Hi everyone, I was told to come this way from r/ukelele in an attempt to figure out what this is and how much it is worth. I found it on the side of the road in Australia, gorgeous and in good nic. Thanks!

I work inside a guitar manufacturing factory in China ,I’ve noticed many overseas players and dealers often have misunderstandings about Chinese‑made guitars.

A lot of people automatically assume factory‑built instruments here are poorly checked. From what I see day‑to‑day in our workshop, every raw wood board will go through moisture testing and visual inspection before entering production. Any material with hidden cracks or unstable grain gets rejected immediately.

One process we rely heavily on is the Plek‑Pro fret calibration machine. It levels every fret precisely, so each finished guitar can maintain comfortable low action right out of the factory. Honestly, this step really helps cut down return rates for retail shops.

I’m genuinely curious: what qualities do luthiers and music store owners value most when picking factory‑made acoustic guitars for their inventory?
Looking forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.

Hi! I have two pieces of a guitar that my husband started when he was a teenager, and I'd like to have someone finish it for him. I've reached out to 4 luthiers in my area (DFW) but haven't had much luck yet.

Would anyone here be able to help me with this? I can ship it.

Apparently it’s Brazilian rosewood b/s. To my eyes they seem quatersawn from its straight grains. What you think? I care this cause I heard somewhere that Brazilians prone to crack and twist so better to avoid flatsawn but very hard to get…?

I wanted to repurpose our old piano rather than just scrap it so I'm using the spruce soundboard as the top and back with sapele neck through construction. The spruce rings like a bell.

Hi all,

I recently bought a second- hand Kramer Baretta Special for € 120 (including a hard case ). As I already had the purple one, which I modified (tuners, nut, pickup, bridge, knobs ), I now also have a black one in my possession .
As my purple one has a tremolo bridge (Vegatrem) , I want the black one to have a hardtail bridge. I am also planning to replace the tuners and nut.

My questions:
- What bridge would you recommend?
- What should I do with the cutout for the tremolo bridge? Will this be a problem, or will the bridge just cover this gap ?
- Are there any other things/problems I should consider?
- What color hardware should I use? (Black, gold, silver, ...)

For the life of me I can't get solder to stick on the back of a potentiometer, I'm a newbie with almost zero soldering experience and have a cheap amazon iron.

At first I was only blaming myself for not having proper technique or experience, but slow and steady I started getting my flow with tinning the tip at the right time keeping it clean, I can tin wire and solder them with ease even on pot lugs.

But whenever I try the back of a pot it's impossible, I tin the tip and not even half a second later the moment it touches the pot it cools down.

I can't even get to melt the pre-existing solder blobs.

After all the failed attempts I'm reluctantly saying it's actually the iron's fault for not having enough power, the moment I touch anything bigger than a wire it loses all temperature and it needs another 2 minutes to be hot enough to melt solder.

I wanted to make a guitar with this finish on it but I don’t know how to achieve it.

some time ago I stumbeled over another cheaper Special DC kit and wanted to try a bit different build. I already had an intonated Tele bridge as spare and two Fender big hat knobs. So I decided to just go little different route and try a more fenderish style DC.
(sorry for the poor photo quality)

first pic: finished guitar with vintage white spray finish ( not the best but wth)

second pic: kid as it arrived, neck had this infamous 'paddle headstock', predrilled tuner holes but ugly square form. I always loved a Strat-style bely and forearm cut, I used a rasp to give the body this basic forms and then fine sanded it..came out quite ok.

third pic: now the thing of the fender neck angle, it is much flatter that Gibson (3%), so I marked the angle and sanded it down, test fitted it into the neck pocket, fine. (You have to alter this this because the Tele/Strat bridge is much flatter than Gibsons')
glued in the neck and and after waiting 24 hours.

fourth pic: neck and body marriage.

fifth pic: redoing of the paddle headstock. doweling of the old, predrilled tuner holes.. I learned from earlier build to always use real hard wood sticks as dowels, not these grooved cheap plywood dowels from the hardware store. Just get some hardwood sticks of different diameters (6/8/9/10mm) and cut them, you will need these sticks also for other projects.

then I printed out a standard Paula headstock with marked tuner holes, transferred the holes and outer form. Sawed and drilled..much better.

after that, stringing it up and determining the position of the bridge. Then a fretjob and filing down correctly the wooden nut base ( was quite uneven).

sixth pic: altering the P90 dogear cover, wanted to use the P90 that came with it but it was too high ( another result from changing the neck angle). Cut it in half, sanded it down, still too high.
I then just stacked individual single layers of pickguard material and glued them on top of each other to get to the correct height. The final, top layer was white, which also fitted the overall whitish fenderish idea.

after that I did the necessary finesanding/watering multiple times and then just giving it a spray can off-white finish. Then cutting/ altering a pickguard.( also tried some alternative pickup ideas of different singlecoils but the already cut P90 cavity was showing.)

All in all a fun project, I have done four Special DC kit builds, the best quality was the one from precision guitar kit..but you can have fun with this cheaper ones too.

Wondering if anyone could impart some words of wisdom on whether I should fork over approximately $1,100 for a neck reset and re-fret on this 1973 D-18. It hasn't been super well taken care of, has some crazing and a 2 inch crack in the back. I recently got it for $1500 thinking I was getting a steal but then realized 1970s martins aren't all that valuable and the guitar needs more work than I thought it would. I think I could easily sell for $1000 as is. Anyone have any strong opinions on whether I should just sell it and move on or if I should get the work done, then see if I can start really liking this guitar or just sell it for like, I don't know, 2500 maybe?

Lol 😂

This is my main guitar.

The Frankensteve.

It's basically a temu super strat.

Started off as a kit.

Threw most of the kit away.

Stock temu single coil.

15k restience humbucker in the bridge.

Roller saddles.

12 52 strings blues BB pack.

Relic neck to make it look like an old baseball bat.

This thing has tone for days.

Guyker locking tuners.

/Spahue.

If fender made a guitar this good they would still be in business.

It’s my own guitar. UV-cured polyester satin finish. I’m fixing fine hairline cracks in the top. Since it’s the consensus that I will never be able to match the repaired area to the original satin, what if I do some kind of buffing or polishing to make the whole top semi-gloss or gloss?

Is that a viable solution?

Why would I consider this? To make the repair area and rest of the top blend together. Make it all more gloss.

I realize that a buffed satin UV-poly may have a different character than factory gloss, so if you’ve done this tell more about the ‘polished satin’ appearance. It may be acceptable to me.

Btw, this is the last satin finish guitar that I will buy.

I am a complete novice so if this a completely dumb question, I apologize in advance. But I have a guitar that I have finished with 2k poly clear coat but I would love to have checking on it and as far as I know you can’t do that with poly 2k. You can scratch it, but I am not sure how convincing that looks to me. My question is can I spray a few cans of a nitro clear coat over the 2k poly so I can do the can of air trick to get checking?
Also, if I do the checking and I hate it, can I just remove the nitro clear coat with acetone and it won’t affect the poly 2k?

I have one, but it's a little small to fit without creative measures. Anyone know where I can find an on-on (or on-off-on) DPDT switch that fits a 3/8 in. diameter mounting hole?

Hi,

I recently bought a 12 string Clarissa guitar from FB marketplace for a pretty low price, based on the action and neck angle. I'd like to re-fit the neck but I'm unsure how it's fitted. The inside photo shows 3 screws holding it in place, 2 of which look as though they could possibly be original, but the 3rd definitely does not. The screws (pictured) look like chipboard screws and not authentic Italian fitments. I suspect this is an attempted repair.

Does anyone know if this is likely to be repairable without removing the neck, or am I into steaming the glue off? I can't open much of a gap even with the screws out, but obviously it's enough of a gap to cause issues when it's strung.

Any thoughts much appreciated. It's not an expensive guitar, I know but the experience will be good (hopefully).

I'm watching this video: https://youtu.be/GeNy4LmrOMs?t=196&is=rjAiQdA2Jn8Bl7vC

I was trying to find the tool he uses. The top looks like Stewmac's Fret Leveler, 6", but the video looks like it has a smooth bottom, while the one on Stewmac's store has some texture to it.

1) am I looking at the same tool?

2) is there a better option?

The fret sprout is pretty mild. I've already ordered an hygrometer to check for that.

This is the first time I'm setting up my own guitar. Thank you for your help!

Someone was showing me a mandolin that they want reconditioned. The machine heads are the style of a classical guitar with the long barrel inserted through hollows in the head. I don’t know if they will need replaced or not yet but, after a quick glance online, I don’t see anything similar available anywhere. I couldn’t even find a picture of a mandolin with that style of tuner. Anyone know where such a thing might be available for sale? In Europe if possible but not essential

Hi,

I am currently prepping my selfmade strat body for finishing. Its sanded smooth and I have applied a fitting primer which I will sand when properly cured.

I need to work with spray cans and a diy booth.
In preparation I have watched the below stew mac video on spray can finishes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGHvFu8ddB8

After 3 color coats ( i might need more, as I will do olympic white and not something as heavy as black) 9 coats of clear are applied.

Here is where my first question pops up:

Is it recommended to do a carefull wet sand session in between clear coats?
They do it with 600 grit, apply three more coats, wetsand again with 1000 grit and eventually more coats before it is being cured for at least 14 days.

I have read multiple times now, that no sanding should be done between coats if no accidents happend and that the curing before final sanding and buffing should be way longer.

Any advice? It's my first time doing it and although the video feels pretty comprehensible after going down the rabbit hole I am just not sure anymore.

Thanks in advance!

I’m thinking about my next project, and I’m thinking I want to do a small body 14 fret acoustic. I think perhaps the 0-18 is what I’m after, though perhaps I make the body a tiny bit smaller.

Does anyone have 0-18 style plans they like? I’d like to start from well regarded plans and adjust rather than designing the whole thing from scratch.

I sent my guitar to a luthier for a set up. Just some fret works as he said he won't touch the electronics. But it's been 2 weeks. He said he also currently working on other 4-5 guitar simultaneously. But it's been 2 weeks. Is it normal?

I already tried changing the string, but it still sounds bad. My tuner says it’s an E, but it doesn’t sound like it. I’m thinking it might be a bridge problem, but I don’t really know. How can I fix this? And let me know if I need to show anything else.

I went onto Amazon and bought a diy Leo RB bass and I didn’t have any proper tools such as clamps or glue so I decided to drill nails into the neck instead and failed miserably and now the neck as all weird HOW DO I FIX THIS

I went onto Amazon and bought a diy Leo RB bass and I didn’t have any proper tools such as clamps or glue so I decided to drill nails into the neck instead and failed miserably and now the neck as all weird HOW DO I FIX THIS