2022
AL#145 p.4
Michael Bashkin
▪ Bashkin ornaments his pegheads and end grafts with marquetry combined with thin, free-flowing veneer lines. He shows us in detail how he accomplishes some of these effects, including scorching decorative pieces in hot sand.
2022
AL#145 p.56
John Calkin
▪ John Calkin looks at another fine instructional video from Robbie O’Brien: Inlay Techniques with Larry Robinson. He likes it.
2021
AL#144 p.36
John Calkin Robert Anderson
▪ Robert Anderson made banjos part-time for decades while he worked a respectable day job. But since he has “retired” into a full-time lutherie career, he is in demand for his beautifully carved, inlaid, and engraved instruments. We take a look into his converted tobacco barn and talk shop. Mentions Doug Unger, Stan Werbin, Kathy Anderson, Grateful Dead.
2021
AL#144 p.52
Jon Sevy
▪ If you are cutting pearl inlays with a benchtop CNC router, then cutting the recesses for them with that same CNC, they ought to fit perfectly, right? Well yes, in the perfect world of math. And even out here in the messy real world of sawdust and bearing slop, you can get pretty close if you understand the forces at play and calculate their effects.
2021
AL#143 p.22
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ In this article the fretboard is slotted, crowned, and glued to the neck. The neck is then shaped.
2018
AL#133 p.64
James Blilie
▪ Make a simple work board to cut nice round burl rosettes on a bandsaw.
2017
AL#131 p.69
Chuck Erickson
▪ Where can you get matched MOP for large inlays?
2017
AL#132 p.6
Brian Yarosh Michael Bashkin
▪ Michael Bashkin came to lutherie after earlier passions and careers in photography and tropical forestry. But for decades now he has been happily Geppettoing it, building beautiful steel string guitars in a cavernous industrial space. Mentions Harry Fleishman and Abe Wechter.
2017
AL#130 p.68
Dave Fifield
▪ Is it a good idea to cover a guitar soundboard with marquetry?
2012
AL#112 p.48
Kathy Wingert
▪ Kathy Wingert constructs harp guitar inlays inspired by Modernist designs by the Scots couple of architect Charles Mackintosh and designer Margaret Mackintosh.
2012
AL#110 p.71
Paul McNulty
▪ Using garlic in conjunction with hide glue or epoxy on brass inlays.
2011
AL#106 p.35
Michael Yeats
▪ Yeats developed these intricate inlay patterns for veneered lute necks and peg boxes while assisting Robert Lundberg. From a conversation by Jonathon Peterson.
2011
AL#105 p.67
Mike Giltzow
▪ Marking the recesses for inlays by gluing an inlay to the peghead and scribing around it.
2009
AL#100 p.5
Chuck Erickson
▪ Avoiding confiscation of instruments containing natural shell material by U.S. customs agents and extra fees by including the proper details on customs forms.
2008
AL#95 p.66
Paul Bordeaux
▪ Pattern booklets specific to instrument inlay from First Quality Music (www.firstqualitymusic.com).
2008
AL#96 p.18 ALA1 p.60
Cyndy Burton Kathy Wingert
▪ Wingert has as extensive a lutherie background as anyone, and even does Chladni glitter tests on her guitars (which, by the way, look exquisite). Her daughter Jimmi has a growing reputation as an inlay artist. How rare is a mother/daughter team in lutherie? Mentions Bob Mattingly, Larry Robinson and Harvey Leach. With 12 photos.
2008
AL#96 p.24
Cyndy Burton Jimmi Wingert
▪ Jimmi Wingert seems like a cool and talented young woman with a growing clientele for fine inlay work. Oh, to have the funds to travel the country to meet all these people. Mentions Harvey Leach and Larry Robinson. With 2 photos and a drawing.
2006
AL#86 p.42
R.M. Mottola
▪ Strict traditions have hampered the evolution of musical instrument decoration, but the creativity of some luthiers will not be held back. Make your logos on your computer. Iron your labels right onto the wood. Engrave decorations with a desktop CNC. We haven’t begun to try what might be done, but this article might awaken you to the possibilities. With 21 photos.
2005
AL#84 p.6 BRB7 p.392
Greg Byers
▪ With tools you’ve probably already got in your shop you can make mosaic rosettes that look modern and yet somehow traditional. The techniques differ from the bricks and tiles made of old and are more akin to the processes of making fancy purflings. Cooler than anything, but not for the impatient among us. With 31 photos and a pair of diagrams.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2004
AL#77 p.60 BRB7 p.169
R.M. Mottola
▪ If you are not fascinated by computers you probably don’t want a personal CNC machine of any size. If lutherie is your escape from modern technology, you are also excused. But if computers and robots and programming turn you on you may want to combine your hobbies by investing in and/or building a small CNC machine. (The word hobby seems to connote such a lack of seriousness that we use it hesitatingly, but you know what we mean.) Mottola finds that his little CNC has moved his work beyond what he might attempt without it, as well as speeding up and spiffing up stuff that he used to do by other means. This is not so much a how-to as a why-do, but if it doesn’t charge you up, then computer-aided manufacturing is not for you. With 8 photos.
2003
AL#76 p.52 BRB7 p.132
Larry Mills Chris Jenkins
▪ Replacing the conventional guitar tail block with an access panel is an appealing idea whose time has come. Why you should use it and how it is made is the focus of this article. This may be the first article of its kind. Pretty humorous, too. With 15 photos.
2003
AL#74 p.8 BRB7 p.36
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman’s perspective on guitar design and construction is all his own, so it’s no surprise that his brand of inlay should also be unique. He has a philosophy of inlay (and of working, and living in general) that guides his pursuit of guitar decoration that is just as important as how the work is accomplished. This lecture is Harry at his best, shedding light on a deep subject while flooring us with laughter. Great stuff, with 30 cool photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#73 p.14 BRB6 p.368
Eugene Clark Jonathon Peterson
▪ Clark is one of the old American masters of lutherie. Building an original rosette in the Spanish tradition is way more complicated than routing a channel and poking in some abalone, as steel stringers are apt to do, but with Clark’s instruction you can do it. Includes 22 photos. Part 1 appeared in AL #71.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2002
AL#72 p.8 BRB6 p.438
John Greven
▪ Greven’s inlay work specializes in large easily repeatable designs highlighted by engraving of a photographic quality. His pearl-cutting techniques are pretty strange, but no one can argue with the quality of the finished work. With 18 photos and a pair of drawings of graver types and angles.
2001
AL#68 p.40 BRB6 p.266
David Giulietti
▪ The pursuit of engraving skills demands just a small investment in tools but a large investment in determination and time. At least, for those not born to be artists. But the author makes it clear that there is hope for nearly all of us who truly wish to acquire this skill.
2001
AL#67 p.54
Cyndy Burton
▪ This is a list of where to buy wood (tone or otherwise) and inlay materials.
2001
AL#67 p.65 BRB6 p.457
David Freeman
▪ John Calkin’s wet inlay technique as a shortcut to cutting pearl and abalone, or as a cost saving method.
2001
AL#66 p.38 BRB6 p.194 read this article
John Calkin
▪ Inlay advice using epoxy and Inlace mixed with various substances to fill the routed holes, rather than a solid such as MOp.With 8 photos.
1999
AL#60 p.44 BRB5 p.436
Fred Carlson
▪ Hi-Tone instrument cases are reviewed and not found wanting, “a contender for the handsomest case out there, and very solidly built.”
1999
AL#60 p.52
Cyndy Burton
▪ This column updates several source lists that have appeared in past issues. If you need it to build instruments, you should find a supplier here.
1999
AL#59 p.6 BRB5 p.374
Frank Ford
▪ A top repairman tackles the sticky subject of what repair and restoration work should be tackled in this age of vintage instrument mania, especially in the area of elective surgery. Even today’s utilitarian instruments may be tomorrow’s hot collectibles, so every instrument that passes over our bench has to be considered in this light. What work should we refuse, and what are our liabilities for the work we do? Includes 41 photos, mostly of vintage guitars and mandolins.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#59 p.39 BRB5 p.402
Gordon Gray Grit Laskin
▪ Laskin is a well-known maker of masterful guitars and a groundbreaking artist in inlay concept and design. He’s also a novelist and a recording artist. If the 9 photos of his guitars and inlay work don’t inspire you, you’re certainly from an old school of lutherie.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#59 p.63 BRB5 p.478 read this article
John Calkin
▪ Robinson not only continues to widen the scope of instrument inlay, he invites others to come along and shows them how to do it. The reviewer is very enthusiastic about this video tape.
1998
AL#55 p.64 BRB5 p.478
John Calkin
▪ The reviewer finds that for anyone wishing to attempt intricate, carefully fitted inlays these two instruction videos should guide them through the craft phase and help to release whatever art they may be capable of.
1997
AL#52 p.6
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Though only 2 years old, the Healdsburg show has become culturally and commercially important, as well as a luthiers’ information exchange. Peterson interviews organizers and luthiers who set up displays. The spread of 19 photos is an even split of personalities and close-ups of interesting guitars.
1997
AL#50 p.20 BRB5 p.48
Kalia Kliban
▪ Kliban reports on an inlay workshop led by Larry Robinson. Robinson has become a master of shell decoration and an important teacher in the field. This article covers everything from design to engraving, and amounts to a condensed version of Larry’s book on the subject. With 15 photos of the workshop and knockout inlay work.
1997
AL#49 p.54 BRB5 p.436
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines two retrofit bases for the Dremel mini-router, and likes them both for different reasons. He also test drives a set of micro-chisels and JAWS, a hand-powered fretting press, and recommends them. With 5 photos.
1997
LW p.80
James E. Patterson
▪ This article compresses into less than 6 pages everything you need to know about cutting and inlaying shell, except for how to make up original designs. Creativity is a tough thing to teach. Includes 5 diagrams and 6 photos.
1996
AL#46 p.58 BRB4 p.504
Norbert Pietsch
▪ Protecting pearl when restoring an old banjo with engraved pearl inlays.
1996
AL#45 p.10 BRB4 p.264
R.E. Brune
▪ This 1995 lecture transcription investigates the history of art applied to lutherie in all its varied forms, and then translates many of them into illustrations of contemporary instruments. Topics include painting, gilding, carving, veneer, inlay, engraving, and varnish work. With 49 photos and illustrations.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1996
AL#45 p.44 BRB4 p.474
John Calkin
▪ Some videos are worth the money, and some aren’t. It depends more on the depth of your experience and interest than on the quality of these videos, which is generally good. Take a look at a batch of tapes (and one book) from Stewart-MacDonald about building or repairing stringed instruments.
1995
AL#42 p.64 BRB4 p.491
George Gorodnitsky
▪ Two small metal blocks between two jewelry saw blades to cut straight or curved strips with parallel edges.
1995
AL#41 p.53 BRB4 p.464
John Calkin
▪ The reviewer finds that if you wish to push your inlay work beyond the traditional patterns you may find this book indispensable.
1994
AL#38 p.57
George Gorodnitsky
▪ Making an easy and inexpensive beautiful abalone-inlaid headstock or rosette.
1993
AL#36 p.26 BRB3 p.410 read this article
David Golber
▪ The chief difference between the Hardanger and a normal violin is its use of sympathetic strings, though other differences abound. Ornate decoration is also usual. Golber offers a good description of a typical Hardanger and how to set it up.With 9 photos and a number of drawings.
1993
AL#34 p.59 BRB3 p.492
Harry Fleishman
▪ A trick for bringing out the color of a rosette inlay or binding.
1993
AL#34 p.14 BRB3 p.324 read this article
Paul Hostetter Bart Reiter
▪ Reiter is perhaps the best known current maker of open back banjos. He traces his beginnings and some specifics of the banjo market. With 3 photos.
1992
AL#32 p.67 BRB3 p.489
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ A fly-tiers vise makes an excellent small parts vise for final cleanup on pearl inlays.
1992
AL#32 p.11 BRB3 p.244
Jonathon Peterson
▪ As a maker of fine acoustic instruments Gibson was reborn in Montana. The man in charge of creativity and efficiency leads the GAL team through his domain. With 17 photos.
1992
AL#29 p.57 BRB3 p.484
Jurgen Goering
▪ Get free ivory from piano repair shops. They may have cast-off ivories from key tops replaced by plastic.
1991
AL#28 p.58 BRB3 p.478
Ralph Novak
▪ Making multiple Xerox copies of line art when inlaying pearl ‘pictures’.
1990
AL#21 p.36 BRB2 p.352
Robert Lundberg R.E. Brune
▪ Lundberg says that perhaps he’s tracked down Marie’s own luthier. Brune examines the evidence and decides he’s not prepared to jump on board. With 3 fine photos.
1987
AL#11 p.44 BRB1 p.440
Tim Olsen
▪ A rollicking, good-time account of a era gone by and a free-spirited maker of outrageous electric guitars who was pretty much unknown outside of his own territory. It’ll make you feel good.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1987
AL#11 p.8 BRB1 p.416
Steve Klein
▪ Klein’s lecture outlines his aesthetic concerns about the contemporary steel string guitar, and many of the details of his ever-evolving, iconoclastic instruments. With several nice drawings and 2 photos. Mentions Richard Schneider and Michael Kasha.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1985
AL#3 p.45
Larry Robinson
▪ Robinson cut an elaborate inlay pattern to the wrong scale, but made it work.
1985
AL#3 p.46
Bill Hultgren
▪ A question/answer format offers sources for micarta, pearloid inlay materials, and small files.
1985
AL#1 p.10 BRB1 p.2
David Nichols
▪ Nichols does a lot of custom inlay work, including ultra-fancy work on new instruments for the Martin Company. He describes his entire process here, illustrated with 15 photos. He also reveals his tool choices and sources of supply.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1984
DS#280 LW p.86 read this article
Michael Dresdner
▪ There are several ways to lay out an inlay pattern before routing, but this one might be the most accurate.
1983
DS#259 BRB1 p.122
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi wrote this scary little article in 1983, but if you think that the chemicals luthiers encounter have gotten friendlier you better think again. The compounds that have been making people sick for decades are still out there, and regulation doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact. You’ll have to be your own safety cop, and this article is a good place to begin.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1983
DS#261 LT p.49
J.C. Nelson
▪ Saw two layers at an angle and the pieces fit together with no gaps.
1980
DS#164 LT p.62
J.D. Mackenzie
▪ One is a Dremel base for cutting binding channels. The second is another base used to inlay decorative stringing of the face of headstocks.
1980
DS#140 LW p.80
Larry Stevens
▪ A drill press only wants to make holes, but you can train it to do a lot of tricks. For instance, why not use it to mill the slots for rosette rings to snuggle into? Groovy! With diagrams of the cutting bits.
1980
DS#141
Robert Steinegger
▪ This inlay pattern is from a carved top C-2 Martin guitar made during the first part of 1932.
1980
DS#146 LT p.50
Charles Wearden Robert Lenhardt
▪ Foot-operated, spring-loaded vise.
1979
DS#125 LW p.86 read this article
Robert Steinegger
▪ The author keeps a comprehensive file of all the cool patterns that cross his bench, and here’s how he does it. It’s not quite as easy and obvious as you might think.
1979
DS#129 LW p.86 read this article
Tim Shaw
▪ Sometimes a little finesse in the way we work can be as important as the basic job. In fact, lutherie is all about finesse. If you glue your pearl pieces in place before tracing them Shaw’s bit of finesse may save you some broken shell.
1979
DS#102 LW p.87 read this article
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ Traditional ways of decorating instruments follow a narrow path. The author uses gold leaf to enhance his inlays. The path grows a little bit wider. Includes 3 illustrations of the steps involved.
1979
DS#104 LW p.87 read this article
Steve Goodale
▪ The author offers a way to attach the pattern to the pearl, and a method of coloring the pearl.
1978
DS#88 LW p.78
Tim Olsen
▪ Are you tired of rosettes that are just rings around the soundhole? Here’s a jumping off point if you want to take the plunge. The next step is to get rid of the round soundhole. With 3 diagrams.
1976
DS#29 read this article
John Thierman
▪ Inlay is the process by which one substance is inserted into a background, then sanded off flush, creating a pattern within the background substance.
1975
DS#7
Tim Olsen
▪ Use fine wood dust and epoxy for inlay. Duh. But this was 1975, and the first time anybody said it in print.