Simnett Guitars Forum?

IvisonGuitars

I was just looking for the Simnett Guitars Luthiers forum, seems to have been taken down? Anyone know why as it was a great resource or if there's a good UK based alternative?  

WezV

Traffic got really slow.  It's been gone a while now.

IvisonGuitars

Thats a shame, do you know/ can recommend any others @WezV?

Kalimna

Afraid I don't know of any other UK based ones, but MIMF is an exceptional forum - very helpful indeed, and the most polite internet forum I have seen.

There is also the Australia and New Zealand Luthiers forum, with its own sense of Aussie humour

Adam

WezV

I don't know, i cut back to just here.

Used to visit MIMF is the old days when i was just starting out.  Back then they had a weird rule about no in progress pics.  I assume they have changed that now the majority of the world is not on dial up.

I was on Project Guitar for years, but have not been back for quite a while.  Not totally sure why

WezV

Most forums are now quite superficial,  and this place can be just as guilty.   Pretty pictures and fancy woods seems to count more than a decent discussion into some of the fundamentals of guitar building

Kalimna

The MIMF certainly does allow WIP posts these days - but with a fairly limited image filesize. Having said that, I have always found the discussions there very professional and they always seem willing to help people like myself who present many, many beginner questions.

Perhaps this place could be their equivalent this side of the atlantic, but I suspect there just aren't enough luthiers (both hobbyist and professional) compared to North America.

I too would like to see more in-depth luthiery discussions (and I say that having posted up some pictures of fancy wood myself....) here, and am more than happy to post questions ad nauseum

Cheers,

Adam

paulnb57

TDPRI Home Depot is pretty good with some great builds, great tutorials (may need to search a bit) very inspirational and not all Telecasters.......

IvisonGuitars

Cheers @paulnb57 will check that one out, MLP Luthiers Corner is also well worth a look :-)

paulnb57

@miserneil ;
have a link......

http://www.tdpri.com/forums/tele-home-depot.46/

Rabs

Yeah I had joined the Simnett forum a couple of months before it closed...   Basically they couldn't afford to run it any more and as mentioned the traffic towards the end was very slow...  So they closed down ....

WezV

Rabs said:

Yeah I had joined the Simmnett forum a couple of months before it closed...   Basically they couldn't afford to run it any more and as mentioned the traffic towards the end was very slow...  So they closed down ....

I think Simo would have found a way to fund it if there had been enough interest...  but it probably didn't seem worthwhile given the traffic.  I know @ttony contacted him to see if there was a way to save some of the content.


tdpri and mlp do have good pages, sevenstring used to as well.. again, not been in a while.  The issue is these are all centered around certain types of guitar. whilst others appear and are even welcomed you don't see the range of stuff you would on a guitar builders forum like UKGB.



 

TTony

WezV said:

I think Simo would have found a way to fund it if there had been enough interest...  but it probably didn't seem worthwhile given the traffic.  I know @ttony contacted him to see if there was a way to save some of the content.

I did indeed - but I don't think he had the interest at the end to work out a way of making it happen.  The UK Builders forum - or the people on it - really helped me plenty of times when I was starting out in building, and I thought that there was a lot of content that would remain valuable.  So I wanted to preserve it in some way by folding it into the forum here - putting that together with the Making & Modding section here would have been really powerful.

but, not to be

GSPBASSES

I used to write quite in depth articles on UKGB, starting with a plank of wood right through to the finished guitar. I still have all the photos that went with these,  but unfortunately I changed computers since then and I was unable to get all my data files onto the new computer (the hard drive failed on the old one). I did mention to @TTony that maybe I should write day-to-day diary of what guitar builder get up to. I did year-long day to day diary on UKGB, seem to go down well. The problem at the present time is I'm trying to spend less time in the workshop, I should have retired years ago. At the moment I'm laid up with a bad back, so not much is being the made. I did start a build diary last year on Les Paul Junior's, but unfortunately I was overwhelmed with work from my trade customers, so not many of them were finished. But next month I have got to make 4 JPL DC's . So, time permitting I will try and photograph each stage and put some words up to go with them. 

Roland

That would be very interesting Graham

DiscoStu

UKGB was a great resource. I was on it loads during my builds but not really any other time which is possibly the case with other members. MR and this place got my 'me' time.
It's a shame Simo had to close it down, I'm sure there are plenty of others who would benefit from its content the way it helped me.

Andyjr1515

UKGB was a great forum but, in my personal view, I think it was the rise in traffic of the revamped and excellent The Fretboard that was roughly proportional to the drop in traffic to UKGB.

Most of us only have time to be regularly active in one or two forums and for me, the best UK biased forums are The Fretboard for 6stringers and BassChat for basses.  A bit like pubs that rise and fall in popularity, those that are not in vogue tend to either have low traffic or become more specialist.

The most promising forum that I've come across that is more international is Project Guitar that @WezV mentions.  If you haven't visited for a while, have a peep.  There are some excellent resources starting to be built up as well as decent multi-interest forum topics.

My view, anyway...

IvisonGuitars

GSPBASSES said:

I used to write quite in depth articles on UKGB, starting with a plank of wood right through to the finished guitar. I still have all the photos that went with these,  but unfortunately I changed computers since then and I was unable to get all my data files onto the new computer (the hard drive failed on the old one). I did mention to @TTony that maybe I should write day-to-day diary of what guitar builder get up to. I did year-long day to day diary on UKGB, seem to go down well. The problem at the present time is I'm trying to spend less time in the workshop, I should have retired years ago. At the moment I'm laid up with a bad back, so not much is being the made. I did start a build diary last year on Les Paul Junior's, but unfortunately I was overwhelmed with work from my trade customers, so not many of them were finished. But next month I have got to make 4 JPL DC's . So, time permitting I will try and photograph each stage and put some words up to go with them. 

That's a real shame, I remember seeing your threads on there @GSPBASSES, they were very interesting and informative.

I wonder if it'd be worth trying to take this section in a similar direction. However, I do know of a couple of builders (amongst others) who would have possibly been able to contribute some interesting experience also but have given this place up as a bad job given the reception they have received in the past. 

GSPBASSES

One thing is for certain, if professional guitar builder starts to show a step-by-step diary of how guitar is built, you're going to have to be pretty thick-skinned. There is always going to be somebody who rips you apart and criticise whatever it is you're doing. Not always maliciously, but sometimes it can be a bit hurtful if you haven't got a sense of humour. There was an incident only a few days ago where a custom builder really got the knock about a comment which I thought was quite humorous (http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/96358/spanish-cedar-body-blanks#latest). I actually find it quite helpful people make constructive comments about what I do. Although I've been making guitars since the early sixties, there's always more to learn. The biggest problem I have with writing a built diary is most of the necks and bodies I make are going out to other custom builders who do not want me to show their guitars been built. 

IvisonGuitars

@GSPBASSES totally agree. I find the comments from other builders on how they would do things most helpful, it certainly helps one choose which direction to take things.

normula1

my woodworking skills are pretty atrocious but I love reading how you guys work, the various challenges you overcome and the fantastic results you achieve. They're all pretty inspiring and one day I'm sure I'll have a go myself.