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I thought it would be cool if we could share our favourite YouTube channels for backing tracks. I mainly use MyDarnJamTracks and Elevated backing tracks on YouTube. I think those are the two most popular and their tracks seem to be very well produced. Well, share what you have!

Hi Well - as I've risked life and limb three or four times posting 6-string builds in Basschat, I thought the least I could do is post the first build in Guitarchat While it would be a hoot if it was a bass, it's actually a 6-string and there is a build diary on Basschat currently live. If you've been following that, then ignore this but, if you haven't, I'll do a summary thread of the progress. There's quite a bit of detail in the Basschat version if anyone is interested in building one and, of course, feel free to ask. So - over three or four posts I'll bring it up to present progress. First of all - this is my third acoustic build. I built this OM size for myself: I had a go because, although I had discounted ever trying an acoustic as 'too hard', I saw a build thread on one of the other forums and thought 'you never know...' Spurred on by beginners luck, a few years later I built this dreadnought sized one for a 'special' birthday of our band's vocalist, Chris: So why a third? Well - I am mainly a finger-picker and OM's are perfect for that. Mine turned out to be no exception. But they are a teeny bit jangly for strumming. Chris on the other hand is a strummer - so a dread was right for him. But what surprised me for this one - maybe the woods, maybe just luck - was how good it sounds finger-picked. As good as my OM. And - because it was for a special birthday, I bought enough wood to recover from any major building disaster. And that wood was just lying around in the way and what could I do with it? Well....I could always build one for myself. I s'pose So I got the wood out, which included lacewood (London Plane tree) back and sides, an offcut of Macassar ebony fretboard and maple neck blank as well as the original mahogany one. No top wood but I could always get some of that. And dug out the Elite Guitar Plan I used for Chris's build: And went down the cellar to start making sawdust

Next - out came the Dremel radius jig and a couple of offset holes drilled in line with those used to cut out the rosette: Which gave me the accurate outline. Golden rule - the top of the rosette is covered by the fretboard so best always to put joins and first cuts there. Note my whoopsy ref forgetting about the width of the router bit!: Then careful routing inside the lines - a tidy up of the edges using a razor blade, a trial fit, then the glue in the rosette. Then an additional rout to fit a purfling strip into: And finally the centre of the hole is routed out and we have a finished top ready for fitting the braces to : Here you also have a sneak preview of the radiused and slotted fingerboard - I'll cover that next

Hello! I'm mainly a bass player, but I also play a bit of guitar at home. I have a nice CIJ Fender telecaster '72RI thinline and an Eastwood Warren Ellis Tenor guitar which I use for recording.

That's so cool

I've tuned in to learn.

Next came joining the two sides of the top: Then bringing it down from 5-6mm to just below 3mm. I'm getting better at sharpening plane blades!: Then once I was getting close I put my old Stanley No.80 scraper plane into use for the first time: In the meantime I joined a nice piece of wood given to me by a Tasmanian friend. And yes - it comes from Tasmania! (I think it's a type of Eucalyptus). Mother of pearl cut and installed and swift added, then the two circles cut off centre:

That's his real name! How could you be so mean?!

First job was to bend the sides and the basis that - as they are matched sets with the back - one major crack would mean the end of the project and therefore may as well get that over with before wasting any more time... Found my shape mould from Chris's build: Soaked the sides in warm water with a touch of fabric softener (I'm assured it makes a difference!): Then started the slightly scary process of hand bending over the electric bending iron: Once they were relatively close, clamped them into the mould overnight until they fully dried out: Then trimmed the ends, reassembled the mould and attached the neck and tail mahogany blocks and hey presto - we still have a project!!!!

It's not all mine.