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Hi Jerry, You are obviously a serious Lys collector, I have seen your posts in other guitar forums when I was searching for more information on Lys guitars. I will be happy to share information about my L-5s, but I'll take it to a private conversation. - Tom

I watched for minute or so to see where it was going, until I realized it was only a few seconds looping over and over.

Outside of the uke family, but LYS guitars made solid spruce guitars in the early 80's. I've not seen a LYS L-15 in person or know what they sounded like. https://reverb.com/item/26594401-1983-lys-l-15-acoustic-guitar-hand-made-all-solid-woods (scroll down a bit to see the sold listing) I...

I was trying to find some information on the LMII cutter set, and ran across this: https://birkonium.com/shop/tools-misc/binding-cutter-bearing-set/ I think the key thing for you is whether or not the LMII bearings have a 1/4" bore. If so, they should mount fine on the SM cutters. Then you...

I have the Stewmac cutters and the shaft that the bearings mount on measures 0.249" diameter. The bearings from Stewmac are 1/4" wide (except for some older ones I have that are 3/16" wide). The smallest bearing I have is 1/2" OD. The bearings look like standard ball bearings with metal...

Wings on baritone bridges

Yes, this soprano is pretty well made and sounds good. I thought the red labels went back into the 20's or 30's, but can't find where I read that. Someone fitted it with some nice tuners, which alone were worth what I paid.

How about a couple of Harmony mahogany ukes? The red label soprano was $29.95 from an eBay auction, which for some reason no one else bid on. The baritone was $49.95, also from eBay.

I haven't used the Gotoh UPT pegs yet, but I recently used the cheaper Golden Gate planetary tuners on a tenor banjolele. I was dismayed to see the tuners unwinding the first time I strung it up. So I tightened the screws on the knobs a little and now they hold fine. Both brands of these tuners...

Did someone say roadkill? These are the Martin sopranos in my collection. Currently only the Style 0 at the top is set up for playing. From top to bottom (with date ranges): Style 0 with Kluson pegs (1946 - 1956) Style 1 (1926 - 1960) Style 1 (pre-1926) with Waverly no. 2014 pegs, probably...

As for the why the 12th fret isn't exactly at the body: With this style of construction, a 12th fret slot at the body is right on top of the neck to body joint and there is no continuous fingerboard under the fret. Over time things can shift and the fret comes loose. I've seen many older ukes...

I have a few Bushmans. This one is a 2005 with the original case and hang tags. I paid $135 for this a few years ago, so I think $75 for the one that was linked was a good deal. From what I've seen the sopranos and concerts had friction tuners, and my baritone has geared tuners. Edit: After...

I have another one that's almost done made from various surplus building materials: clapboards, flooring and wainscoting boards.

I just finished up this one, made for fun. I got the idea one day when I spotted a pallet that was being discarded that had some interesting boards, which turned out to be mostly quarter-sawn cherry. The other woods used in this project were saved at various times. All of the wood parts in...

This is the small bench in my basement shop. I’m close to wrapping up these projects. Clockwise from upper right: Soprano size with 13.75” scale, 13th fret to body. All the wood except neck is reclaimed from shipping pallets. Cherry back and sides. Top is spruce from a pallet sent from Germany...

These are the side dots on a Kamaka gold label that I have. There is a fret board, but it's so thin some of the fret slots cut right through it. Dot placement is a little sloppy!

When I use hot glue, I use a small canning jar (jelly jar?) in a Rival Hot Pot Express.

If I figured things right it will be about 3 inches in from the tail, on an 8 inch pot. Using a 17" scale. I am not going with the headstock shape shown in the drawing.

A little different project for me; turning an old (Slingerland?) banjolin into a tenor banjolele. Setting up to bore the hole in the heel of the neck for the dowel stick at just the right angle took some thought. I am shooting for a 3° neck angle, and the existing holes in the pot place the...

Thanks for explaining this. I sort of thought that must be the case.