2023
AL#150 p.66
Harry Fleishman
▪ Snip a drinking straw at an angle to make a great tool for clearing wet glue squeezeout. And theres a sharpee thats better than a Sharpee-brand sharpee. Plus more simple things. Like, get the good brand of pencils.
2023
AL#150 p.68
Dan Alexander
▪ Make your sanding dish even more useful.
2023
AL#150 p.68
Paul Dzatko
▪ Apply superglue with a quill pen that you made from a Q-tip.
2023
AL#150 p.69
Steve Kennel
▪ Make try squares and bevel squares with clear-plastic blades.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Steve Kennel
▪ Easy alignment for guitar mold halves.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Terence Warbey
▪ No-slip scarf joint clamping.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Danl Brazinski
▪ K&K pickup positioning and gluing tool.
2023
AL#150 p.50
Carl Hallman
▪ Author Carl Hallman likes to develop methods and jigs that let the various operations involved in making a fine guitar repeatable and accurate. This one is an evolution of an idea used for making bolt-on necks for solidbodies, adapted for an acoustic guitar neck with a full heel and angled peghead.
2023
AL#150 p.54
John Kruse
▪ Like you might have heard, it is possible to locate a buzzing fret on a guitar that uses metal strings by exploiting the fact that an electical connection would be made when the string briefly touched the fret. It can be hard to see a flickering light or see a response on a VOM. This little project is optimized to make that contact visible and audible.
2023
AL#150 p.56
Jeffrey R. Elliott
▪ Whatever the task may be, million-year GAL member Jeff Elliott does it right. Here he turns his attention to a jig for accurately placing and cleanly cutting a side sound port in a classical guitar.
2023
AL#150 p.2
Michael Breid
▪
2023
AL#150 p.4
January Williams
▪ The Hammond Glider saw is a rare and wonderful thing. It was intended to cut type metal, but we get guidance on using it to cut wood. Mentions Ken Parker.
2023
AL#150 p.16
Mark French
▪ Richard R.E. Bruné was in the GALs very first cohort and was an author and convention presenter from the very beginning. Weve visited him a couple of times over the decades. His son Marshall was born into the business, and into the Guild. Together they run a large workshop and epicenter of classical guitar making, scholarship restoration, appreciation, and dealing.
2023
AL#150 p.32
January Williams
▪ Author Williams bought the lutherie estate of the late Denny Stevens several years ago. He has taken an archeological approach to it, pondering over the nicely crafted gizmos he has discovered, and reporting them to us as he figures out the function of the various treasures.
2023
AL#150 p.44
William T. Crocca
▪ A group of mature woodworkers set themselves the challenge of designing and presenting a two-day class in which kids and families can build a StewMac uke kit. It involved setting up twenty workstations. The class was a success, and everyone went home with a strung uke in the white.
2023
AL#149 p.4
Mike Doolin Ken Parker
▪ Can you believe we have never met this guy? Hes a giant of the American Lutherie Boom, he was at the Guilds 1979 Convention, and he has been a GAL member for over twenty years. The world knows him as the maker of the Fly solidbody guitar, but now he has returned to his first love: the archtop guitar. Mentions Larry Fishman, John D’Angelico, Jimmy D’Aquisto, Scott Chinery, Orville Gibson, Lloyd Loar, Raphael Ciani, Nick Lucas, Michael Greenfield, Sam Zygmuntowicz.
2023
AL#149 p.42
John Calkin
▪ One operation at a time, Calkin is showing us how to make ukes in a direct and effective way. Its all done by one worker with simple tools in a small space. Here he shows us how to get the back onto the ribs quickly and accurately, with no cleanup needed.
2023
AL#149 p.54
Robert Hamm
▪ Sometimes you need a bicycle. That is, something between a skateboard and an automobile. This slick little shop-built unit lives in the space between a full-sized auto-feed belt sander and a Robo-sander drum chucked up in a drill press.
2023
AL#149 p.58
Jon Sevy
▪ A couple of cheap gizmos from Harbor Freight can be cobbled together to let you measure the thickness of the sides or plates of an assembled guitar.
2023
AL#149 p.60
Bob Gleason
▪ Sure, you can fit the sole of a bridge to its soundboard by putting sandpaper on the tender spruce or cedar and rubbing the bridge on it. But this jig is easier and safer.
2023
AL#149 p.62
Mark French
▪ This super-simple table saw jig is a strip of plywood with two alignment pins in drilled holes. Easy to make and to use.
2023
AL#149 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ Warm up that brown paper tape with a hair dryer before you pull it off. Softens it up and makes it less likely to tear out wood fibers. Thats a simple thing.
2023
AL#149 p.69
Brent Benfield
▪ Ever snip out a piece from a plan drawing to use as a template? It will work so much better if you put clear tape on both faces of the edge.
2023
AL#149 p.69
Dan Alexander
▪ Those big eraser-like logs of rubber that you may use to clean a sanding belt can yield sweet little sanding blocks.
2023
AL#149 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ Kennel is a sculptor. He sees a pile of scraps and misc hardware and builds a swanky-lookin’ fretwire roller. He’s on a roll. (Get it? Roll?) So he makes a guitar hanger that plugs into a workbench dog hole.
2023
AL#148 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ Kennel builds an electric aluminum bending iron. It’s sturdy. Like, you could plow a field with it.
2023
AL#148 p.39
January Williams
▪ Williams purchased the lutherie estate of Denny Stevens. In a sort of archeological exercise, he digs through a pile of jigs and considers their possible functions.
2023
AL#148 p.54
John Calkin
▪ Get serious about building ukes in spherically-radiused workboards. These dishes are easily built from lumberyard material and use a drill press for power.
2023
AL#148 p.60
Bob Gleason
▪ It looks like one of those fancy powered rolling-pin sanders, but it does not spin. It just works.
2023
AL#148 p.69
Peggy Stuart
▪ This gentle setup does not suck up the chips with a screaming vacuum, but lets them fall through a grating with a calming pitter-pat.
2023
AL#148 p.70
Michael Breid
▪ A slice of dowel, a rivet, a strip of sandpaper, and you’re in business.
2022
AL#147 p.56
John Calkin
▪ In lutherie work, you often need to make something accurately perpendicular to the instruments centerline. Squares designed for carpenters and machinists dont do the job as well as these simple and inexpensive clear-plastic tools.
2022
AL#147 p.60
Roger Haggstrom
▪ They say you can improve the sound of a new guitar by attaching a machine that will provide direct vibration to the instrument for a few days, simulating the breaking-in that might occur from months of playing. Not surprisingly, “they” will also sell you such a machine. But what else might work? Ask a luthier who also publishes a magazine for exotic fish fanciers, and he might suggest belting an aquarium air pump to the face of the guitar.
2022
AL#147 p.62
Brent Benfield
▪ There are several ways to make a nice tightly-closing seam for a back or top guitar plate. Heres a low stress method that uses a granite slab, some sticky-back sandpaper, two little C clamps, and a plywood scrap.
2022
AL#147 p.65
James Condino
▪ Condino loves this lavish book about the history and construction of the Neapolitan (or tater bug) mandolin, which runs from classic to contemporary.
2022
AL#147 p.69
Mark French
▪ Thumb too fat for a plastic thumbpick? Fix it with hot water. The pick, not the thumb.
2022
AL#147 p.69
Michael Breid
▪ Make a handle for skinny nut files from a standard hinge.
2022
AL#146 p.70
Mark French
▪ Make a quick and dirty guitar humidifier out of materials you may actually have in your pocket, like a ball point pen and some lint. Kidding about the lint.
2022
AL#147 p.18
Beau Hannam
▪ In a former lutherie life, Hannam cut saddle slots with a big honkin milling machine. A change of situation led him to design this practical and straightforward router jig to do the job. He gives clear and detailed instructions for building and using it.
2022
AL#146 p.2
Rich Jaouen
▪ The zinc in galvanized sheet steel can be safely used for bending guitar sides, contrary to widly distributed opinions.
2022
AL#146 p.26
John Calkin
▪ David Thormahlen started making many kinds of string instruments in the woodshop in college, and then made a strategic decision to focus his lutherie career on lever harps. It all worked out well, and he still makes guitars, mandolins, and bouzoukis in addition to the harps. He shows us some of his gluing fixtures which involve bicycle inner tubes; some stretched, some inflated.
2022
AL#146 p.58
Beau Hannam
▪ These simple plywood squares with dowel halves glued to them can replace all the carefully shaped side cauls that thousands of luthiers have been using for decades. Sometimes one size really does fit all.
2022
AL#145 p.25
Evan Gluck
▪ Imagine you were a guitar repair guy, and there was another guitar repair guy in your same town. What would you do about it? If you were Evan Gluck, or any other enlightened, right-thinking luthier, you would march right over there and make him your best friend. These guys have a blast “competing” in the same market, sharing stories, customers, tools, and techniques. And yes, it does help if your hometown has over eight million people in it. Mentions Brian Moore, Dan Erlewine, Michael Bashkin, Ian Davlin, Jimmy Carbonetti.
2022
AL#145 p.38
Roger Haggstrom
▪ Haggstromm uses a commercially-available radiused sanding block, a few scraps of wood, and a handful of parts from the hardware store to make this simple jig. It that lets him quickly and quietly produce a fretboard with the radius and the relief accurately sanded in.
2022
AL#145 p.58
Phil Ingber
▪ Mounting an electric bending iron in such a way that it pokes up out of a work surface helps you avoid a twist in the bent side. Mentions Ted Harlan, R.M. Mottola.
2021
AL#144 p.70
Steve Kennel
▪ Make a dead-blow hammer out of stuff you might find around the shop.
2021
AL#144 p.70
Jason Hull
▪ Fret erasers are easier to use if you attach them to a handle, especially if you have carpal tunnel syndrome.
2021
AL#144 p.71
Michael Breid
▪ Make tiny C clamps from hardware-store parts.
2021
AL#144 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ How to take the warp, cup, and twist out of a plank. You attach scrap-wood rails that carry it through a planer in the proper orientation.
2021
AL#143 p.69
Bob Gleason
▪ Rare-earth magnets recessed into the back of a piece of plywood let it act as a quick-and-easy zero-throat jig for ripping narrow strips for kerfing and binding. Each edge is a different setup.
2021
AL#143 p.69
Aaron Cash
▪ Off-brand hand planes with the iron and cap missing are rightfully cheap in junk stores. They can be affixed with carpet tape onto things like radiused sanding beams to give you a better grip.
2021
AL#143 p.71
Jon Sevy
▪ Little rare-earth button magnets are cheap. Sevy cleverly recesses them into a peghead face to hold the truss rod cover in place with no screws. He figures the cover is less likely to be misplaced by the guitar’s owner if they don’t need to use a screw driver to put it back on.
2021
read this article
John Calkin
▪ Bang some hunks of particle board together to make the simple jigs you need, in this case a 90 degree fence for a horizontal belt sander. Remember to write on them what they are.
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.
2021
AL#143 p.54
Harry Fleishman
▪ Start with the cheap half of one of those little bench-top drill presses. Add a small piece of plywood with some holes drilled in it. Bolt on a vise. Now you have Vise on a Stick, which can clamp to any bench top and can swivel and tilt all over the place. It’s especially great for bringing a good solid vise up to eye level.
2021
AL#143 p.56
Steve Dickerson
▪ The author hit on an unusual program for building his first uke. He bought a kit, but then set aside the good wood for a later build. He went to the lumberyard to buy cheap wood, then proceeded with reduced anxiety. Makes sense when you think about it. The humble uke came out fine.
2021
AL#142 p.68
Steve Kennel
▪ Sacrifice a wobbly old Workmate to make a nice guitar holding rig for your bench top.
2021
AL#142 p.70
Steve Dickerson
▪ Make your own cabinet scrapers and burnishers from stuff you may easily find lying around.
2021
AL#142 p.14
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ In this article the peg head is shaped and drilled, the neck shaft is slotted for the truss rod, the heel is formed, and the neck is fitted to the body.
2021
AL#142 p.52
Terence Warbey
▪ Not only does Warbey make the entire bending form and the outside mold from a single sheet, but the form pops apart like a Swedish Christmas ornament and stores flat in a plastic bag. Mentions Charles Fox and Mark French.
2021
AL#142 p.58
Bob Gleason
▪ A big honkin’ C clamp for pressing home a dovetail joint can be easily built from plywood, wood scrap, cork, and a commercially available press screw. It can just as well be pretty, because that’s fun. And if you don’t see what’s fun about it, maybe lutherie is not for you.
2020
AL#141 p.58
John Calkin
▪ There’s no fancy-schmancy foolin’ around at Calkin’s shop. Your bench is covered in projects and tools? Make a little benchtop on legs and let it stand above the clutter. Wish your bench had a radiused top? Make a tiny one that does. Frustrated by cam clamps that don’t reach the middle of your workbench? You know what to do.
2020
AL#141 p.66
Chris Garland
▪ Heat them and stretch them to make super-skinny ends.
2020
AL#141 p.68
Steve Kennel
▪ Plastic pipe scraps with sticky sandpaper .
2020
AL#141 p.7
Charles Fox Mark French
▪ In this episode of the landmark series, the back and top plates are braced and glued to the rim to form the body of the guitar. The body is then bound and purfled using Fox’ distinctive method of fitting everything dry, taping it in place, and running superglue into the seams.
2020
AL#141 p.41
Erik Wolters
▪ Wolters started his first instrument-making project later in life than some. But with an excellent mentor and years of patient determination, he completed a doozy of a first guitar. Dreams can come true. At least lutherie dreams.
2020
AL#140 p.20
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ Building a Charles Fox guitar reveals the beautifully developed interdependence between the design and the process. In this episode we rough out the neck, work with the unusual neck block and the distinctive two-part lining, and then brace the top and back plates.
2020
AL#140 p.58
Bob Gleason
▪ Straightedges that are notched to fit over frets have become popular tools for judging the straightness of fretboards, and for projecting the surface of the board for setting neck angles. You can make your own, with the advantage that you can use any fret scale. Here’s how.
2019
AL#138 p.63
Gregg Miller
▪ A throw-away garment clamp from the dry-cleaning place happens to be a fine thing for clamping kerfed lining into a guitar.
2019
AL#138 p.65
Ralf Grammel
▪ Sometimes the bent binding needs a little more convincing to lie down at the waist than just a piece of tape. This easily-made set of jaws for a pistol-grip clamp gets teh job done.
2020
AL#139 p.26
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ If, some day, there is a Mt. Rushmore for the American Lutherie Boom, the ruggedly handsome face of Charles Fox will be boldly chisled in a place of honor. For over half a century he has led the way as developer and teacher of guitar-making methods and tooling. He is also a thoughtful and articulate philosopher of the craft, whose words will inspire luthiers yet unborn. Here’s the first in a series of four articles which will cover his process, and his thinking behind it, in detail.
2020
AL#139 p.42
Erick Coleman Evan Gluck
▪ Erick and Evan (the two Es) are back with more helpful hints for the guitar repair shop. Some of the things they show are nicely developed professional tools, like for leveling frets while the guitar is still under string tension. Then there’s a diagnostic tool that is just a stick, a guitar string, and a salvaged tuning machine. If you think that’s gronk, how about the tool that Evan calls “my string.” It’s just a string. Not even a guitar string. Mentions gluing frets, DeoxIT, WD40, tri-Flow, slotting bridge pins, regluing bridges, fret nipper, notching fret tang, Matt Brewster, fret leveler bar, StewMac, Stewart-MacDonald, bridge removal, shark skin, fret rocker, fret leveler. From their workshop at the 2017 GAL Convention.
2019
AL#138 p.63
Harry Fleishman
▪ It’s easy to modify standard hardware-store spade bits for special purposes, like making a recess around a control knob.
2019
AL#138 p.63
Steve Dickerson
▪ Make a cheap and easy nut vise out of two wood scraps and a few inches of masking tape.
2019
AL#138 p.2
David Laupmanis
▪ The author built a springless magnetic thickness gauge from Mike Doolin’s article in AL109. It works fine. He presents a photo. It should be noted that Doolin’s model was inspired by the work of Alaine Bieber, writing in AL96.
2019
AL#138 p.63
Fabio Ragghianti
▪ A guitar string scrap is the perfect cleaner for a superglue snout.
2019
AL#137 p.44
Todd Mylet
▪ As a repairman in a busy guitar shop, Todd Mylet has a lot of Martin-style neck resets under his belt. There is a lot involved in doing it right. Todd presents a detailed account of his well-considered and time-tested method.
2019
AL#137 p.64
Peter Hurney
▪ A thoroughly hot-rodded wooden clothespin becomes an evolved lining clamp.
2019
AL#137 p.65
C.F. Casey
▪ With a simple L-shaped block of scrap wood, you can easily mark the bottom of a fretboard overhang.
2019
AL#136 p.54
Mark French
▪ Author Mark French has made a lot of guitars over the years, but when he wanted to up his game he attended an intensive two-week course by the dean of all American lutherie teachers, Charles Fox. Four students each built a guitar in the white from scratch and strung it up.
2019
AL#136 p.65
Doug Berch
▪ Inexpensive golden taklon paint brushes are great for glue.
2018
AL#134 p.66
Lee Herron
▪ Quickly make a set of spreaders that will keep slackened strings out of your way and off the lacquer while you file a set of frets.
2018
AL#134 p.66
Steve Kennel
▪ Make a wooden screwdriver for use on nice, shiny guitars.
2018
AL#135 p.30
Kerry Char
▪ Kerry Char sawed the top off an old Gibson flattop in front of a group of several dozen luthiers at the 2017 GAL Convention. And within the same hour he pried the back off a Knutsen harp guitar. Step by step photos.
2018
AL#135 p.45
Juan Oscar Azaret
▪ Tap on a guitar. Or listen to just the first fraction of a second as you pluck a note. Those tiny samples contain a wealth of information. Our brains already form an impression of the guitar’s sound, long before the first second has elapsed. Computers can reveal the math behind the music and help us understand and visualize what is happening. Good basic info about the FFT, that is, the Fast Fourier Transform, and how the information in a guitar tap can be viewed in the time domain or the frequency domain.
2018
AL#135 p.58
Mark French
▪ Want a robot lutherie apprentice? It is here today and it is cheap. But it doesn’t look like something from the Jetsons. It looks like this; a digital readout connected to a lead screw. With a friendly whirr, it will move the saw guide right up to the next fret position for you. But get your own dang coffee.
2018
AL#135 p.64
Stephen Mangold
▪ Make a tiny chisle from an X-acto blade. It will be 0.020 inches wide, good for getting into fret slots.
2018
AL#135 p.64
Steve Dickerson
▪ Improvise a simple table saw from a cordless circular saw and a piece of MDF.
2018
AL#135 p.65
Brent Benfield
▪ Use Post-it notes to accurately position braces for gluing, and simplify the removal of squeezed-out glue.
2018
AL#135 p.67
Ron Hock
▪ What’s the right kind of steel for a Paracho knife blade? The real ones that they make in Mexico appear to be made form Sawz-all blades. Is high-speed steel the right thing?
2018
AL#133 p.65
Rodney Stedall
▪ Sand perfect angles on the nut end of peghead laminations.
2018
AL#133 p.65
C.F. Casey
▪ Place rare-earth magnets for crack repair inside acoustic guitars the easy way.
2018
AL#133 p.65
Ed Smith
▪ Use the truss-rod slot in a neck for a simple holding jig.
2018
AL#133 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ Source of plastic rulers.
2018
AL#134 p.16
Tim Olsen
▪ Ken Warmoth is one of the pioneers of the Strat-compatible guitar parts scene, starting small in the 1970s and working up to the sophisticated operation he runs today. He’s a born engineer, constantly refining and rethinking each operation for better accuracy and efficiency. Of course these days that involves CNC machines, and he’s got them. But you may be surprised to see which operations use them and which don’t. Our last visit with Ken was in 1991, so there is some catching up to do.
2018
AL#134 p.60
Mark French David Zachman
▪ There are times when a luthier may want to draw a good long-radius arch. If jury-rigging a 25-foot compass seems like a hassle, you may have been tempted to just bend a straight stick a little and call it good. Turns out that’s a better solution than you may have thought. This article evaluates several techniques and gives the math that undergirds them.
2018
AL#134 p.66
January Williams
▪ There are pencils that do a good job of writing on sawn lumber.
2018
AL#133 p.22
R.M. Mottola Mark French
▪ Mark French was a kid who took guitar lessons and paid the guy at the music store to change his strings. He went on to be an aerospace engineer, but with all that book learning he still did not know how guitars worked. Now he teaches college courses on guitar making and hangs out with captains of industry at Fender and Taylor.
2018
AL#133 p.54
Edmond Rampen
▪ OK, we are probably some distance yet from pushing a button and 3D-printing a functioning guitar. And if you think that something about that sounds kinda crepy and disappointing, you just might be a luthier. But what we are talking about in this article is entirely different: Using surprisingly inexpensive printers to make templates, tools, and parts for guitars. The future is here, people. Get into this while you wait for your hover car.
2018
AL#133 p.60
Jay Anderson
▪ Here’s a simple device that lets you string, play, and set up a flattop guitar before you glue the bridge on.
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.65
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry loves to learn, and then to teach. Although he has been leveling frets for half a century, he’s always rethinking it and keeping his eyes open for better ways to do it. Here he shows us his latest tools and tips for doing more by doing less.
2017
AL#132 p.65
Doug Berch
▪ A scrap of kerfed lining with a bit of sticky sandpaper can quickly and accurately clean up a binding ledge. And if it is quick and accurate, we like it.
2017
AL#130 p.65
Paul Neri
▪ A simple gizmo helps tighten a banjo head evenly and quickly.
2017
AL#130 p.28
Erick Coleman Evan Gluck Eron Harding
▪ Erick, Evan, and Eron called this workshop “Making Bread with Bread-and-Butter Repairs.” Their emphasis was on tools and techniques to help you get a lot of the usual repair jobs done in a short time and at a high level of quality. from their 2014 GAL Convention workshop.
2017
AL#130 p.42
Paul Schmidt Jason Harshbarger
▪ A lot of the makers that we meet in the pages of American Lutherie are grizzled veterans of the early days. Not this one. Harshbarger is a young single father who went to lutherie school in the late 1990s, then survived on cabinet work until he could build a lutherie shop in his basement. His steel-string design work uses Steve Klein’s work as a point of departure, and moves forward boldly from there.
2017
AL#130 p.2
James Condino
▪ James Condino remembers his friend and mentor Eugene Clark.
2017
AL#130 p.6
Tim Olsen Jason Lollar
▪ Jason Lollar attended the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery way back when founders John Roberts and Bob Venn were still instructors. Jason went on to do a lot of guitar repair and some guitar making, but his early interest in winding pickups eventually grew into a twenty-person shop specializing in reproducing vintage models.
2016
AL#128 p.66
Terence Warbey
▪ Glue temporary tabs onto your guitar plates to align them during construction.
2017
AL#128 p.67
Paul Neri
▪ Turn a rat-tail comb into a string wrangler.
2016
AL#128 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ Make an adjustably-magnetic screwdriver.
2017
AL#129 p.38
Steve Denvir Dave Collins
▪ Dave Collins is a rising star on the guitar repair scene. Take a look at a couple of nice jigs he has developed; one for slotting saddles, one for regluing broken headstocks. Interestingly, he is in the same Ann Arbor third-storey shop previously tenanted by Herb David. Dave counts Dan Erlewine and Bryan Galloup among his mentors.
2016
AL#128 p.8
Alan Perlman
▪ Perlman runs though a restoration job on a Torres guitar, replacing a side and copying fancy purflings. Then he builds a replica of a Stahl Style 6 flattop. So when you are copying a century-old American guitar, how far do you go in the name of authenticity? Do you match the faded tones of the purfling, or use the nice bright colors that the Larson Brothers liked? Do you let the glue blobs roam free like they did, or get all tidy like a nervous modern maker? From his 2014 convention lecture.
2015
AL#123 p.62
Greg Nelson
▪ Controlling the distance between the pin and the bit is the whole game when cutting circles with a router. Here’s a new way to do it that offers very fine control and no threads. Elegant!.
2009
AL#99 p.52
Ryan Schultz
▪ There’s just enough math here to make our brains cloud over, so most folks should get along fine. It’s still not as easy to build as a spoke-built dish, but if you’re cheap and must have a one-piece dish it should work just fine. With 4 photos, a depth chart, and one drawing.
2008
AL#96 p.49
Alain Bieber
▪ You, too, can make a gauge for measuring the plate thickness of finished instrument, and Bieber’s tool comes in at 1/30th the cost of a commercial tool. With 2 photos and a drawing.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2008
AL#96 p.50
Bob Gleason
▪ A low key (not to mention fun) description of how uke making varies from guitar making. Gleason also describes some of the varieties Hawaiian wood he likes to work with, a slick method for removing lacquer from the bridge foot print, and some of the construction tricks he has come up with. Owning a shop in Hawaii must surely take the lutherie life to another level. With 15 photos.
2008
AL#96 p.58
David Golber
▪ The author got tired of hard-to-use commercial peg shapers, so he made a better one of his own. He describes it as a tool for actual human beings. With 6 photos and a drawing.
2007
AL#91 p.40 read this article
Bruce Creps
▪ Just about everything you’ll need to know about setting up a bandsaw for resawing and getting the most yield from your lumber. The emphasis is on the Hitachi CB75F resaw, but much of the info will translate to other bandsaws. Included is a good side bar on resharpening bandsaw blades. With 10 photos and 6 drawings.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2007
AL#89 p.22 ALA2 p.26
Ken Altman
▪ Watch Altman construct a 3″ plane from brass stock and steel for the blade — a very cool and elegant tool for lutherie that’s not too hard to make and requires few tools to construct. With 25 photos.
2005
AL#82 p.68 BRB7 p.498
Marc Connelly
▪ Making a hex wrench long enough to insert through the end pin hole to bolt on a guitar neck.
2005
AL#82 p.69 BRB7 p.499
Barry Irvin
▪ Filling oral-dosing syringes with leftover glue, using the supplied caps and putting them in the freezer for small doses in future jobs.
2005
AL#81 p.65 BRB7 p.498
Ervin Somogyi
▪ You know how you see new cars being shipped to the dealer’s lot with big sheets of protective film on them so the bug spalts will peel off? Similar thought here. Paper protectors are made for polished pegheads.
2004
AL#80 p.65 BRB7 p.496
Dale Randall
▪ With this arrangement, fresh glue can be injected straight from the bottle through plastic tubing which terminates in a brass ink holder from a ballpoint pen which serves as an injection needle.
2004
AL#80 p.46 BRB7 p.270
Eugene Clark Jonathon Peterson
▪ Scratch tools are like one-tooth saws. One of Eugene’s has a chisel tip, the other a pointed tip.The detail knife has only one bevel and is intended to make right hand cuts only. Descriptions of their uses are included. With 7 photos.
2004
AL#78 p.68 BRB7 p.492
Michael Breid
▪ Making a brace prop gauge from a dowel, brass tubing, and scrap dowel for the knob.
2004
AL#78 p.69 BRB7 p.493
Mark Brantley
▪ Modifying the Rockwell trim router to route the edge of guitars and ukuleles for binding.
2004
AL#79 p.64 BRB7 p.64
Dennis Russell
▪ A Eureka Hotshot steamer purchased at Home Depot and rigged up for use on violins, cellos, and anything else that has hide glue joints.
2004
AL#79 p.64 BRB7 p.494
William G. Snavely
▪ Using rectangular-section steel tubing rather than radiused sanding blocks to shape a fretboard which tends to over-radius the edges.
2004
AL#77 p.38 BRB7 p.416
Peggy Stuart Don MacRostie
▪ The epic continues! In this segment the neck is assembled, the body is closed up and bound, and the fingerboard is bound and fretted. All this is accomplished under the able tutelage of Don MacRostie at the American School of Lutherie. With 67 photos. Parts 1 and 2 were in the two previous issues of American Lutherie.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2004
AL#77 p.54 BRB7 p.186
Peter Hurney
▪ Hurney’s pantograph uses chain drive and a chainsaw carving attachment on an angle-grinder to shape ukulele necks. The scale of the machine can be adjusted for whatever size neck you wish to carve. There are 7 photos and a series of diagrams to help you along, but if you’re not already a mechanic you’d have to be pretty adventurous to build one of these without help.
2004
AL#77 p.67 BRB7 p.491
C.F. Casey
▪ Making use of undamaged portions of a dozuki saw blade after some teeth have been chipped out.
2004
AL#78 p.4 BRB7 p.174
Dan Erlewine Frank Ford
▪ A ton of guitar repairs can only be accomplished by reaching through the soundhole. Here, two masters of the genre describe some of their methods a working in the cramped darkness, some of the tools they’ve used and/or created, and the attitude you have to acquire when getting stumped and handing back an unrepaired guitar is not an option. With 32 photos.
2004
AL#78 p.62 BRB7 p.172
Robert Deacon
▪ Using templates to slot a fingerboard is the way to go, whether you use a miter box or a table saw. The author doesn’t mention it, but his templates should work as well for table saw people as for the miter box folks. Of course, this is for making templates for scale lengths not offered by the manufacturer of the templates. With 2 photos and 3 diagrams.
2003
AL#76 p.28 BRB7 p.416
Peggy Stuart Don MacRostie
▪ Stuart continues her tale of learning to make a mandolin under the tutelage of Don MacRostie. In this episode of the four-part series, jigs and power tools become more important as the instrument comes together. This isn’t about becoming Geppetto, plying one’s trade with a knife and a chisel. This is about making mandolins in the real world. Routers and tablesaws are staple items, as are several impressive jigs created by MacRostie. With 37 photos and 3 drawings.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#76 p.41 BRB7 p.137
Mike Doolin
▪ Fanned-Fret fingerboards use those wacky, slanted frets you’ve probably seen on some “California” guitars. So how does one cut those slots accurately? Doolin has worked out a method—make the ‘board its own miter box. Pretty cool. With 5 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#75 p.6 BRB7 p.86
Geza Burghardt Cyndy Burton
▪ Geza Burghhardt builds classical guitars on a workboard rather than a mold, but it isn’t just any old workboard. Its carefully jigged up for accuracy and guitar-to-guitar consistency and his jigs are nearly as pretty as his guitars. Well, to another luthier, anyhow. With 17 photos.
2003
AL#75 p.69 BRB7 p.490
Peter Giolitto
▪ A self-aligning saw to produce kerfed linings using two cheap identical back saws.
2003
AL#74 p.44 BRB7 p.70
Mike Doolin
▪ An evolution of the familiar Fox bender idea. Another example (two in one issue!) of Doolin’s genius for creating effective tools that any of us can build to fill a void in our shop routine. With 6 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#74 p.55 BRB7 p.47
Rodney Stedall
▪ The author includes a formula for creating radiused workboards as well as a method of making them with a router. With 2 photos.
2003
AL#74 p.56 BRB7 p.74
Bruce Petros
▪ Using old organ-building technology it’s possible to switch onoff the same machine from a number of workstations. Here’s how, with 4 photos and a pair of drawings.
2003
AL#74 p.66 BRB7 p.490
Dave Dillman
▪ A simple wrench made from a piece of dowel to spin the wing nuts of the spool clamps snug when clamping the top or back.
2003
AL#73 p.69 BRB7 p.487
Eugene Clark
▪ Part 2 of 2: Eugene Clark describes his simple veneer scraper, mounted in a vise.
2003
AL#74 p.19 BRB7 p.31
Mike Doolin
▪ No, this isn’t a machine for sanding dishes. You’d find that in Good Housekeeping. This is a motorized, dished workboard for sanding the contours of arched plates into your assembled instrument sides. It beats doing it by hand by miles, and Doolin’s clever design looks easier to build than others.
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.
2003
AL#73 p.54 BRB7 p.28
Mike Doolin
▪ Perhaps you’d care to make all your necks look and feel the same, just as the big factories do. Perhaps you’d like to make them a lot faster while you’re at it. And do it all on a budget? Doolin’s machine may be just what you were looking for. With 8 photos and several diagrams.
2002
AL#69 p.36
Andrew Atkinson
▪ The author’s focus is on recreating a lute maker’s shop, circa the late 16th century. Old paintings provide some of his most valuable research materials. He is not only interested in old tools, but in the old ways of making those tools. With 2 photos.
2001
AL#67 p.40 BRB6 p.260
Peter Giolitto
▪ Scraper planes are good for dressing down figured wood without tearing them up or following the grain. Here’s how to make one. With a photo and 5 drawings.
2001
AL#66 p.57 BRB6 p.538 read this article
John Calkin
▪ The reviewer decides that if you want to make your first knife you just about can’t go wrong with this book.
2001
AL#65 p.22 BRB6 p.210
John Calkin
▪ The dished workboard can make it easier to make better guitars. Calkin reveals several ways to make them more versatile, more accurate, and more fun to use. With 13 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#58 p.58 BRB5 p.501
Andrea Andalo
▪ A simple device to hold guitars during the finishing phase which consists of an upright which can be held in a vise and a workboard which the neck can be secured.
1999
AL#58 p.58 BRB5 p.501
John Monteleone
▪ A good method for finding the height of mandolin family sides using a violin soundpost height gauge.
1999
AL#58 p.59 BRB5 p.503
Peter Giolitto
▪ An easy way to make dished forms using plaster to create the dished surface.
1999
AL#57 p.46 BRB5 p.330
Kevin B. Rielly
▪ By now we all know about using dished workboards to create a radius on flat instrument plates. Rielly’s board is easier to make than most, and can be adjusted for either the top or back radius. With 6 photos.
1999
AL#57 p.11 BRB5 p.297
John Calkin
▪ Calkin was hired by Huss and Dalton to take over their guitar binding. His story includes a description of how to make wood binding, and covers the hand tools he uses during the binding procedure. With 6 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#57 p.14 BRB5 p.302
Frank Ford Don MacRostie
▪ The authors believe that hot hide glue is the best adhesive for virtually all construction and most repair jobs. Here’s why they think so and how they handle this ancient material. Includes diagrams of the customized glue pots used by both men, 15 photos, and a hide glue grading chart.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#57 p.40 BRB5 p.317
John Calkin
▪ Calkin builds a uniquely shaped travel guitar called the True Companion, and here explains its construction as well as the jigs he devised for production building. The plan is a mini-version of GAL Plan #44. With 14 photos, including one of the sternest luthier of the year. Ya’ll remember to smile when it’s your turn!
1999
AL#57 p.43 BRB5 p.321
John Calkin
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1998
AL#56 p.65 BRB5 p.500
Kevin B. Rielly
▪ A simple $1 bender design as an alternative to bending frets with pliers or a variable fret bender which takes less than 30 minutes to assemble.
1998
AL#55 p.54 BRB5 p.497
Filippo Avignonesi
▪ A jig to make joints for attaching necks to bodies; both heel and body are slotted and joined by a flat wooden spline.
1998
AL#55 p.63 BRB5 p.477
Bishop Cochran
▪ The reviewer finds that this book is weak on pickup design considerations but that it will ultimately set the luthier free to customize his sound and escape the high cost of commercial pickups.
1998
AL#54 p.26 BRB5 p.198
Graham McDonald
▪ Advice about building an Irish instrument with a Greek name from an Australian in an American magazine. You could get jet lag just thinking about it. McDonald covers the construction of the entire instrument (his neck joint is really slick) but the focal point is his top construction. He steams thick flat plates in the oven and bends them into an arch until they set. After joining there is a minimum of carving yet to be done. All this is in the name of saving time and timber. With 9 photos and a pair of drawings.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1998
AL#54 p.38 BRB5 p.127
John Calkin
▪ Inspired by his time spent at Fox’s American School of Lutherie, Calkin revamps his whole building procedure. Dished workboards turn out to be easy and cheap to make. Mando, uke, and dulcimer sides are bent with an electric silicone blanket. Molds are revamped. Speed and precision are in, drudgery is out (well, almost). Parts 1 and 2 were in American Lutherie #52 and #53, respectively. With 25 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1998
AL#53 p.32 BRB5 p.108
John Calkin
▪ In AL#52 we looked at the tools and jigs Charles Fox uses to build acoustic guitars. In Part 2 we examine how that equipment is put to use as Fox takes us through the procedure of building a classical guitar at his American School of Lutherie. Most of this info will be just as useful to the steel string builder, as well. With 55 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1998
AL#53 p.44 BRB5 p.178
John Calkin George Fortune Jr. Stan Olah
▪ Fortune is a self-taught fiddle maker and instrument repairman in rural Virginia. To many of his neighbors he is known simply as the Fiddle Man. Perhaps Americans aren’t losing their independent spirit, but often it feels like it. Calkin pays tribute to a man who seems to represent a whole way of life. With 7 photos.
1997
AL#52 p.12 BRB5 p.108
John Calkin
▪ The main thrust of Fox’s American School of Lutherie lies in teaching lone guitarmakers to make better instruments through more accurate tooling and in helping them become more commercially viable by increasing their production. Calkin attended one of Charles’ week-long Contemporary Guitar Making seminars and documented much of the hard info for American Lutherie readers. This segment concentrates on nearly 3 dozen jigs and fixtures that anyone can add to their lutherie arsenal, most of them adapted to power tools. With 57 photos. Parts 2 & 3 to follow.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1997
AL#51 p.16
David Grey
▪ Grey’s nifty jig uses a table router to bind guitar bodies. The classiest part is the micrometer adjustments built into the jig. With 2 photos and 5 good drawings.
1997
AL#51 p.36 BRB5 p.143
Nathan D. Missel
▪ You can build these little hollowing planes for a dollar or two and very little time. With 3 drawings to show you the way.
1997
AL#49 p.50 BRB5 p.44
Colin Kaminski Jeff Traugott
▪ Neck resetting techniques have changed enormously in the last few years, and they continue to evolve. Traugot has been in the forefront of the evolution. Here’s his up-to-the-minute description of the procedure. With 12 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1997
AL#50 p.4 BRB5 p.60
Frank Ford
▪ Ford has been a preeminent repairman for years, but has recently emerged as a fine teacher of repair topics. Everyone’s refretting tricks are a little different. Even if you have a handle on the general principle you may find that Frank Ford has something to offer you. With 29 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1996
AL#48 p.14 BRB4 p.386
Jonathon Peterson Bishop Cochran
▪ Cochran is a player/maker of electric and acoustic/electric guitars who uses machine shop equipment and supplies to create his instruments. The emphasis is on precision work, duplicable procedures, and practical designs. With 26 photos.
1996
AL#48 p.56 BRB4 p.504
Rod Hannah
▪ Using a mill bastard file to remove excess material when dressing frets.
1995
AL#44 p.57 BRB4 p.467
Andres Sender
▪ The reviewer finds that this book is particularly useful for the plane maker, and ultimately decides that it is “. . .a remarkable deal if you can find it.”
1995
AL#42 p.63 BRB4 p.493
Bill Daniels
▪ A simple sander to thickness rib stock for violins and violas.
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.58 BRB4 p.491
Robert Steinegger
▪ Temporary modification of an Everly guitar mold to a Martin 00 size.
1995
AL#42 p.46 BRB4 p.196
Duane Heilman
▪ Heilman offers plans for a drum sander that has a radius built into the drum.
1994
AL#40 p.8 BRB4 p.90
Curt Carpenter
▪ Carpenter tells of his VA-sponsored apprenticeship to a legend of the electric guitar industry. A fine string of anecdotes. Carpenter actually moved in with Doc Kauffman and his wife, relived all the old stories, learned to build guitars, visited with Leo Fender, met Rudy Dopera, and made pickups. Carpenter left the army to enter the Guitar Wars.
1994
AL#40 p.60 BRB4 p.490
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Small fluorescent lights used as inspection lights, small enough to fit through F holes.
1994
AL#39 p.53 BRB4 p.485
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Strips of masking tape twisted into long skinny tubes as alternative to double stick tape.
1994
AL#37 p.60 BRB4 p.488
John Jordan
▪ Make quick-and-dirty long drill bits from bicycle spokes.
1994
AL#38 p.36 BRB4 p.39
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Sullivan built a maximum performance thickness sander for $800 and 100 hours time.
1993
AL#36 p.39 BRB3 p.476
Wayne Kelly
▪ Make your own radiused blocks from auto body filler.
1993
AL#35 p.48 BRB3 p.368
Ralph Novak
▪ Good fretwork is complicated, but practice makes it a staple in the repairman’s income. Novak offers advice garnered from twenty-odd years in the business.
1993
AL#34 p.58 BRB3 p.491
Colin Kaminski
▪ A modified Blue Point K-1020 vacuum pump to recycle refrigerant from automotive air conditioners, per California state law.
1993
AL#34 p.18 BRB3 p.328 read this article
George Borun
▪ Not many people make the mental leap from violins to the space age easily. Borun did, and found the connection useful. His list of uses extends far beyond bending the ribs.
1993
AL#33 p.57 BRB3 p.493
Taffy Evans
▪ History of the wonder vise.
1993
AL#33 p.23 BRB3 p.476
Colin Kaminski
▪ Kaminski’s form uses two sheets of plywood of different thickness. They are stacked and screwed together down the center, and the thin sheet is curved by placing rows of wedges between them. A wood frame is built around the plywood, then polyester is poured between the sheets to make the radius permanent. It works, but it can be messy.
1993
AL#33 p.36 BRB3 p.303
Wes Brandt
▪ A well-known repairman delivers eight tips, including an alternate way to bend a Venetian cutaway, tool tips, and a way to bend sides more accurately.
1992
AL#32 p.56 BRB3 p.490
Willis Groth
▪ This pivoting work stand really is made of a bowling ball. You have to see it to understand it.
1992
AL#31 p.57 BRB3 p.487
Harry Fleishman
▪ Using clothespins for extra squeeze.
1992
AL#31 p.14 BRB3 p.218
Gavin Baird
▪ You can thin all your guitar wood on the drill press. Baird’s sander is perhaps as accurate as any. He claims control of the wood to within .001″.
1992
AL#30 p.48 BRB3 p.485
Mark Tierney
▪ An easy to make jig with a wide jawed woodworkers vise to work down the edges of thin strips of veneer or laminated binding.
1992
AL#30 p.49 BRB3 p.486
Richard Echeverria
▪ A gadget for gluing loose back braces inside acoustic guitars.
1992
AL#29 p.57 BRB3 p.484
Tim Earls
▪ Variation on a modified clothespin clamp. The original was submitted in 1980 by Bruce Scotten and appears on page 26 of Lutherie Tools.
1992
AL#29 p.57 BRB3 p.485 read this article
Gerhart Schmeltekopf
▪ Rigging up a temporary reciprocating or ‘pole’ lathe.
1991
AL#28 p.59 BRB3 p.483
Richard Echeverria
▪ An attachment rigged up for vacuuming inside flattop and archtop guitars.
1992
AL#29 p.56 BRB3 p.480
Bill Garofalo
▪ Soaking guitars sides without resorting to vats and trays, using a piece of 4″ plastic pipe with a capped end, secured vertically to a wall or cabinet.
1992
AL#29 p.56 BRB3 p.483
Bill Garofalo
▪ A bent metal sheild for cutting fret slots. Use a modified backsaw.
1991
AL#28 p.34 BRB3 p.126 ALA4 p.10
Phillip Lea Bob Taylor
▪ Few people in Guitarland are as outspoken and clear-headed as Bob Taylor. Others might say he’s just opinionated. He believes a good guitar is a good guitar, no matter if it was whittled by Gepeto or cranked out by a dozen computer-guided milling cutters. This article offers a peek into the Taylor factory and a guided tour through one man’s thoughts about the contemporary guitar. With 28 photos.
1991
AL#26 p.13 BRB3 p.480
Dale Randall
▪ Go fishing for your soundposts. Land them perfectly. This is a soundpost setter unlike any other. Really.
1991
AL#26 p.25 BRB3 p.478
Dale Randall
▪ Randall explains how to make it, but not what it’s for.
1991
AL#25 p.52 BRB3 p.30 read this article
Michael Keller
▪ Silicon heat blankets are good for more than bending sides. Keller touches upon other uses, but his instructions for making forms and putting them to use is the focus here, and they cover about all you need to know. Once you have the blanket, the forms are cheap to make.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1991
AL#25 p.55 BRB3 p.477
C.F. Casey
▪ Sports glasses, such as those worn by squash players, are an improvement on regular safety glasses.
1991
AL#25 p.55 BRB3 p.477
Dale Randall
▪ A fret crowning file that cannot possibly scratch the fretboard.
1991
AL#25 p.55 BRB3 p.477
Al Stancel
▪ How Casa Del Sol Violins solves the violin bow hair storage problem.
1991
AL#25 p.40 BRB3 p.476
Peter Schaefer
▪ Schaefer’s tool will give you control over the skinniest pieces of wood that go into your instrument.
1990
AL#24 p.57 BRB2 p.478
John Kitakis
▪ A simple lamp/heater system utilizing a cheap spring arm lamp.
1990
LT p.38
Dave Flager
▪ A wooden shaft supports the clamp.
1990
LT p.79
Ted Davis
▪ Official-looking 18″ power-feed shop-made sander requires no welding or machine shop work.
1990
AL#23 p.58 BRB2 p.429
C.F. Casey
▪ Make your own laminated maple c-clamps.
1990
AL#24 p.25 BRB2 p.449
Michael Darnton
▪ Darnton’s contrivance marks the finished thickness on violin plates that have already been carved to within 1mm-2mm of final tolerances, and it is simple to make.
1990
AL#23 p.30 BRB2 p.412
Gary Fish
▪ Fish converted a sewing machine to wrap bow handles.
1990
AL#21 p.31 read this article
Ed Beylerian
▪ Luthiers try lute molds of a new synthetic material. Its stability is pleasing but its strength may make it of limited use for some.
1989
AL#20 p.20 BRB2 p.318
Dale Randall
▪ Randall lines the entire guitar back with plexiglas mirrors while working inside the body. Looks like a fine idea.
1989
AL#20 p.32 BRB2 p.330
Jeffrey R. Elliott Jonathon Peterson
▪ The 6 tools are: a guitar cradle, a grimel (hand purfling cutter), a hand circle cutter, a shooting board, a circle cutting jig for the Dremel tool, and water stones for tool sharpening.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1989
AL#19 p.5 BRB2 p.221
Arnold M.J. Hennig
▪ Hennig gives advice about removing guitar bridges with a sharpened putty knife. He also laments the fact that popular opinion believes that guitars, unlike violins, have a “shelf life,” and as a result are often eventually neglected rather than repaired.
1989
AL#19 p.52 BRB2 p.312
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Peterson uses a cappuccino machine to steam the neck out of its joint, and wood shavings to rebuild the dovetail. In-depth text and 5 photos.
1989
AL#18 p.44 BRB2 p.246
Jack Levine
▪ Levine made a deep-throated caliper for accurately measuring the thickness of the cello plate that is not removed, when the other is.
1988
AL#16 p.8 BRB2 p.115
Jonathon Peterson
▪ This is 9 photos and a small description of the machine that might be the production archtop maker’s best friend.
1988
AL#14 p.21 BRB2 p.60
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman’s tools are a rubber band-powered jack clamp for regluing braces, and a homemade wrench for tightening output jack nuts inside an acoustic guitar.
1988
AL#14 p.46 BRB2 p.66
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi saves a stash of warped rosewood guitar sets by clamping them between aluminum plates and heating them with a clothes iron.
1987
AL#11 p.55 BRB1 p.430
Michael Parsons
▪ With this stand-alone jig you can spray or brush an instrument without having to touch it.
1987
AL#12 p.11 BRB1 p.473
Jay Hargreaves
▪ Drawings and description for two sanding blocks that use 3M Stikit paper.
1987
AL#10 p.59 BRB1 p.396
F.W. Fais
▪ Fais’ iron uses chromed pipe—must be very pretty. A simple and cheap tool, even if you don’t already have a heat gun.
1987
AL#9 p.54 BRB1 p.343
Michael Sanden
▪ An ex-barber turned luthier converts his old chair into a sturdy, adjustable workbench with 360° of accessibility.
1987
AL#9 p.14 BRB1 p.312
Steve Grimes
▪ Grimes’ pantograph for routing archtop plates is heavy duty and not real cheap if you have to job out the welding, but it accurately removes 90% of the excess wood. Several drawings accompany the detailed description.
1987
AL#9 p.18 BRB1 p.316
Richard Ennis
▪ Ennis’ carving machine is not as straight forward in use as Grimes’, but its construction should be within the reach of most luthiers. A router mounted in a carriage rides over template rails to cut the contours into the plates of an archtop instrument.
1986
AL#8 p.54
Robert Stebbins
▪ Stebbins writes briefly about one of his favorite tools.
1986
AL#7 p.54 BRB1 p.439
Alan Carruth
▪ Carruth describes a fixture he uses to hold a violin bridge while it is being tuned. It will save your fingers and help prevent cracking the bridge.
1986
AL#7 p.56 BRB1 p.181
Sam Sherry
▪ Sherry claims his “bridge plate” style caul is a universal tool that makes bridge regluing easier.
1986
AL#7 p.59 BRB1 p.239
Steve Andersen
▪ Anderson built a gridded table that uses the vacuum created by a squirrel cage fan to capture sanding dust.
1986
AL#5 p.34 BRB1 p.182 read this article
Robert Cooper
▪ Cooper describes his method of making ribs for a “half round” lute, in which all the ribs are the same.
1985
AL#4 p.43 BRB1 p.136
William Conrad
▪ Conrad explains how he converted his Dremel moto-lathe into a miniature table saw.
1985
AL#3 p.24 BRB1 p.88 read this article
Thomas Snyder
▪ Measured drawings are presented for building a jig to facilitate rehairing bows. A detailed method for using the jig is also presented.
1985
AL#4 p.3 BRB1 p.147
Patrick W. Coffey
▪ Coffey describes how to make a small electric glue pot for under $13.
1985
AL#2 p.48
Mark Goulet
▪ A thickness sander drum is produced from scrap lumber without the use of a lathe.
1985
AL#2 p.54 BRB1 p.77
Brian Mascarin
▪ They are: an archtop guitar brace jack, a modified 1/4″ phone plug to position an output jack, and a clear plastic square for scribing fret positions on a fretless bass.
1985
AL#1 p.50 BRB1 p.73
John Jordan
▪ Jordan describes two incandescent lights designed for use inside guitars. One uses a 7½-watt bulb on a standard power cord. The other uses tiny low-voltage bulbs and a step-down transformer.
1985
AL#1 p.51 BRB1 p.29
Joel Ivan Hawley
▪ Hawley describes a method of sawing part way into a 4×4, then clamping it to the bandsaw table and using it as a table for sawing the outline of a guitar or banjo peghead.
1985
AL#1 p.42 BRB1 p.13
Ted Davis
▪ Davis presents a drawing of a jig for properly forming the sides and lining of a guitar to accept a domed back. The sides are held in a mold while a sanding stick, held by a central post, is passed over them.
1985
AL#1 p.45 BRB1 p.45
Elliott Burch
▪ Burch describes modifying an automotive part-retrieving claw into a device for positioning small crack-reinforcing studs.
1985
AL#1 p.46 BRB1 p.26
Michael Jacobson-Hardy
▪ Jacobson-Hardy describes devices based on pneumatic cylinders for bending sides, clamping braces to plates, clamping plates to sides, and holding neck blanks in a lathe.
1985
AL#1 p.49 BRB1 p.17
C.F. Casey
▪ Casey briefly describes the construction and use of a long-handled knife designed to be used with two hands.
1984
DS#286 LT p.47
Elliott Burch
▪ Simple steamer rejuvenates gelled glue after it’s been applied and the clamps are in place.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1984
DS#288 LW p.111 read this article
Michael Dresdner
▪ Dresdner steals yet another tool from another discipline, this time for polishing frets after they’ve been shaped with a file.
1984
DS#291 LT p.16
Alan Carruth
▪ General process of identifying and heat treating steel for use in edge tools.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1984
DS#292 LT p.36
Alan Carruth
▪ Diagram gives dimensions to make a lute peg reamer.
1984
DS#295 LT p.40
J.R. Weene
▪ Wooden C-clamp for special uses.
1984
DS#300 LT p.101
Duane Waterman
▪ Simple table saw uses a 3″ blade mounted directly on the shaft of a small motor.
1984
DS#272 LT p.50
Duane Waterman
▪ Uses pipe clamp screws.
1984
DS#285 LW p.106
Michael Dresdner
▪ In the “old days” you couldn’t buy a set of nut slotting files. They didn’t exist. The author used pattern makers files with parallel safety sides. He recommends learning about and adapting the tools from every trade that crosses your path.
1983
DS#256 LT p.58
Robert Steinegger
▪ Wedges to drive pressed-on plastic tuner knobs off the shafts.
1983
DS#261 LT p.49
J.C. Nelson
▪ Saw two layers at an angle and the pieces fit together with no gaps.
1983
DS#263 LT p.48
Joyce Westphal
▪ Cuts 2-liter anesthesia bags into big rubber bands.
1983
DS#245 LT p.86
Al Leis
▪ Customized bandsaw from a kit.
1983
DS#248 LT p.48
John M. Colombini
▪ Brass block on a C-shaped handle is heated and placed inside the guitar against the bridge plate.
1983
DS#250 LT p.29
Donald L. Brown
▪ Made from a Blitz saw blade and used to clean out fret slots on a bound neck.
1983
DS#250 LT p.31
Donald L. Brown
▪ Saw frame with one-inch throat for tight places.
1983
DS#251 LT p.7
Tom Mathis
▪ Mike stand, a gooseneck, and a swivel lamp.
1983
DS#253 LT p.49
Phillip W. Walker
▪ Simple devise makes it easy to glue an overlay on the tip of a bow.
1983
DS#254 LT p.46
Wesley Wadsworth
▪ A baby bottle warmer makes a good heater for hide glue.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1983
DS#255 LT p.5
Donald L. Brown
▪ Simple tool for marking lines square to the centerline of a flattop instrument.
1983
DS#255 LT p.11
Tom Mathis
▪ Heat small pieces of binding on a laundry iron.
1983
DS#255 LT p.40
Phillip W. Walker
▪ A kidney-shaped chunk of plywood rotated inside a guitar body until it jams a brace back into place.
1983
DS#232 LT p.54
Duane Waterman
▪ Side-bending form is made from the waste of the mold.
1982
DS#219 LT p.82
James Cassidy
▪ Adjustable work surface for an edge-mounted belt sander assures perpendicularity.
1982
DS#221 LT p.61
Don Alfieri
▪ Adds nylon bolts to the bottom corners of a Dremel base. The tool rides on the bolt heads, raising the router above the level of the bridge.
1982
DS#222 LT p.26
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ Traditional native American knife cuts on the pull stroke.
1982
DS#225 LT p.7
C.F. Casey
▪ This inspection light will even fit through a mandolin f-hole.
1982
DS#225 LT p.7
C.F. Casey
▪ Uses a night light bulb.
1982
DS#227 LW p.88
Al Leis
▪ Bending sides can be an intimidating process. It was especially so before the advent of the Fox bender. The author found a new method of applying heat to the wood to coerce the bend. With 6 photos to prove it works.
1982
DS#242 LT p.53
Bo Walker
▪ A deep plywood frame with a guitar-shaped hole in it. Uses no hardware other than a few screws.
1982
DS#206 LT p.30
Frederick C. Lyman Jr.
▪ Electric chainsaw, cheap block plane, and Japanese saw rasp.
1982
DS#207 LT p.57
John M. Colombini
▪ Seat a tapered tuning gear with a C-clamp, rather than a hammer.
1982
DS#208 LW p.106
Michael Trietsch
▪ The cheapo way to cut perfect nut slots is to use the wound string that will sit in the groove as a saw. It doesn’t work while the nut is mounted on the guitar, though. The unwound string slots are cut with an X-acto saw. With 1 drawing.
1982
DS#210 LW p.99
Jim Williams
▪ Clean bridge removal is almost an art, but the right heat source and the proper tools can give even the first-timer a fighting chance. Williams offers a dedicated lamp setup for heat and a modified cabinet scraper to slide through the glue joint. With 3 drawings.
1982
DS#213 LT p.8
Ted Davis
▪ Uses a hot water heater element. A bit of the work is jobbed out to a machine shop.
1982
DS#215 LT p.28
Louis DeGrazia
▪ Made from table knives.
1982
DS#218 LT p.41
Bob Gleason
▪ Caul for clamping frets into slots before supergluing.
1981
DS#196 LT p.77
Art Smith
▪ Uses a 10″ sanding drum. With 3 drawings.
1981
DS#199 LW p.95
Alan Carruth
▪ The author offers a simple trick for making flat-bottom sanding blocks. Includes a drawing.
1981
DS#184 LT p.36
Henry Aitchison
▪ You must first have a reamer. The shaper blade is a reground hacksaw blade.
1981
DS#185 LT p.2
T.E. Owen
▪ Aluminum frame, dial indicator.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1981
DS#189 LT p.17
David W. Shell
▪ Knife maker describes a simple forge.
1981
DS#191 LT p.34
Brian Watkins
▪ Before there were fret nippers on the market.
1981
DS#192 LT p.25
David W. Shell
▪ Make a chisel from a file. You’ll need a forge.
1981
DS#194 LW p.45
James E. Patterson
▪ Convert a Sears 12″ bandsaw to cut guitar sets.
1981
DS#167 LT p.38
James Cassidy
▪ Light duty deep throat clamps.
1981
DS#170 LT p.95
Glenn Markel
▪ Uses a drill press and an index point.
1981
DS#178 LT p.78
Al Leis
▪ Open-sided sander utilizes a 6″ drum arbor-mounted on an electric motor and covered with a dust collection system.
1981
DS#180 LT p.94
Brian Watkins
▪ Bends individual frets by using a drill press as an arbor press.
1980
DS#147 LT p.76
Peter Estes
▪ All-wood thickness sander.
1980
DS#148 LT p.2
Mark Rische
▪ A simple wood-frame gauge.
1980
DS#153 LT p.52
Glenn Markel
▪ Basic mold holds the developing instrument body inside a frame of layered wood.
1980
DS#157 LT p.4
Tom Peterson
▪ copy fretboards with a miter box.
1980
DS#163 LT p.42
Bruce Scotten
▪ Modify clothespins.
1980
DS#146 LT p.50
Charles Wearden Robert Lenhardt
▪ Foot-operated, spring-loaded vise.
1980
DS#140 LW p.111
Marvin Tench
▪ Yet another substitute for messy steel wool on your bench (not to mention your pickups). Doodlebug pads are a 3M scouring pad made of nylon. Polish your frets with impunity.
1979
DS#119 LT p.6
Kent Rayman
▪ This lamp even fits through f-holes.