Category: Lutherie

Categories
Consumer Electronics Lutherie Musical Instruments

Buys at the Livonia Swap Meet

So this morning I went to another swap meet. This one is sponsored by the Livonia Amateur Radio Club in Livonia, Michigan. It is an annual one that I always attend, and while about 75% of the items for sale are related to ham and amateur radio enthusiasts, the remaining 25% is made up of computers, consumer electronics, and musical instrument items. Forty years ago, there would be swap meets like this at least once per month in the area. These days, I only know of this one and the antique radio swap meet I hit last month, so finding needed electronic parts is getting difficult.

I picked up a few things that made it worth the trip. First off, I secured a brand-new Shure SM48 microphone for $25.00. I made sure to hand-weigh it to make sure it was the real thing and not one of those fake ones coming out of China (see my blog https://luegra.design.blog/2021/01/14/are-you-sure-that-its-a-shure/). For those who are unaware, the SM48 is a more budget-friendly version of the stalwart SM58. The frequency response is a little less bass responsive, but still does a great job as a dynamic vocal mic. I’m not sure if they are made any more, but they used to run for about $70.00 new, and I see online that used ones are going for about $30.00. Beware of ones advertised as new on Temu, Wish, or eBay for less than that, as they are fake Shure microphones.

I snagged a microphone shock mount in a bundle package with a 1970s-era AM bicycle radio from Radio Shack. I already have a shock mount, but for a few dollars, it was worth buying to have around, or perhaps selling for a buck or two more on Craigslist. The radio is one that I wanted as a kid for my bike. Back then, to have any accessory on your bike was cool, and a radio was one of the ultimate blings! Besides the AM band, it had a horn and reflector. It is missing the handle-bar mount, but it will look cool in my transistor radio collection.

One item that I was planning on getting from Harbor Freight soon is a U.S. General Mini Toolbox. I have been seeing positive reviews for these on YouTube. It has two drawers and a flip top, all with pads to store smaller tools and items without them banging around. The drawers have a magnetic closure so they won’t open if the box gets tilted. One vendor there had a few new ones for $15.00, which is a few dollars cheaper than what Harbor Freight regularly sells them at (I was waiting around for a sale). This will make a great way to store some of my luthier tools that are currently in a large tote, as well as small containers that hold screws and electronic parts.

There were two musical instrument vendors there, which I often see at the other swap meets that I attend. All of the items that they sell are too much for my wallet, pretty much going for what can be seen on eBay. There were also some other microphones that I would have considered if the prices were right. I enjoy hitting these events, but I have some complaints:
-Setting up the vendor tables with too narrow of aisles, so it becomes hard to move along when there are others stopping to look at items.
-People with backpacks that make it even more difficult to get through an aisle
-People that bring their kids, especially infants in strollers that literally take up the entire aisle, so you have to wait at the end until the inconsiderate grandpa pushes the stroller through.
-People who decide to stop and have a conversation with each other in one of the aisles instead of moving into an open area along the wall of the hall.
-People who decide to have a cup of coffee without a cover while walking the narrow aisles, and when bumped, the coffee spills, usually on me!

I hope to hit the Lansing Guitar Show on the weekend of March 7-8. On March 9th, I start a new job as a valet/porter at a car dealership. Working at a logistics company for the last five years has been a drain on my mental well-being, and I’m willing to take a cut in pay and change my hours to get back my mental (and physical) health back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Banjo Lutherie

Tetomas Banjo/Guitar Mat

Over the summer, my nephew helped clean up my back yard of overgrown brush. For payment, instead of money, he asked for my banjo. It was a J.B.Player model, sort of an intermediate banjo with basic parts but did have the more professional tuning gears on it, not the cheaper acoustic guitar style tuners found on an entry-level banjo. I had not picked it up to practice in a long while, so I felt it was a decent trade. I gave him the banjo and all of the instructional books and videos that I had laying around. A few months later, I had the inkling to pick it up again, but alas, it was gone.

Last week, I was updating some of my Craigslist ads, when I decided to peruse the Music Instrument category. There was an ad for a Tetomas brand banjo with the better tuning gears. Most of the banjos I have seen on CL are usually the beginner models, or occasionally a professional ones costing way too much for my wallet. The seller was a guitarist that had it sitting around and wanted to get rid of it. For the price asking ($60.00), I figured that it might be worth a shot. I contacted him and bought it a few hours later.

Tetomas was a musical instrument brand made in Japan in the 1970s, producing mostly acoustic guitars, but as I see, other instruments like banjos. There isn’t much information available on Tetomas on the internet, so my assumption is that it is like the import brands like Glarry or Ktaxon is for beginners today. I was surprised to see that this had some care put into its construction, especially with the tuning gears. The tone ring and pot of the instrument are pretty basic, so again, it was probably meant for an intermediate market.

Whether it was the seller or someone else, the banjo was set up pretty bad. Two of the strings were wound on the tuners in reverse direction, and the bridge was way out of place. After adjusting the bridge, it came to life. The sound is good, definitely not of the quality tone like a Stelling or Gibson, but can cut through with a good bite when picked three-finger style. When played clawhammer style, it can be pretty loud. I went and bought some new strings (which I will put on soon) and some finger/thumb picks. It felt good to play the simple tunes like “Bile Them Cabbage Down” again. I will be picking up a strap and gig bag shortly, but I do plan on keeping it within reach while watching television to see what comes out of it.

A really good find I purchased at the Dollar Tree recently has proven to be a lifesaver in my luthier work. The store sells these garden knee pads for relief when kneeling while working in the yard. They are about 17×11 inches, made of a semi-hard foam with some rib texture on the surface. This is perfect for laying a musical instrument on while working on it, as it holds the instrument without slipping but doesn’t scratch. The cost was $1.50, well worth it I think. I have already gotten a lot of use from it while working on my next guitar build project, as I can fine sand the guitar body on it with out the body moving around, and doesn’t leave any scratch marks. I have a bigger guitar bench top that I use when I’m doing setups, but this little pad is perfect for the jobs like just working on a body or neck on its own.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie

“Fake Neck” for Guitar Finishing

For my next guitar kit build, I plan on finishing the body with only multiple coats of Tru-oil. The Strat body from this kit (from Leo Jaymz) is one piece, and has some great visible grain that I would not want to cover with paint nor stain it a different shade.

On the previous kit, I had a tough time oil finishing the body on a bench, as laying it on one side while trying to coat the flipside meant that you had to let it dry for at least a day before flipping. I attempted to hang the body from a hangman-type device I built. This meant that I could not get a good grip on the body, and I had to do it outside because of the size of the device. As it is now winter, and I don’t want to wait to get started on the build.

I happened to watch a few YouTube videos on guitar finishing, and on one of them, the luthier had taken a scrap piece of wood, cutting it to fit into the neck slot so that he could clamp it to the workbench. With that, he was able to do the finishing without laying it on the bench, flipping it over, then letting both sides and ends dry with even coats.

I went to a local Home Depot, and since I didn’t find any suitable scrap wood, purchased an 8-foot 1×3 furring strip for under $3.00. I cut a 2-foot piece off (so I can actually make four of these fake necks). I cut a notch on one end 1/2-inch x 4 inches, so that it would fit snug into the neck slot.

I drilled 1/16-inch holes into the slot section of the board, then for securing the fake neck, I’m using two 6-32×2-inch screws and 6-32 wing nuts. The total cost for this comes to less than $3.00 each for the four that I plan to make (keep two, give the others to fellow kit builders). This will definitely prove to be an extremely useful tool when staining and finishing bolt-on guitar bodies. Since I’ll be using Tru-Oil on this next project, I can do all of the work indoors, as Tru-Oil doesn’t have nasty fumes.

I will be heading to Nashville next weekend for the SPBGMA conference, so the weekly blog may be short and/or delayed. I will have a good summary of the conference when I get back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bass Guitar Lutherie

Dean Playmate Bass Guitar

I spent a few weekends over the past month taking a good look and working on the Dean Playmate bass guitar I purchased back in August at the US-12 Longest Yard Sale (https://luegra.design.blog/2025/08/09/us-12-yard-sale-2025-sembma-picnic-2025-misc/). Upon closer inspection, I see that the thing has been through a lot of abuse. I never planned on keeping it, but it would need a lot of work cleaning up to make it playable again.

The first thing I did was remove a bunch of stickers with the help of Goo Gone. That took a lot of elbow grease to be sure, but I was able to get them all off without taking off any paint. The biggest concern with the bass was that the pickguard was not original, but a generic P-bass replacement. Dean had cut a special pickguard for this bass, and whatever happened to it I will never know. I did some research on this bass, and Playmate was made as a low-cost alternative to Dean’s professional line of guitars and basses. This particular bass was made sometime in the 1990s, so I knew that finding an exact pickguard replacement would be impossible.

The replacement pickguard fits over most of the original area, but left a gap right around where the output jack is mounted. I first thought of cutting a special section of pickguard to cover the area, but then did not want to invest much more time and money into the bass, so instead I traced the current pickguard area, filled the uncovered cavity with some wood putty, sanded it down and applied some similar-color artist paint to the area. Not professional, but it does the job, and again, I didn’t want to pour more money into this cheap bass.

The replacement pickguard also had holes drilled for a thumb rest. Again, I didn’t want to invest more money into it, as a plastic rest would have cost around $10.00 plus shipping if I ordered it. Instead, I cut a piece of hardwood to fit, painted it with a Sharpie pen, and it serves the purpose.

Setting it up for playing was another story. The bridge saddles were set up totally opposite to what should be for a guitar, in that, if you look at the saddle placement on a typical bass, the E string saddle is usually set back a bit farther than the G string saddle, with the A and D string saddles compensated likewise. This one had the G saddle adjusted way back, and sure enough, the intonation was off considerably. As I said before, this bass must have been though a lot of sweaty hands, and the bridge/saddle area was full of surface rust. I cleaned it off as best that I could, and adjusted the saddles for better (not perfect) intonation. The screws and springs on the bridge were heavily corroded, so even with the best of cleaning, there is still some corrosion showing. It would be too much cost to replace with a similar bridge.

Looking back, I paid a bit more than I should have for this bass, and perhaps I should have given it a better once-over before handing over the money. Dean has a good reputation for its guitar lineup, but this one is over 20 years old, and the Playmate series today just consists of an acoustic bass guitar. Used Playmate solidbody basses from the previous few years go for about $150.00, give or take a sawbuck. As I said, I don’t plan on keeping it, and from the original cost I paid, along with the time and pocket change I invested, I figure that I will be losing some money on this. If I don’t sell it within the next year, I’ll probably hand it off to some young kid interested in learning the bass. It did teach me a few things about buying used equipment, as well as working on guitars that I haven’t done before.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Home Recording Lutherie Songwriting

My 2025 in Review

Taking a look back at 2025, there are a few things that I learned about what I do related to music, both positive and negative. Here are some thoughts:

Freelance writing – I pretty much confirmed earlier this year that my last regular freelance writing gig dissolved. Fiddler Magazine hasn’t published online in over a year, and the print version left us about two years ago. I still have not heard back from the editor/publisher regarding what has happened, and I received a Christmas card form the former editor Mary Larsen checking in, which I truly appreciated. I am not sure how much more I will keep freelancing, as it is extremely difficult to find paying gigs thanks to AI. So many publications are folding, going online, or just keep their few contributing writers on. I loved writing, interviewing artists, reviewing releases, and networking. However, that outlet is drying up fast, and there is little motivation to pursue it further. This blog will at least keep my writing chops up.

Cirrus Guitars – After 40+ years of playing guitar, bass, and a few other instruments as a hobby and live on stage, it was exciting to have a guitar specially built for me. While my specifications were not elaborate, I loved the fact that it was my choice of what went into that acoustic guitar. The wait of three months was well worth it. Mike Frank at Cirrus was such a great person to work with, keeping me updated on the progress. My Martin D-28 is still my wife, but playing the shorter-scale Cirrus acoustic has got me playing bluegrass flatpicking leads a little easier.

Lutherie – While I’ve always done a lot of basic maintenance on my guitars, and have done simple modifications throughout the years, this year, I did a lot more hands-on work with repairs and building. It started with a major repair to a mandolin late last year that worked out well, and now getting DIY guitar kits that I could finish on my own. My first kit taught me a lot, especially with finishes and knowing that it takes a lot of time to get a good look. I have a few more kits that I got good deals on, including a P-bass kit that I plan to do a pickup modification. Another positive experience from this work is that I motivated a co-worker to get into the guitar-building hobby. She has done previous woodworking, but was so impressed with my last job that she has jumped right in. I got her a simple Tele-style kit, and within days, she was already staining the body. It does my heart good.

Suno.com – Now that I am recording my song demos on an 8-track digital recorder, I can do a lot more instrumental and vocal layering. When I was talking to Brent Baxter from SongwritingPro.com during my last trip to Nashville, he was praising Suno for its AI embellishing simple demos to sound like a studio recording. I joined Suno at their basic $10/month rate. This only allows you to upload a song and do basic editing of length. I decided to go for the Premium Studio rate at $200/year. Well, I downloaded a basic guitar/vocal song, and was not happy with with the results. First off, if you don’t have the most up-to-date computer (you cannot use it on a phone app), you cannot get into the Studio application. Next, it uploaded the lyrics it sensed, which were incorrect in a few places, but there was no way to correct them. Finally, this song is a fast-paced bluegrass number, but the Studio application (when I was able to get in) turned it into a mid-tempo pop-country number. I am totally disappointed with this program, and I am out $200 unless I get a better computer, which isn’t likely for a while. In short, Suno seems to be set up for people who write lyrics and need a ready-made studio band to put music on his/her words.
For 2026, I plan to do more guitar-kit building, songwriting and recording, hopefully more co-writing, and as a non-related goal, find another full-time job that is not as stressful as my current one.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2026 will be prosperous for all. Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Acoustic Guitars Lutherie

Tone Traveler/ToneRite – Are They Worth It?

Have you ever heard of the Tone Traveler? How about the ToneRite? While these products have been around for a few years, they (especially the Tone Traveler) have been in the acoustic guitar news as of late.

Their purpose is to “break in” a brand-new acoustic guitar so that it has the sound and characteristics of a well-worn model. The device basically vibrates the strings by attaching it to the bridge/saddle, let it run for a few hours (even days), which is supposed to translate into months/years of breaking in the guitar so that the wood stretches in its expected way in relation to the strings. The Tone Traveler looks like a microphone head capsule or a small Bluetooth speaker, with the ToneRite module is a square piece about the size of a large pack of gum. Both are plugged in to a power source to operate.

There are a number of reviews of these devices on YouTube, mostly with positive reviews. The player will leave them on for a few hours, then proceed to show before and after video clips. Some show the devices working, which vibrates all six strings by self-vibrating or producing specific tones. Think about how it sounds when you pluck all six strings without forming a chord. Now imagine that dissonant sound going for hours, even days! A few reviewers have said that they put it in another room (or in the basement) with the door closed so as to muffle the irritating sound.

With that said, by listening to the before/after results on both my laptop and phone speakers, I heard absolutely no differences. I don’t plan on hooking up the computer ot a stereo sound system to try and decipher the changes. I guess that one would have to be sitting in front of the guitar’s soundhole to shear any differences.

As readers may know, I recently purchased a Cirrus acoustic guitar. I also have a 1991 Martin D-28, the Sevillana 2208 dreadnought, my Blueridge dreadnaught dating probably from the late 1980s, and a few other lower-cost models. Each has its own distinct tone, but not as diverse as, say, a Gibson Les Paul humbucker and a Fender Stratocaster single-coil played through the same amp. However, there are differences in the woods used, the scale length, and size of the body. Even the string gauge can affect the sound.

The argument for one of these products is that a new guitar sounds too new, not broken in. Yes, that may be true, but is spending $150-$250 just to break in the guitar more important instead of actually playing it for a few months? With my new Cirrus, I want to break it in myself, like raising my son or daughter. The change in sound will be subtle over the months/years, and it will be your work, not some plug-in device.

If the “aging” is that important to anyone, I can perhaps see a guitar dealer or luthier using one of these products to break in the new guitars in their showrooms. It can be a selling point to a customer. However, customers rarely buy more than one guitar at at time, and don’t trade in or buy another for years. It seems to buy one of these for a one-time use and put it away for years may not be worth it. It’s not like a tuner or string winder that will be used often.

I plan to spend a bit more time researching these items and what they actually do. If vibrations is their main purpose, I am wondering if the use of a vibrating hand or body massager laid over the bridge/saddle can serve the same purpose for a lot less money (and has another use, of course). If it is tone generator-oriented, perhaps building a cheap tone generator (there are kits out there) may work.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Electric Guitars Lutherie

Shielding an Electric Guitar Body

So after cleaning up the residue from the gigbag on the Ambertone Strat, I let the solvent dry for a few days and the proceeded to put shielding into the body cavity in order to get rid of some of the RF (radio frequency) noise generated by single-coil pickups.

A very short explanation: Just about every electronic device generates RF noise in some way or another. Televisions, appliances, calculators (fun trick – if you have an old working LED calculator, turn on an AM radio, tune it to the lower end frequencies, then hold to calculator next to it and start hitting keys, you should hear some weird noises from the radio), and electric guitars all give off some RF noise. You may hear that 60 Hz buzz through your amp if the amp is not properly grounded. Most guitars with humbucker pickups cancel out much of that hum (along with a quality guitar cord), hence the name. Single-coil pickups do not have the same kind of pickup winding, so the noise is much more apparent, and is why many guitarists like to install a metal cage in the cavity to cancel out much of that noise.

There are two popular ways to shield the cavity. The first is coating the cavity with a conductive paint, available through guitar part supply shops such as Stewart-McDonald. This is a very easy way to do it, just paint the entire cavity, let it dry, and it is done. This method is a bit more expensive, cannot be used on plastic parts, and can be messy if you are not careful with the paintbrush.

The second way is to line the cavity with thin metal strips. Conductive tape is available in copper and aluminum, and the adhesive backing has some conductive quality, so overlapping the pieces will create a continuous contact. I went this route and purchased a roll of Reflectix aluminum tape from Lowe’s for about $5.00. Note, I saw a YouTube video that one luthier shielded a guitar with simple aluminum foil and 3M adhesive spray, which seems a lot cheaper but one has to make sure that there is still conductivity between pieces as the spray adhesive is not conductive. There is also available aluminum sheets, which can cover the entire back of a pickguard, but is harder to mold into the cavity.

If attempting this job, it is wise to detatch the neck from the body, as I tried to do the project with the neck attached but could not remove the pickguard properly due to a lip on the fretboard where it attached to the body. After getting that out of the way, I first shielded the back of the pickguard. Fortunately, there was already some metal shielding on the underside where the controls are installed, so cutting pieces that eventually contacted this shield would mean a good metal cage effect. I covered as much of the pickguard as possible, making sure to keep it away from the wiring so as to not risk shorting.

I followed up with shielding the Strat jack housing, then proceeded to the pickup/wiring cavity. While it may seem like cutting one or two big pieces and molding them in might be easier, it is not. With the many curves and crevices in the cavity, it was better to cut small pieces and pressing in/overlapping each piece. Press the pieces in firmly so that it stays put. In a few spots, I left a lip of foil come over so that it comes in contact with the foil on the pickguard.

After shielding the pickguard and cavity, I checked for conductivity with a multimeter tester. I recommend anyone doing guitar work to get one of these, which small consumer ones can be had for less than $20.00. Besides checking for conductivity, it can be used to check battery and house wall outlet voltage when needed. The entire shielding checked out as solid.

Once finished, I put the guitar back together and tested it out. Dang! No signal at all! It turns out that within the jack housing, the area is so tight that there is a small indentation in the wood for the plug to insert all of the way, and I had covered it with foil, Once I cleaned out that area, I reinstalled the jack and tested it again, this time getting a signal.

The result? The buzzing hum was cut out probably 80%. Not bad, really. Because the single-coil pickups on this guitar kit were cheaply made in Asia somewhere, they won’t have the same quality output as a Dimarzio, EMG, or even a stock Fender pickup. However, I was happy that most of the RF noise was cut out, and this guitar is definitely playable through any amplifier without much buzz. As far as the roll of aluminum tape, I used only about half of it, so I can shield another guitar when needed. Not bad for $2.50 in supplies and a few hours work while watching football on TV.

If you have an electric guitar that is kicking out RF buzz when plugged into an amp, especially when flourescent lights or other appliances are on, I recommend this inexpensive project to help out. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that show how easy it is to do. If too afraid of taking apart your guitar, a good guitar repairman should have no problem handling it.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie

The Fesley Guitar is Finished!

A day late, but I have a few excuses. First off, because of the holiday weekend and I chose to stay home, a friend asked me to watch her dog while she went to her cottage. A big dog, so I couldn’t bring her to my house, so I was over there a few times each day to feed her and take her outside.

Secondly, I spent the little bit of free time to finish my kit guitar. Yes, after months of plodding along doing a little at a time each weekend, this weekend I put all of the hardware on, mounted the neck to the body, and did the whole set up. This was the Fesley Stratocaster kit I purchased back in May of 2024. I really didn’t start working on it until this past January, and had a few bumps in the road with finishing the body. The final finish has a distressed look with shades of light blue.

After putting the hardware on, which was relatively easy, especially with Fesley providing a thorough instruction manual, I got into the set-up, which I have always enjoyed doing with all of my guitars since I started playing over 40 years ago. For anyone starting off playing guitar or any other stringed instrument, you will never realize how important a good set-up is until it is performed. On an electric guitar, this includes neck bowing adjustment, string height, and intonation/adjusting the bridge saddles. I have discussed guitar maintenance before, and I highly recommend anyone even a little bit interested in playing guitar regularly to be familiar with what goes on, Watch YouTube videos as well as secure a good guitar maintenance/repair book like Guitar Setup & Maintenance by Chad Johnson (Hal Leonard Publishing ISBN 978-1-4584-1824-1).

Once fully set up, I plugged her into an amp to test her out. This kit happened to be pre-wired, so the pickups, switch, volume/tone controls and wiring was already complete – all I had to do was drop the wired pickguard into place. The pickups give off a good Strat sound, although are a bit noisy when a single pickup is switched on. I plan to take the pickguard off soon and line the body cavity with some aluminum foil tape to hopefully suppress some of the buzz. In the 2 and 4 switch positions, which combines either the neck/middle pickups or the middle/bridge pickups, the noise cancels out, and it was a nice warm sound. These two settings have always been my favorite on a Strat, giving off a glassy tone.

Speaking of which, I have never really been a fan of the volume/control configuration for most Strats. This consists of one volume and two tone controls (one for the neck/middle pickup and one for the bridge pickup). Tone controls on most electric guitars are passive, meaning no amplification is there, and the controls only act as cutting back on the tone, namely the high end. Rarely do guitarists mess with the control and usually keep it at 10, since cutting back on the treble also means cutting back on the output of the pickup. In my younger days when I really experimented with guitar wiring, I would often mess with the tone control by re-wiring it to a low-cut control or adding a switch to turn the tone control completely off. Perhaps with a later kit, but this one I just wanted to get it together and see/hear the finished product.

As an added touch, I named the project an Ambertone. I always like the color of ambertone (sort of a honey color, just slightly darker than a natural finish), and Amber is also the name of a co-worker that does a lot of woodwork who has taken some interest in this project.

I may jump into the next kit soon. I have another Strat, a Telecaster, and a Precision Bass kit waiting in the wings. I know that for the bass, I plan on doing a lot more customizing by adding a second pickup, so that one may have to wait for a while. For either the Strat or Tele, I am interested in finishing the entire body with only the Tru-Oil finish (https://luegra.design.blog/2025/05/10/tru-oil-for-guitar-finishing/). I also still want to attempt to finish one of the guitars with a special green stain dye that I ordered sometime back.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Classical Music Lutherie

The 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Making Competition

This past week was the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Making Competition held in Poznan, Poland. I love watching and listening to the competing violins, seeing if I can tell any nuances that make them the best. Of course, I am far from an expert compared to those that are judging the instruments.

I wish that I could enjoy the entire competition live, but there are a lot of factors that are against me. First, it is during the evening in Poland, so it is broadcast in the afternoon here in Detroit, so I can only catch bits and pieces while I am at work, Fortunately, the entire stream is posted on the Wieniawski Society YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@WieniawskiSociety). When I do catch a bit at work, I have to keep it really low volume, as earphones are frowned upon.

I had talked a lot about this competition in a blog four years ago (https://luegra.design.blog/2021/05/15/the-14th-international-henryk-wieniawski-violin-making-competition/), so I will not go into details here. This year, 85 violins from 18 countries were in competition. Polish luthier Paweł Kubaca won both First and Second Place with his Sona and Luna violins, respectively. Third Place went to Liu Zhaojun from China for the Sunrise violin.

There are two longer videos on the YouTube channel showcasing the finalists and winners, as well as a third video highlighting a quartet performance of the winners. Even if you are not into classical music, you may enjoy listening to the instruments and why each one was put into the finalist positions. It is truly amazing to see how such intricacies can make or break a choice when most of us just see a simple violin. Musicians who base their life on a quality instrument to continue their careers are stringent, and as a guitar player for over 40 years, I can understand.

The next competition for violin making will be in May of 2029. In the meantime, the 17th International Wieniawski Violin Performance Competition will be scheduled within the next wto years. I recommend that you continue to check both the YouTube channel and the Wieniawski Society website (https://www.wieniawski.com/) for updates.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Lutherie

Tru-Oil For Guitar Finishing

This week’s blog will be short due to a busy schedule. I wanted to talk briefly about my continued work on the guitar building project.

The neck that was in the Fesley guitar kit had an extremely light finish coating on it. It left the neck smooth, but I could tell that it would wear down to the bare wood after some playing and may cause some unneeded damage from sweat and grime. I wanted to put another coating of finish on it, but not with the polyurethane that I would be spraying on the body.

After doing some research on the internet, I found that there were a few recommendations to use Tru-Oil. This is a varnish-like liquid that is primarily used on rifle and shotgun stocks. It is very easy to apply with a cloth or sponge, and if applied thinly with a few repeats, will give a smooth finish as well as protective coating.

A small bottle usually goes for about $10.00. I had a tough time finding it in my area. I went to three gun shops, and none of them had it. I finally found it at a Dunham’s sporting goods store. According to internet searches, it seems to be available at Wal-Mart and Cabela’s as well, and can be ordered from a number of sources. I just wanted to get my hands on it right away, so I drove around until I found it.

The neck is maple with a rosewood-like fretboard Fesley calls “Techwood.” If anything like rosewood or ebony, it is best to keep unfinished (and oiled with lemon oil during cleaning or changing of strings), so I taped it off (along with the plastic/bone nut) before finishing. I applied three coats total, letting each coat dry 24 hours before the next. Tru-Oil is extremely thin, almost like water or a thin furniture polish, and I applied it with a soft cloth. A little goes a long way, and after the three coats, I still had about 3/4 of the 3-ounce bottle left. Once the third coat was dry, I hand rubbed the neck with OOO-grade steel wool.

I am pleased with the result. The back of the neck is just as smooth as before, yet you can see that varnish-like sheen to offer protecting from sweat and grime. I made sure to apply each coat thinly so as not to have any drips.

I would highly recommend the use of Tru-Oil for this type of finishing on a guitar neck or even a bare wood guitar body (I have seen a few examples online, and I may try it on one of the other solidbody kits that I have), especially if you do not want to fully spray polyurethane or do not have the equipment to do full spraying. It is easy to apply, and gives a great protective finish.

Chew on it and comment.

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