viola the shaft size is not a critical because the pegs are made with viola peg boxes in mind, for a flamenco guitar to look really beautiful and have the best aesthetic the shaft needs to be longer and the grip a bit bigger, but still have 7 to 7.5 mm diameter shaft on the string side of the peg head. It means a custom peg slightly longer and bigger gripped than a viola peg, but we settle for viola pegs when we can't turn them ourselves. I have to make two peg head guitars, like last week.

It is a Lute or an oud? If an oud to Mike's Oud Forums- if a Lute go to the Lute Forum http://lutegroup.ning.com/forum?feed=yes&xn_auth=no The individual who know the most, who and is not a hawk dealer, and speaks English is Richard Handkey, he lives in Washington. His nick name is Dr.Oud. He has written the only book about oud construction in English and is a helpful person. He is an expert on the history of the oud and is not really a dealer so his opinion will be dispassionate- I would go to him first. He would be the one to recommend a venue for sale. I'd also offer to pay him for his opinion, he may decline, but it would proper to offer compensation. A search engine query on 'Dr. Oud Richard Handkey' should find him pretty fast. If not PM me for his email. I can tell you a few things- If it was an oud converted to a lute by Dolmetsch it will be in an odd category- kind of no mans land at this point. Depending on the stringing and tuning it could still be more or less an oud. Medieval lute and oud are somewhat similar and I could see an oud being fretted with gut frets and played like a Medieval lute, a picture would be fascinating. Lute construction has changed since his day and the lute makers are more tuned into accurate copies of the extant lutes in museums. Oudies on the other hand want instruments over a hundred years old only if they are not adulterated. Or can be set right again to original configuration as an oud. If the original oud is by an important maker or family of makers, and especially if it has an authentic label it could be valuable to collectors, but they'll not be enthusiastic about it having been changed into a lute, or likely buying unless it can be returned to being an oud. If for example the bowl and top are intact and by, just throwing a famous name out there, the Nahat family then it will catch the attention of the oudies crowd. If by a non famous maker or a low level instrument not much interest. If the lute\oud world of players and sellers is not enthusiastic, then perhaps one of the early music societies or museums maybe into it on account of it being altered by Dolmesch who is an important figure. However if it is by an important oud maker then perhaps right thing to do is to have it converted back into an oud as there are fewer and fewer old extant ouds from the important makers before 1920. If it is is by an important oud maker it would really be a service to the scholars of the world to have the information of a proper description and photos. Even if converted to an oud the trappings that Dolmetsch put to it should also me carefully documented for early music scholars. It could have scholarly value to both worlds if by an important maker. If not then probably more value to early music researchers who want more examples of what Dolmetsch did. Not judging Dolmetsch, but I really hope he did not cut into a rare oud. Please let us know what you learn.

Uhgg peg shopping again. I need viola pegs for my flamenco guitars, each guitar gets six. So I buy three sets at a time- This time looking for pegs with largest grips. Or a peg viola sized commercially available that is a hair bigger than average viola peg. Thank you if you have any thoughts on that...

I spotted a Greater Heron-Allen today as I was walking to the shop. He was perched on the wall next on the river scanning the in coming tide for baitfish to descend upon and catch in his voluted beak. Lucky I had me birders notebook with me and I recorded the citing in the log section. #304 citing of a Greater Heron-Allen. It never becomes routine, each Greater Heron-Allen is a thrill to behold.

No show me a web link to images or methods. I'm game to look at anything. But the Spanish style work stays Spanish - other styles of decor I can use on other kinds of guitars.

Not totally violin related, but about guitar rosettes- "Is that a sticker?" Err, no. I had that question asked so many times I had to make a demonstration kit that had the rosette parts and a piece of top with the channel cut so I could explain with props how it is done. There is a very good professional player in Wash DC who decided that would be a funny running joke. He's been calling my rosettes stickers for several years further extending the ability of beginners and non builders to misunderstand that it's inlaid wood and not a sticker.

You may, but I don't know if you can. My grandfather seemed to think that answer was funny.

Which did not discourage you from stringing them along.

You should my D bouts sometime, even Groucho was impressed.

A glairing oversight by customer,

I've seen the Takacs play Beethoven. yeah kind of mind blowing.

Conor , Nathan, Thank you both for the info. Sounds like this wood will make an instrument, but it is very plain wood. I guess the key is to make the back thick enough not to stress under the loading of the post, but not much thicker than that.

Yeah I know which poplar you're taking about. I call The Home Depot Poplar, calling it tulipwood reminds me of too many Liberace jokes. The Hinoki is more like Italian Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens Hinoki is a Pacific rim cypress family a bit softer than Italian cypress. I sometimes wonder if some old Italian celli have backs of Cypress, or even a top if it was straight grained and less dense. The wood can look like Pear wood in some cases. I have cypress that could be taken as friut wood under varnish after many years.

This wood was ten years old when I got it and I've kept it for two years, so I'm thinking it's ready to build with. It's perfectly quartered. I also reworked my cello mold last year to the dimensions of the Davidoff, previously it was a Stradish pattern, but widened and that may not have been a good idea. I tried to make the first cello more to my own pattern and arching, now I figure it might be a good time to submit to coloring inside the lines. Not that the first one was terrible, just a bit to wide for the pattern.

I'm thinking of beginning another cello with a back and side set I cut from Hinoki. I was wondering from those who have made Poplar or Willow backed violas and celli how they would explain the hardness of the wood they choose from those species? And how much thicker they would make the back than a maple back? Next question, did you graft a soundpost patch of maple to give the soundpost a harder less imprintable landing zone? I'm trying to determine if the Hinkoki is harder of softer than a back that most people would venture for a cello. That said, one should know that Hinoki is variable in hardness depending on where and how fast it grows. I'm also basing this on having seen a Testore cello with a spruce back that worked just fine.

DGSR- thanks for checking, and asking the cited persons their opinions on this matter. I removed the names which were used in quotation in my post .

I took a long break to save sensitive violin makers from seeing the cowbell guitars I make.

I'm sensing sarcasm here, I think, maybe.

That stuff Carl said means he just "mouth farted" which he does often, and I've forgotten how charming it it can be. Realistically I don't want this material. On bridge design on the kinds of guitars I and many others make, the design of the bridge and it's relationship to the top is much more important than depending on the saddle to make significant increases in sound quality. I make the saddle a specific weight for the kind of guitar and sound I want, that could mean a bridge that weighs between 13 and 25 or 26 grams before the saddle. A few grams heavier of lighter, and adjustments to the wings of the bridge to make it more or less rigid, is where sound is shaped. Gaining a few tenths of a gram less weight on a saddle is not that big a deal to me. And I can compensate bridge design and weight to hit certain weight targets with the saddle, which on my guitars usually weighs 2 grams, by making the bridge heavier of lighter. The point that is being missed in terms of nylon string guitar making, what I do, is that the bridge is a brace. The bridge is a brace. Repeat that. The bridge is designed to brace the top across the grain and exert control over the top. It does not have to be 7" long to get enough glue surface, 4" x 1" is more than enough glue surface to secure the bridge, so the whole 7-1/4" long by 1- 1/16th wide bridge with its saddle mound and tie block is a factor that sets up how the guitar sounds. The saddle material can moderate that somewhat, but the saddle is not a magic bullet. I've made saddles out of plexiglass carbon fiber, hardwoods, aluminum, brass just to see how it sounds- bone works best even though the the other materials make the guitar sound different. We also don't really want super dense materials that transmit the overtone series to the max because it makes the guitar too noisy with overtones and the guitar will sound too complicated when high partials are clashing with fundamentals in an over active way. Bone seems to filter the high partials in a very pleasing way when the guitar is built well around the bridge, braces and top thickness- the saddle does what it needs to do and bone creates a warm rich sound palette that is not prone to feature overtones in a way in which the guitar becomes too stuck in the high partial weeds. I cannot speak to steel string makers needs, but as repairer of steel I would leave it up to the player to deal directly if they want another kind of saddle. I'm not interested in very many proprietary products if I can't use in my own shop in the traditional manner. If I were, probably baked woods are the product I'm interested in.. The other obvious thing is that most of these folks are violin makers and steel string guitar chat is probably not going to prove anything here. Popcorn anyone? I have a large bowl.

I have been avoiding MN as if it were a dangerous wounded animal in the forest, but had to sign in to announce that I have made a fresh big bowl of popcorn.

I've gone through three of these since high school- Optivisor brand- https://www.amazon.com/Donegan-Optical-OptiVISOR-Headband-Magnifier/dp/B0068OSIIS I was just trying to get something that looks more "doctory" and does not have that headband style.