Go-bar Deck Base - Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag
In this episode, luthier Robbie O’Brien visits Heidi Litke to show off a neat base for a Go-bar deck. Heidi’s shop is Red Sands Ukuleles in Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Video Transcription
[on-screen text reads: Luthier Tips du Jour Mailbag]
Mailbag question: Thank you for sharing all of your creative jig and template ideas
Robert O'Brien: Today's Tips du Jour Mailbag question comes to us from Canada. "Robert, I see you using a lot of interesting jigs and templates in your videos, and I wanted to say thanks for the ideas you pass along. Dave in Canada."
Well, Dave in Canada, thank you very much. That does mean a lot to me, and this is more of a comment than a question, but I certainly appreciate it. I have visited luthiers' shops all over the world, and a lot of the things that you see in my videos are things that I have seen in other people's shops. Now, recently I was in your neck of the woods in Canada. In fact, I visited five of the 10 provinces in Canada. I was in Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island where Canada began, as I'm sure you're aware. I also visited Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, I was in Montreal, and I was in Toronto.
A really cool way to mount your Go-bar deck
I was there filming a ukulele video instructional course with luthier Heidi Litke and her shop manager Rob. While I was there, I saw something in her shop that was very interesting and really piqued my interest. Let me show it to you. So, here I am in beautiful Prince Edward Island in the shop of Heidi Litke from Red Sands Ukuleles. And what I want to show you here is the Go-bar deck. Now, a lot of people have seen go-bar decks. There's nothing special about that. What's special about this jig, and I've seen a lot of cool ones, but this one I think takes the cake. The really cool thing about this jig is the base.
So, let me show you that. So, the go-bar deck is mounted on a base, and some of you might recognize this as the base for a barber's chair. That's right, folks. If you want to raise the go-bar deck up, there you go. If you want to lower it, hold it, down it comes. It also spins. So, I think you can see, folks, this is a really cool way of mounting your go-bar deck. Now, Heidi would love to take credit for this. However, it was not her idea. She saw a picture on the internet from Mark Roberts. So, Mark Roberts, what a cool idea. It's benefiting a lot of people. So, Dave in Canada, thank you very much for the compliment, and happy building.
[on-screen text reads: More Luthier Tips and online courses available at www.obrienguitars.com. Private and small group guitar building and finishing instruction available.]
