Reply #1: Just A Safety Bit Of Advice [View All]

[ProfessorGAC]

I had a friend back in the late 70's who was a fully trained and certified luthier. He actually had contracts with Martin and Guild to do major repair work on vintage guitars, so he really knew his stuff.

If you're going to do any inlay work, have a fed air source and full face mask for sanding. He personally knew at least 3 guys with permanent respiratory conditions (severe), one of whom died at 35 years old, from getting the dust from abalone shell, mother of pearl, or ivory into their lungs.

He told me a dust mask is not good enough. The sanded particles are smaller than a virus, so they'll get through a dust mask. That stuff is really, really bad for you.

One other thing i remember. He said the back of an acoustic would only sound better if one bookmatched the bottom piece. Two pieces properly joined was supposed to create deeper resonance than a single piece back. I believed him, not only because he knew what he was talking about, but just about every really good acoustic i've ever played had a two piece back, and the cheapie Epiphones and Yamahas had one piece backs. So, i figured there was something to it.

BTW: He had 4 patents on bracing patterns, so it could be that his bracings had more to do with tone than anything else. He made one guitar that was a doubleneck acoustic (6 & 12) that he gave to Leo Kottke. Leo used it for about 6 years, and turned my friend on to Alvarez Yairi, who licensed his bracing design for 10 years at $150k. (That was in 1977, so that was a lot of dough!)

Can'g give you any more than that.
The Professor