Tag Archives: ¸

Donnie, Jim, and Me: A Tale of Three Shops

2025
AL#156 p.74               
Jay Anderson                                                                                           

▪ As you may recall from AL#151, Jay Anderson is a relatively late-blooming maker whose surprising flattop guitars glory in large, flamboyant slabs of found maple burls and crotches. In this article he travels to the Southwest to interview Don Kendall, the iconoclastic luthier and inventor of the JLD Bridge Doctor. He finds a tight-knit family operation that gets the job done in a low-tech and very direct manner, then takes a side trip to visit his mentor James Olson. Also, pointing to the future, Jay praises the involvement of his own young grandchildren in his lutherie shop.

Marchione Fretting Techniques

2025
AL#156 p.80               
Stephen Marchione                                                                                           

▪ Stephen Marchione has a long history of making and working on high-quality instruments for uncompromising professional musicians. In this presentation he considers each element — the neck, the rod, the fretboard, the fret wire — and stresses the procedure that will lead to be best, most durable result. From his 2023 GAL Convention workshop. Mentions John Suhr, carbon fiber.

Recreating the Lacôte Veneered Neck

2025
AL#156 p.87               
Simon Burgun                                                                                           

▪ Simon Burgun won French national recognition for his reproduction of a Rene LaCote Romantic guitar. Yes, my American friends; they really are that civilized over there on The Continent. In this article Simon shows how he made the rosewood-veneered neck with a grafted peghead and heel. See AL#154 for his article on reproducing the spectacular MOP-and-ebony rosette using period-appropriate machinist’s techniques.

Reflections on Collecting Guitars

2025
AL#156 p.94               
R.E. Brune   Jeffrey R. Elliott   Cyndy Burton   René Izquierdo                                                                               

▪ Four luthiers and a classical guitarist consider the value of guitar collecting for the art, craft, science, and culture of lutherie. All of them have been closely connected to the magnificent collection of Sheldon Urlik. They praise Shel, the collection, and the ambitious book project that arose from it. Mentions Antonio de Torres, Francisco Tárrega, José Romanillos, Vicente Arias, Manuel Ramírez, Enrique García, Domingo Esteso, A Santos Hernández, Francisco Simplicio, Marcelo Barbero, Robert Bouchet, Hermann Hauser, Ignacio Fleta, Daniel Friederich, Elina Chekan, Kenton Youngstrom.

In Memoriam: Ken Parker

2025
AL#156 p.101               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Ken Parker was an archtype of the American Lutherie Boom: a self-starter who joyfully went full-tilt in whatever direction his powerful imagination led him. Along he way he accumulated numerous skills and was a pathfinder for many new guitar-making directions. Generations yet unborn will study his work with delight — an enviable and well-earned legacy. Mike Doolin, himself no slouch in the innovation department, offers a heart-felt appreciation.

The Alluring Ukulele: A Design Adventure

2025
AL#155 p.22               
Pat Megowan                                                                                           

▪ A skilled woodworker takes a deep dive into the design and construction of the formerly humble uke. He looks for any horizon he can widen, any envelope he can push, to intensify the wonderfulness and sophistication of the dynamic and diminutive instrument. His aesthetic sense is free, but rooted in an educated appreciation for the classical guitar. Join him on this thoughtful journey to excellence. Mentions Jeffrey Elliott, Kimo Hussey, James Hill. Mentions sinker redwood, Oregon myrtle, ziricote, walnut, koa, white oak.

Let’s Catch Up with Steve Kinnaird

2025
AL#155 p.40               
John Calkin   Steve Kinnaird                                                                                       

▪ Yes, we’ve met Steve Kinnaird. He’s a 37-year GAL member, an American Lutherie author, and a frequent GAL Convention attendee. He makes nice steel-string guitars down in Texas, where he also pastors a congregation. But our Meet the Maker interview with him was 26 years ago. Time to catch up.

Granddad’s Guitar

2025
AL#155 p.41               
Steve Kinnaird                                                                                           

▪ Steve restored a family wall-hanger heirloom: his granddad’s sweet little oak parlor guitar. Then he built a replica of it, to boot.

Acoustic Guitar Repair: Binding and Bridge Saver

2025
AL#155 p.46               
Alex Glasser   Brian Michael                                                                                       

▪ Brian and Alex know the ropes. Around the repair shop, and in the GAL Convention spotlight. They teamed up in 2011 to present an info-packed tag-team workshop on guitar repair projects, and came back for an encore in 2014. Then, after a nine-year hiatus, they got the band back together for an appearance at our final Convention in 2023. Mentions Frank Ford. This is part one of their presentation. Look for part two in AL#156.

A Tale of Two Ditsons

2025
AL#155 p.52               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ Sometimes, a big guitar is too big. But a small guitar can sound too small. How might one maximize the loudness of a guitar that is small enough for traveling? Sjaak devises an experiment that involves building a pair of guitars that differ mainly in the structure of the back; one back is flat, the other is vaulted. Find out how he did it, and what he learned. Spruce. Douglas fir as a soundboard material.

Thoughts on the Generation of Sound by Acoustic Guitars

2025
AL#155 p.58               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ “Loudness” in guitars is not a thing that can be easily quantified and expressed in exact terms. It is built up from a number of factors and qualities. But some of those things can be analyzed and quantified in ways that may be helpful to our efforts. Sjaak takes a whack at it.

Build a Classical Guitar in a Week: Days Five and Six

2025
AL#155 p.60               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Here’s Part Three of the three-part series, in which veteran lutherie teacher O’Brien follows the construction of an instrument in deep detail. Everything moves right along on an intense and carefully developed schedule; a student starts with a box of wood, and strings up a nice classical guitar only six days later. Part Two was in AL#154. Part One was in AL#153.

In Memoriam: Bob Gleason

2025
AL#155 p.69               
Chuck Moore                                                                                           

▪ Bob Gleason was a Guild member for forty-five consecutive years. He was a GAL Convention presenter and frequent attendee,and his Guild author credits go back four decades. He told us all that “Ukuleles Are For Real” long before we and the whole wide world were ready to believe it.

In Memoriam: Bob Gleason

2025
AL#155 p.69               
David Lawrence                                                                                           

▪ Bob Gleason was a Guild member for forty-five consecutive years. He was a GAL Convention presenter and frequent attendee,and his Guild author credits go back four decades. He told us all that “Ukuleles Are For Real” long before we and the whole wide world were ready to believe it.

In Memoriam: Bob Gleason

2025
AL#155 p.71               
Nathan Ching                                                                                           

▪ Bob Gleason was a Guild member for forty-five consecutive years. He was a GAL Convention presenter and frequent attendee,and his Guild author credits go back four decades. He told us all that “Ukuleles Are For Real” long before we and the whole wide world were ready to believe it.

In Memoriam: Bob Gleason

2025
AL#155 p.71               
Tom Braverman                                                                                           

▪ Bob Gleason was a Guild member for forty-five consecutive years. He was a GAL Convention presenter and frequent attendee,and his Guild author credits go back four decades. He told us all that “Ukuleles Are For Real” long before we and the whole wide world were ready to believe it.

In Memoriam: Bob Gleason

2025
AL#155 p.71               
Woodley White                                                                                           

▪ Bob Gleason was a Guild member for forty-five consecutive years. He was a GAL Convention presenter and frequent attendee,and his Guild author credits go back four decades. He told us all that “Ukuleles Are For Real” long before we and the whole wide world were ready to believe it.

Observations on the Topography of Spanish Guitar Soundboards

2025
AL#156 p.6               
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ So, the top of a classical guitar is flat. But is it flat, like FLAT? Or is it more like spherical? Or cylendrical? Or scooped, like a lute? Or kinda arched in the lower bout? Or caved in? Or bellied up? Here’s the guy that can tell you. RE Brune has sixty years of building, playing, collecting, restoring, measuring, dealing, and researching classical guitars to his credit so far, and is still going strong. He gives us the lowdown on what the Spanish Old Boys did, and why. And does it matter to the sound? Yes, it does. Mentions Torres, Jose Romanillos, Gaetano Guadagnini II, Salvador Ramírez, Manuel Soto y Solares, Manuel Gutierrez, Francisco Gonzalez, José Ramírez I, Manuel Ramírez, José Ramírez II, José Ramírez III, Ramírez Model 1a, Rafael Casana, Enrique Garcia, Francisco Simplicio, Marcelo Barbero, Santos Hernandez, Domingo Esteso, Modesto Borreguero, Antonio Emilio Pascual Viudes, Hermann Hauser Sr., Hermann Hauser II, Hermann Hauser III, Daniel Friederich, Robert Bouchet, Julian Gómez Ramírez, tornavoz.

A Steel-String Guitar Maker’s Journey

2025
AL#156 p.22               
Steve Kauffman                                                                                           

▪ A young guitar-playing cabinet maker attends a GAL Convention and finds that his life has re-aligned itself in a moment. I’m talking about that fateful day when Steve K (Kauffman) met Steve K (Klein) at the 1979 GAL Convention in Boston. Steve has had a remarkable lutherie career which is in many ways illustrative of the can-do, self-starter development of the American Lutherie Boom. If you are old, you’ll enjoy the memories and the affirmation. If you are young, you will learn something about the giants on whose shoulders you stand. From his 2023 GAL Convention lecture. Mentions Arthur Overholtzer, Irving Sloane, David Russell Young, Michael Gurian, Richard Schneider, Michael Kasha, Gibson Mark Series, Jimmy D’Aquisto, John Dillon, C.F. Martin IV, Steve Klein, Ervin Somogyi, Gila Eban, Paul Schmitt, Larry Robinson, Bob Hergert, Bob Taylor, Neil Skinn, Michael Hedges, carbon fiber, zero fret.

Agustín Barrios: History of the Guitar Rewritten

2025
AL#156 p.38               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ The life of Agustín Barrios is a remarkable story indeed, one worthy of an epic poem, a larger-than-life bronze statue, a broadway show, or some such cultural monument. It would not only be a recognition of his acheivements as a performer and composer which, according to Federico Sheppard, shaped the modern world of classical guitar music and lutherie, but also of the personal struggle to take his place as the artist he was by his own definition, and not as the predjudiced eyes of others saw him. From his 2023 GAL Convention lecture. Mentions meteorites, tool steel, health hazards, Paraguay, plastic surgery, Guarani people, Mangoré, C.F. Martin I, Nazi regime, Antonio De Torres, Francisco Lopez Montoro, José Romanillos, Domingo Esteso, Manuel Ramírez, José Ramírez I, Simplicio, Andrés Segovia, Geza Burghardt, Gustavo Sosa Escalada, Martin Gil.

Little Guitar of My Dreams

2025
AL#156 p.50               
Tim Olsen                                                                                           

▪ When Olsen was a ten-year-old kid, he encountered a guitar that enchanted him and made him want to become a guitar maker, which he did. Sixty-two years later, that very guitar has come back to him. Naturally, he has drawn a full-scale plan of it for the GAL Instrument Plan series. It’s a full-circle story. See GAL Instrument Plan 84: 1935 Epiphone Olympic Archtop Guitar. Mentions Harvey Thomas, Irving Sloane, Richard Standal Olsen.

GAL Instrument Plan #84: 1935 Epiphone Olympic Archtop Guitar

2025
AL#156 p.52               
Tim Olsen                                                                                           

▪ When Olsen was a ten-year-old kid, he encountered a guitar that enchanted him and made him want to become a guitar maker, which he did. Sixty-two years later, that very guitar has come back to him. Naturally, he has drawn a full-scale plan of it for the GAL Instrument Plan series.

Nissim’s Guitar

2025
AL#156 p.57               
Zack Youcha                                                                                           

▪ A father-and-son lutherie team traveling in the Mediterranean area discover an odd old guitar in the modest museum of a small town. They discover a connection, and the connection becomes a mission. Sometimes lutherie is a lot more than just lutherie.

Acoustic Guitar Repair: Bridge, Rod, and Pickguard

2025
AL#156 p.64               
Alex Glasser   Brian Michael                                                                                       

▪ Long ago, Brian and Alex worked together under the legendary Frank Ford in the Gryphon Guitars repair department. Brian still works there. Alex is on his own at Iron Horse Instruments. They presented demo workshops at GAL Conventions in 2011, 2014, and at our final Convention in 2023. This is part two of their 2023 presentation. Part one was in AL#155.

Meet the Maker: Rob Goldberg

2025
AL#154 p.6               
Tim Olsen   Rob Goldberg                                                                                       

▪ Rob Golderg is one of those Lutherie-Boom guys. As a teenager in the 1960s he fell in love with the first handmade guitar he ever saw, and made a couple guitars on his own without much help. In 1974 he became Bill Cumpiano’s very first apprentice. After a successful run as a guitar maker in the Northeast, he took a break from lutherie of almost thirty years when he moved to Alaska, started a family, and had a career in fine arts. But the lutherie bug bit again, and he’s been back at it for more than a quarter century. Mentions Ervin Somogyi, Sam Koontz, Michael Gurian.

Inlaying Guitar Fretboards with Glass

2025
AL#154 p.14               
Rob Goldberg                                                                                           

▪ Goldberg has combined a lifetime of skills to develop a distinctive method of inlaying stained glass into ebony fretboards. His big, bold designs move in a whole different direction from the delicate detail of etched pearl. He shows us how to do it and provides some inspiration in this article.

Recreating the Lacote Pearl Rosette

2025
AL#154 p.18               
Simon Burgun                                                                                           

▪ One hundred and eighty-six years ago, before the emergence of the Spanish guitar, Europe was experiencing a mania for high-quality Romantic guitars. Rene LaCote, a leading French maker of the time, used elaborate and high-precision MOP-and-ebony ornaments that were supplied by a specialized shop. Some luthiers nowadays may enjoy the challenge of reproducing the astonishing rosette using modern CNC gear, but Simon Burgun has set himself the task of making them using traditional machinists’ techniques of the time, not to mention producing a gorgeous authentic reproduction of a LaCote guitar in which to inlay one.

Making Mandolins at Gibson

2025
AL#154 p.26               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ While the design specs of the Gibson F-5 mandolin have been pretty stable for over a hundred years, the Gibson company and its building methods have been through some changes. These days, the iconic instruments are made by a very small and dedicated team in Nashville. They get a little help from CNC, but the mandolins are very much handmade, as you will see.

Installing a Sideport with a Sliding Door

2025
AL#154 p.33               
David Freeman                                                                                           

▪ Longtime lutherie schoolmaster David Freeman shows us how he makes a fully adjustable interior sliding door for the side soundports he builds into his guitars and mandolin-family instruments. Then he gives us some thoughts on what the soundports actually do to the sound, based on his experiments and considerable experience.

Meet the Maker: C.F. Casey

2025
AL#154 p.38               
Newton Drysdale   C.F. Casey                                                                                       

▪ We finally find out how Casey, an early GAL member and frequent author, got into the lutherie game. Interviewer Drysdale is Fred’s earliest friend, having been with him every step of the way since conception. Mentions Bozo Podunivac, Manitoba Hal, Richard Thompson.

Build a Classical Guitar in a Week: Days Three and Four

2025
AL#154 p.42               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Here’s Part Two of a three-part series, in which veteran lutherie teacher O’Brien follows the construction of an instrument in deep detail. Everything moves right along on an intense and carefully developed schedule; a student starts with a box of wood, and strings up a nice classical guitar only six days later.

Magnetic Pickups: Physics, Math, and Electrickery

2025
AL#154 p.56               
Veronica Merryfield                                                                                           

▪ The basic form of an old-school guitar pickup is simple: A lot of skinny wire wrapped around some kind of magnet. But there’s a lot more to know about it than that. Hold onto your numbers, ’cuz Professor Merryfield is here with a blackbord and a big ol’ piece of chalk.

Product Review: Wagner Orion 950 Moisture Meter

2025
AL#154 p.66               
Leonardo Michelin-Salomon                                                                                           

▪ The Wagner Orion meter is a sophisticated gizmo for measuring the moisture content of wood; in fact its capabilities are far beyond the needs of our reviewer.

In Memoriam: David Rodgers

2025
AL#154 p.67               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Brittish machinist David Rodgers developed and made the wonderful guitar tuners that bear his name. He also made the coolest working scale-model steam trains, just for fun.

Review: Acoustic Guitar Design

2025
AL#154 p.68               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ The latest lutherie book by Mark French is a gem which successfully balances accuracy, technical depth, clarity, and accessibility.

It Worked for Me: Drill the Shape for a Neck Blank

2025
AL#154 p.70               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ When cutting the side profile on a neck blank, use a large Forstner bit to make the tight tun at the heel. This makes your sawing task much easier.

It Worked for Me: Steel Office Ruler

2025
AL#154 p.71               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Steel office rules can be found in thrift stores and yard sale, usually with advertizing etched into them. They typically are marked off in several systems and seies of fractions, whicy can be useful.

Meet the Maker: Thomas Beltran

2025
AL#155 p.6               
Samuel Barnes   Thomas Beltran                                                                                       

▪ Are you like me? (That is to say, a self-starting kid who managed to cobble together a working guitar in the 1960s)? If so, you’ll understand the journey of Tom Beltran, another of our tribe of pioneers. Or if you have not yet started receiving Social Security checks, you may be amazed at the perseverance he showed, battling through the pre-GAL wilderness to become a successful and respected maker of classical guitars. Either way, you’ll be touched by his story of kind strangers and generous mentors. Touched, but not surprised, because that’s the story of the American Lutherie Boom, which is a wonderful, significant, and righteous thing. We all built it together. Thanks, everybody. Mentions David Russell Young, Paul Estenson, Irving Sloane, Arthur Overholtzer, Jose Romanillos, Bob Mattingly, Lloyd Baggs, John Carruthers, Frederick Noad, Greg Brandt, Max Krimmel, Richard Schneider, Michael Kasha, Vicente Gomez, Christopher Parkening.

An Overview of Richard Schneider’s Guitar Assembly Process

2025
AL#155 p.13               
Thomas Beltran                                                                                           

▪ One of the generous mentors in Tom Beltran’s life was Richard Schneider. Richard shared information about his innovative methods and designs in real time as they developed over the decades, in talks and demonstrations at GAL Conventions, and in numerous intensive seminars. Tom attended a seminar in the summer of 1983 and now, forty-two years later, he covers that event and shares eighteen never-before-seen photos.

It Worked for Me: Go-Jo vs Guitar Grime

2024
AL#152 p.71               
Robert-W. Taylor                                                                                           

▪ Use industrial-strength hand cleaner to cut the finger schmutz that builds up on a guitar.

Letter: Thanks to J.R. Beall

2024
AL#153 p.3               
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ Brune acknowledges J.R. Beall’s letter in AL#152 regarding the founding of the GAL. Mentions Marc Connelly.

Letter: Todd Cambio and ladder-braced guitars

2024
AL#153 p.3               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ In his very last writing for the GAL, Harry praises the lutherie work of Todd Cambio and Todd’s lecture published in AL#151. Harry goes on to talk about his own early work renovating and hot-rodding old inexpensive American factory guitars. Mentions Abe Wechter, Harmony Soveriegn, and Ferretta’s vintage guitar shop.

Vacuum Laminating Sides, and Beyond

2024
AL#153 p.6               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ Condino has been a sought-after restorer of vintage American plywood bass viols for many years. He has recently developed practical and accessible vacuum-bag techniques for repairing delaminations in the plates, as well as fabricating those extra-large rib sections. Now he applies those same techniques to make laminated ribs for guitars and mandolins, and reports great success. Mentions Kay, American Standard, venturi, Roarocket.

What We Do and Don’t Know About Guitar Making

2024
AL#153 p.20               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ For decades now, various lovable eggheads have been prodding, bombarding, and tickling stringed instruments in their labs to produce arcane charts and tables, which they then explain with equations worthy of Oppenheimer. Some of us may have been waiting for them to calm down and tell us, in plain English, what they have figured out, and what they have not yet cracked. This article takes a serious swing at it.

Electric Guitar Making: Designing with Intention

2024
AL#153 p.32               
Barry Grzebik                                                                                           

▪ There is a lot of design territory between a solidbody guitar and an electrified archtop guitar. Grzebik explores that spectrum in his work by controlling many factors including unsupported top area, enclosed air, body resonance, asymmetry, weight relief, and physical balance.

Build a Classical Guitar in a Week: Days One and Two

2024
AL#153 p.40               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Here’s Part One of a three-part series, in which veteran lutherie teacher O’Brien follows the construction of an instrument in deep detail. Everything moves right along on an intense and carefully developed schedule; a student starts with a box of wood and strings up a nice classical guitar only six days later.

String and Plate Vibrations

2024
AL#153 p.62               
Carl Formoso                                                                                           

▪ Formoso presents some basic experiments and tells us why things wiggle the way that they do. You know, a string couldn’t vibrate if it didn’t push back. Let that be a lesson to us all.

Quasi-Copy Stella

2024
AL#153 p.66               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Kennel is a sculptor who usually uses salvaged wood to make his guitars. But for this one, he splurged on some new poplar planks from the home improvement center. He ended up with a nice, simple guitar with a blues-era vibe at a low cost.

Aging the Look of Budget Tuning Machines

2024
AL#153 p.70               
Aaron Cash                                                                                           

▪ Here’s how to mess up a perfectly good set of tuners without messing them up. It’s funny, but this process of distressing part of a new instrument to fit a certain received aesthetic is pretty much what fiddle makers have been doing for a couple centuries and getting paid handsomely for it. I guess we’re on the right track now.

In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman

2024
AL#153 p.90               read this article
Michael Bashkin                                                                                           

▪ We’re sure gonna miss good ol’ Harry Fleishman. Luthier, designer, teacher, mentor, raconteur, author, Convention presenter, inventor, and so much more.

In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman

2024
AL#153 p.90               read this article
Fred Carlson                                                                                           

▪ We’re sure gonna miss good ol’ Harry Fleishman. Luthier, designer, teacher, mentor, raconteur, author, Convention presenter, inventor, and so much more.

In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman

2024
AL#153 p.90               read this article
Fabio Ragghianti                                                                                           

▪ We’re sure gonna miss good ol’ Harry Fleishman. Luthier, designer, teacher, mentor, raconteur, author, Convention presenter, inventor, and so much more.

In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman

2024
AL#153 p.90               read this article
January Williams                                                                                           

▪ We’re sure gonna miss good ol’ Harry Fleishman. Luthier, designer, teacher, mentor, raconteur, author, Convention presenter, inventor, and so much more.

In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman

2024
AL#153 p.90               read this article
Tim Olsen                                                                                           

▪ We’re sure gonna miss good ol’ Harry Fleishman. Luthier, designer, teacher, mentor, raconteur, author, Convention presenter, inventor, and so much more.

It Worked for Me: Parallel Tools

2024
AL#153 p.94               
Dan Alexander                                                                                           

▪ Dan says he does not like to measure stuff. These graduated tool-grade steel rectangles help him make things parallel without any measuring.

It Worked for Me: Octagonal Horse

2024
AL#153 p.95               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Steve says it’s an oldy but a goody: You mount a piece of work, like a guitar neck for instance, to an octagonal beam. Now you can clamp it at an angle in a standard bech vise.

In Memoriam: Frank Ford

2024
AL#151 p.67               read this article
GAL-Staff                                                                                           

▪ Frank Ford was an icon of the instrument repair field and an overachiever when it came to sharing information with this fellow luthiers. He presented at several GAL Conventions, and had legions of friends and fans.

In Memoriam: Frank Ford

2024
AL#151 p.67               read this article
William Eaton                                                                                           

▪ Frank Ford was an icon of the instrument repair field and an overachiever when it came to sharing information with this fellow luthiers. He had legions of friends and fans. Eaton worked closely with Ford for many years, and takes this moment to praise his name. Mentions Richard Johnston, Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, Joy Imai.

In Memoriam: Frank Ford

2024
AL#151 p.67               read this article
Dan Erlewine                                                                                           

▪ Frank Ford was an icon of the instrument repair field and an overachiever when it came to sharing information with this fellow luthiers. He had legions of friends and fans. Erlewine brought Ford to the GAL Convention, and they became a team which was a fixture at the next several gatherings. Dan takes this moment to praise Frank’s name.

It Worked for Me: Nut Filing Guide

2024
AL#151 p.71               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Using CAD, Mike designs these guides to fit the spacing of the strings and the width of the files. Then he cuts them from plastic using a laser cutter.

It Worked for Me: Soapstone is Better Than White Pencil

2024
AL#151 p.71               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Welders use soapstone slips to mark on metal. They also work great on dark colored wood. Get them at welding supply places.

Electric Guitar Repair: Setups, Frets, and Inspiration

2024
AL#152 p.6               
Evan Gluck   Larry Fitzgerald                                                                                       

▪ Gluck is a beloved repeat presenter at GAL Conventions. This time, he brought along veteran New York repair guy Larry Fitzgerald. In addition to demonstrating fret-leveling techniques, they tell war stories of maneuvering their businesses to survive the recent global pandemic. Mentions Matt Brewster, Sam Ash, John Suhr, Rudy Pensa, Mandolin Brothers, Dan Erlewine, John Patitucci, Flip Scipio, LeRoy Aiello.

Construction of a Tielke Viol

2024
AL#152 p.22               
Derek Porter                                                                                           

▪ A kid from Idaho finds himself enrolled in a rigorous instrument-making course situated in a story-book Great House in the English countryside. He leaps right into an ambitious project of building a large viol in the elaborate style of Joachim Tielke.

Beautiful Bog Oak

2024
AL#152 p.38               
Gary Southwell                                                                                           

▪ Bog oak is the ultimate “sinker” wood. Giant oak trees sank into peat bogs thousands of years ago. Now they are being dug up, sawed into planks, and carefully dried. Innovative traditionalist Gary Southwell loves the stuff.

The Black British Timber

2024
AL#152 p.41               
Kevin Aram                                                                                           

▪ All the native trees on the British Isles yield light-colored wood. And in the case of guitar-making materials, blondes don’t have more fun. That’s why Kevin Aram was delighted to find that marinating oak for scores of centuries in an all-natural soup of organic chemicals will turn it black, and that nature already did all the work. He also visits a friend and his wonderful old Stennor bandsaw.

Meet the Maker: Mark Goodman

2024
AL#152 p.46               
Raymond Bryant                                                                                           

▪ Guitarist Bryant fell in love with an instrument that he tried at a local music store. When he learned to his surprise that it was individually handcrafted just a few miles from his home, he had to make the short pilgrimage. He takes us along to meet Mark Goodman, who has been working alone for decades in his simple and efficient home workshop.

Changing Guitar-Body Resonant Frequencies

2024
AL#152 p.52               
Devon Pessler   Alyssa Fernandez   Mark French                                                                                   

▪ A lot of people have a rough idea of how it would affect the sound of a flattop guitar to make the sides deeper, or to make the soundhole smaller. But now a college professor and two students have built the test apparatus and quantified the question. Read this article and see if you guessed right.

Make a Fret Press or Two

2024
AL#152 p.56               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ The do-it-yourself mentality is at the root of the whole American Lutherie Boom. Kennel helps you mimic recent advances in commercially available tooling, but DIY it with that stuff they use for competition-level skateboard ramps.

Cheap and Easy String Testing

2024
AL#152 p.58               
John Huffman                                                                                           

▪ If you are a guitar maker, I’ll bet you know the thrill of adapting some cheap gizmo into a specialized tool for the lutherie trade. Huffman quickly jury-rigs an inexpensive fish scale into a useful jig for measuring individual string tension.

A Simplified Larrivée-Style Binding Jig

2024
AL#152 p.60               
Jon Sevy                                                                                           

▪ Unlike some of us, Jon Sevy paid attention in high school geometry class. He calls this method of setting up a router to cut a binding ledge “simplified” but it is really more like “optimised;” it is both simpler and better.

Supplemental String-Action Data for the Spanish Guitar

2024
AL#152 p.63               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Action matters. It matters to the playability and to the sound. And the height of the strings off the soundboard is no accident on a fine guitar. Sheppard takes a very close look at eighty-nine extraordinary examples in one of the world’s great classical and flamenco guitar collections and gives us the deets. Mentions Shel Urlik.

In Memoriam: Kent Rayman

2024
AL#152 p.66               read this article
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Kent Rayman was a kind-hearted giant of a man who was helpful and influential in the Guild’s earliest phase. Kent’s lutherie mentor remembers him here with fondness and respect.

In Memoriam: George A. Smith

2023
AL#150 p.65               
Peter Tsiorba                                                                                           

▪ George Smith was one of that rare breed: A self-starter guitar maker before the American Lutherie Boom. Here’s three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.

In Memoriam: George A. Smith

2023
AL#150 p.65               
David Franzen                                                                                           

▪ George Smith was one of that rare breed: A self-starter guitar maker before the American Lutherie Boom. Here’s three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.

Simple Things: Marker, Scalpel, Straw and More

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 there’s a “sharpee” that’s better than a Sharpee-brand sharpee. Plus more simple things. Like, get the good brand of pencils.

Review: You Will Be a Builder of Musical Instruments by Edward Victor Dick

2023
AL#150 p.67               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ After decades in the wood shop, the burning energy of one’s young self can seem remote. Our reviewer says that this little book about a remarkable life in lutherie helped him to remember.

Letter: Swing Arm Binding Router

2024
AL#151 p.3               
January Williams                                                                                           

▪ A reader asks about the swing-arm binding router shown among Denny Stevens’ tools in AL#150. Author January Williams gives an informative answer. The tool’s design is a collaborative effort between Stevens and Harry Fleishman.

Finding Inspiration in Early 20th-Century Instruments

2024
AL#151 p.6               
Todd Cambio                                                                                           

▪ From his 2023 GAL Convention lecture. For decades, it was received wisdom that the inexpensive steel-string guitars, made in their millions before WWII in American factories using American woods, were crap. Todd Cambio has been taking another look, and finds a lot to like and even to emulate. Hear him out; it’s a ripping yarn. Mentions Gibson, Martin, Lyon and Healy, Harmony, Sears, Wilhelm Schultz, Oscar Schmidt, Stella, Galiano, poplar, tulip tree, oak, parlor guitar, ladder bracing, bajo sexto, R. Crumb, Lead Belly, John and Alan Lomax, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, Carter family, Bristol sessions, Ernest Stoneman, Nick Lucas, Eddie Lang, Raphael Ciani, John D’Angelico, Lydia Mendoza, Guadalupe Acosta, Luis Acosta, Mike Acosta, Miguel Acosta, 12-string guitar, Michael Iuchi, mandolin, John Greven.

The Historic Solera of Santos Hernández: an Attempted Reconstruction

2024
AL#151 p.24               
Tobias Braun                                                                                           

▪ How do you explain that the glue squeeze-out in some fine old guitars by Spanish masters drips the wrong way? Seems like that could only happen if the top was glued last, face-up. The key to the mystery may be an unusual century-old workboard from the shop of Santos Hernández. Tune in for the rest of the story. Mentions Jose Romanillos, Marian Harris Winspear, Jeffrey Elliott, Richard Brune, Alberto Martínez, Domingo Esteso, Enrique Garcia, Francisco Simplicio, Miguel Simplicio, Marcelo Barbero, Marcelo Barbero (Hijo), Arcangel Fernández Léonard Plattner, Faustino Conde, Mariano Conde, Julio Conde, Felipe Conde, Felipe Conde Crespo, Modesto Borreguero, Hernández y Aguado, José Ramírez III, Julián Gómez Ramírez, Manuel Ramírez, Antonio Torres, Robert Bouchet.

Guitarreria Ottenschlag

2024
AL#151 p.34               
Joshua-Alexander French                                                                                           

▪ Imagine the fun of attending an intensive seminar where nine builders build fine classical guitars from scratch with an instructor whose strong background qualifies him to carry on the teaching work of Jose Romanillos. Now make the setting an authentic castle in Austria. With a gourmet restaurant. What a wonderful world. Mentions Tobias Braun, Jose Romanillos, Marian Harris Winspear, Santos Hernández, Alberto Martínez, Luise Walker, Miguel Llobet, Jeffrey Elliott.

My First Twenty Years

2024
AL#151 p.40               
Jay Anderson                                                                                           

▪ Innocently attending a James Taylor concert, an Art major learns to his surprise that guitars are made by people. It’s an epiphany that changes his life. He has a day job as a building contractor, but he transitions to a full-time maker of fully functional musical sculptures. Along the way he finds himself established as the fun “uncle” of talented group of young musicians. Mentions James Taylor, Jim Olson, Brian Sutherland, Jenn Bostic, Dave Fenley, Pablo Picasso, Emil Ernebro, JLD Bridge Truss System, Don Kendall, pyrography, Harry Fleishman, Kevin Aram, Charles Rufino, Chris Herrod.

A Posthumous Interview with Seymour Drugan

2024
AL#151 p.50               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ As a fourteen-year-old kid, Harry Fleishman was lucky enough to find a kindly and perceptive mentor in Seymour Drugan, an older legit jazz player who was running a guitar store. Although Seymour passed away long ago, Harry imagines a present-day interview in which he expresses his gratitude to “Mr. Drugan.” Mentions Carol Kaye, Johnny Winter, Fife & Nichols, Milt Owen.

A Day with Luisa Willsher of Madinter

2024
AL#151 p.54               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ An Art-school girl from the UK goes to Spain as a flamenco dancer. There she meets a guy who has a business selling wood to local luthiers. Things go well. The business grows and gets bought by StewMac, and now she’s VP of Global Sales. And if you go to their sawmill, you can pick up pelletized fuel of the finest rosewood. Mentions Bob Taylor.

Measuring the Breaking Strength of Steel Guitar Strings

2024
AL#151 p.58               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ It’s amazing what you can do with a smart phone these days. Think you would need an anvil, a block-and-tackle, and a bathrom scale to measure the breaking strength of a guitar string? Nope. There’s an app for that. Mentions Fine Chromatic Tuner.

A Kerfed Lining Fixture

2024
AL#151 p.60               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ Author Herron tinkered together this bandsaw jig to cut the kerfs in lining strips. He explains the construction and capabilities of his time-tested design.

Electronic String Action Gauge

2024
AL#151 p.64               
Geoff Needham                                                                                           

▪ A cheap mail-order gizmo for measuring tire tread wear; a pair of nippers; a scrap of plexi; a bottle of superglue. Put them all together and you’ve got a sweet tool like the cool kids use. Mentions Chris Alsop.

Ken Parker’s Uncut Personal Take on the Genesis of the American Archtop Guitar as told to Mike Doolin

2023
               read this article
Ken Parker   Mike Doolin                                                                                       

▪ Ken’s colorful telling of the invention and development of the early archtop guitar was too long to fit in AL#149, so we present it here along with front and side view X-rays of a 1898 Orville Gibson guitar. Mentions Lloyd Loar, John D’Angelico, Thaddeus McHugh, Maybelle Carter, Eddie Lang, Nick Lucas, Raphael Ciani, Charlie Christian, Freddie Green.

Letter to the Editor: Hammond Glider Saw

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.

The Gibson L1: a Modern Recreation

2023
AL#150 p.6               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ The technology and fashion of wooden instruments move forward inexorably, although whether that “forward” motion is the same as improvement can be a matter of debate for decades or centuries. Elmendorp made what he calls a “faithful impression rather than accurate reproduction” of a 1907-style Gibson L1: small body, carved top, floating bridge, round hole.

Effect of String Tension on Archtop Guitar Action Height

2023
AL#150 p.14               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ When you tighten the strings on an archtop guitar, the neck lifts forward and the action height increases. At the same time, the bridge pushes the top down and the action height decreases. It’s a win-win! So you can just feel lucky about it and proceed naively along your life path, or you can do what Elmendorp did: get a bucket of water, a piece of wire, and a dial indicator; collect some data; then crunch the numbers.

Let’s Catch Up With Richard Bruné and Marshall Bruné

2023
AL#150 p.16               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Richard “R.E.” Bruné was in the GAL’s very first cohort and was an author and convention presenter from the very beginning. We’ve 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.

The Double-Neck WeissenBro

2023
AL#150 p.24               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ A Dobro is good clean fun. And then maybe you’ll want to expand your lap-steel playing to include an acoustic Hawaiian guitar. Wouldn’t it be great to have them both on your lap at the same time? Do it. Go on; you are a luthier, you can mash them up. A Dobro… a Weissenborn… a WeissenBro!

Denny’s Jigs, Part Two

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.

Reducing Frequency Error in Electric Guitars

2023
AL#150 p.38               
Mark French   Devon Pessler   Alyssa Fernandez                                                                                   

▪ Ya talk about rabbit holes. Research into guitar intonation just gets deeper and deeper. This article homes in on individual string compensation at the nut, plus small adjustments to the position of the 1st and 2nd frets. Industrial strength data collection. Heed the eggheads.

The Two-Day Ukulele: Inducting Novice Luthiers

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.”

Neck-Carving Jig

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.

Fret-Buzz Detector

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.

Self-Centering Sideport Jig

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.

Making Solid Linings for Guitars

2023
AL#150 p.60               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Doolin shows us how to make nice solid wood linings starting with veneer from the hardware store. They turn out great, and you have your choice of colors: light, or dark.

My Friend Bob Lundberg

2023
AL#150 p.62               
Birck Cox                                                                                           

▪ The late Robert Lundberg is legendary as a lute maker and educator, but Birck Cox knew him before all that, back when Lundberg was working on fiberglass race cars. They met while unloading a moving van and were friends for many years.

In Memoriam: George A. Smith

2023
AL#150 p.64               
Maria Gonzalez-Leon                                                                                           

▪ George Smith was one of that rare breed: A self-starter guitar maker before the American Lutherie Boom. Here’s three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.

Meet the Maker: Ken Parker

2023
AL#149 p.4               
Mike Doolin   Ken Parker                                                                                       

▪ Can you believe we have never “met” this guy? He’s a giant of the American Lutherie Boom, he was at the Guild’s 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.

The Firewood Guitar

2023
AL#149 p.24               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ You know what they say: When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you are a luthier, everything looks like it could be made into a fine handmade guitar. Like that chunk of firewood over there. It’s way too short to make sides, but we’ll figure something out.

Optimized Guitar Intonation

2023
AL#149 p.28               
Charlie Price                                                                                           

▪ Guitar intonation exists at the intersection of math, music, and mojo. How good is good enough? Can we ever quite get there? Price brings us one step closer with a “money ball” approach of adding up all the errors at each string and fret position, then optimizing for the lowest total error.

Meet the Makers: Rebecca Urlacher and Paul Woolson

2023
AL#149 p.36               
Rebecca Urlacher   Paul Woolson                                                                                       

▪ A conversation is kinda like two interviews happening at the same time. That’s what we have in this article; questions and answers come from both makers, as we meet them and learn about their lutherie lives. Mentions Charles Fox.

Press Your Ukuleles

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. It’s 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.

Effects of Saddle Materials on Guitar Tone

2023
AL#149 p.46               
Robin Connaughton                                                                                           

▪ Lots of materials can work for a flattop guitar bridge saddle. Will they sound different? Connaughton tries several, and collects data with an ingenuously simple plucking technique.

Using Soundhole Inserts to Vary the Lower Resonant Frequencies of an Acoustic Guitar

2023
AL#149 p.50               
Mark French   Eddy Efendy                                                                                       

▪ Putting a tube in the port of a loudspeaker box changes the lower resonances. Makers of classical guitars have known about that for a century and a half. They call that tube a tornavoz. French and Efendy give us the math on how it works.

Little Thickness Sander

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.

Uke Neck Joint

2023
AL#149 p.56               
Karl Hoyt                                                                                           

▪ Hoyt found a way to make a simple and reliable bolt-on neck joint that is easy to assemble, not withstanding his large fingers.

Quick-and-Dirty Magnetic Thickness Gauge

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.

Bridge Sole Radius Shaping Jig

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.

An Easy Fretboard-Tapering Jig

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.

A Survey of Guitar Building Books, Part Two

2023
AL#149 p.64               
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Fourteen years ago, McDonald wrote up a survey of the steel string guitar making books that were available at that time. More books have appeared since then, so he’s back with an update. Look up the earlier article in our Premium Online Content.

Simple Things: Heat Gun for Brown Tape

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. That’s a simple thing.

It Worked for Me: Fix Blistered Finish

2023
AL#149 p.68               
Steve Dickerson                                                                                           

▪ When you see a big horrible blister form on a thick commercial finish, it means two things. Firstly, the finish is ruined. Secondly, it will come off nice and clean with a spatula and heat gun.

It Worked for Me: Tape Edges of Cut-Out Drawings

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.

It Worked for Me: Inflating Door Jack Clamp

2023
AL#149 p.71               
Dan’l Brazinski                                                                                           

▪ It’s like a little square bag on the end of a blood-pressure squeezie bulb. It’s made for helping you hang a door all by your lonesome. Also works as a lutherie clamp. Life is just one work-around after another.

It Worked for Me: Fretwire Roller and Guitar Hanger

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.

Letter to the Editor: Non-Sequential Fretting

2023
AL#148 p.9               
Roger Haggstrom                                                                                           

▪ Haggstrom was intrigued by Harry Fleishman’s assertion that necks will stay straighter if frets are not installed in an obvious, sequential order from one end to the other. Roger tried it out, and reports that it works.

Let’s Catch Up with Steve Kauffman

2023
AL#148 p.10               
Tim Olsen   Steve Kauffman                                                                                       

▪ What has happened with Steve Kauffman since he was interviewed for American Lutherie twenty-four years ago in AL#59? He’s still working with the other Steve K, that is, Klein. He has moved from an idyllic shop in a California garden to an idyllic shop in an Oregon garden. Mentions 1978 GAL Convention. Mentions 1979 GAL Convention. Mentions Steve Klein, John Dillon, CF Martin IV, Jimmy D’Aquisto, Richard Schneider, David Russel Young, George Peacock, Ervin Somogyi, Wilson Schunemann, Les Stansell, Port Orford cedar.

Let’s Catch Up with Steve Klein

2023
AL#148 p.16               
Paul Schmidt   Steve Klein                                                                                       

▪ Steve Klein started his lutherie endeavors fifty-five years ago as a teenager in his parents’ house. Today he’s collaborating with Steve Kauffman on dazzlingly decorative acoustic guitars, and continuing to make innovative ergonomic solidbodies in his own shop. Mentions Fibonacci, Carl Margolis, Frank Pollaro, Leonardo DaVinci Steve Kauffman, Larry Robinson, Bob Hergert, Joe Walsh.

Refurbishing a Manuel Nunes Rajao

2023
AL#148 p.22               
Karl Hoyt                                                                                           

▪ Hoyt stumbled upon a small and distressed old instrument that turned out to be made by a founding father of the authentic ukulele. Mentions Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo, Jim Tranquada.

Helmholtz Resonance in Acoustic Guitars

2023
AL#148 p.28               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ If you are like me, you probably think you know what the Helmholtz resonance of a flattop guitar is. And like me, you may be exactly wrong. Turns out it is the note that you don’t hear. Mentions Fender Acoustasonic Stratocaster, tornavoz.

Meet the Maker: Denny Stevens

2023
AL#148 p.34               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ The late Denny Stevens was one of the earliest self-taught guitar makers of the American Lutherie Boom. He was also a mentor to author Harry Fleishman, who goes back in memory and imagination to interview Denny as he never did in life. Mentions Dale Bruning, Paul Killinger, Tony Jacobs, Richie Furay, Johnny Smith.

Denny’s Jigs

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.

Seven Fine Books About the Romantic Guitar, in English

2023
AL#148 p.44               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ Beautiful books about the pre-classical guitar, with lush and informative photography, are being published in Europe. Don’t worry; they include English text for the benefit of us new-worlders. Mentions Mauro Giuliani, Gennaro Fabricatore, Joseph Pons, Johann Stauffer, Rene Lacote, Wappengitarre.

Power Up Your Ukulele Dishes

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.

I Like the 12-Hole Classical Guitar Bridge

2023
AL#148 p.58               
Brent Benfield                                                                                           

▪ It’s an easy improvement over the traditional old-school 6-hole bridge, but you have to do it right. Brent shows you how. Mentions John Gilbert.

Soft Side Sanders

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.

Lutherie Curmudgeon: A Case of Lucky Accidents

2023
AL#148 p.62               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ The Lutherie Curmudgeon casts his eye on the lutherie scene, and speaks his truth. He’s kinda grumpy, but you know you love him.

Review: The Caldersmith Papers

2023
AL#148 p.63               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Legit scientist Graham Caldersmith was an early GAL member and a prolific author for us and other journals. Those articles have now been gathered and published in a book. Our reviewer talks about the book, and about Caldersmith’s position in the lutherie literature.

It Worked for Me: Carving Table

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.

Making a Centerline Square

2022
AL#147 p.56               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ In lutherie work, you often need to make something accurately perpendicular to the instrument’s centerline. Squares designed for carpenters and machinists don’t do the job as well as these simple and inexpensive clear-plastic tools.

Adjustable Pickguard Bracket

2022
AL#147 p.58               
F.A. Jaen                                                                                           

▪ Here’s an elegant and sophisticated way to build an adjustable bracket to support the pickguard of an archtop guitar. Most of it is inside the guitar, so it gives a slick, minimal look.

Vibrate Guitars with an Aquarium Air Pump

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.

Sanding Guitar Plate Seams

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. Here’s a low stress method that uses a granite slab, some sticky-back sandpaper, two little C clamps, and a plywood scrap.

Accurate Resawing

2022
AL#147 p.64               
Bob Gleason                                                                                           

▪ When doing a small resawing job in the shop, it may seem intuitive to set the fence of the bandsaw close to the blade. You never have to move the fence. But there are good reasons to do it the other way and move the fence after each cut. The clue is in the title.

Review: The Art of Mandolin Making by Alfred Woll

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.

Review: Jeff Jewitt Finish Buffing Video

2022
AL#147 p.66               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin gives the thumbs-up to a fine 5-hour video just about wet sanding and buffing a lacquer finish. Prepping and spraying the finish is a whole other matter, not covered here.

In Memoriam: Jeanette Fernandez

2022
AL#147 p.67               read this article
Ronald-Louis Fernandez                                                                                           

▪ Janette was a sweet Scottish lass, the wife of luthier/dealer Ron Fernandez, well known in guitar circles and a regular at GAL Conventions.

In Memoriam: Rick Turner

2022
AL#147 p.68               read this article
David Bolla                                                                                           

▪ The GAL remembers an early supporter and author, who was also an influencial innovator of electric guitars. Plus he was a super-nice guy and mentor.

In Memoriam: Rick Turner

2022
AL#147 p.68               read this article
Steve Klein                                                                                           

▪ The GAL remembers an early supporter and author, who was also an influencial innovator of electric guitars. Plus he was a super-nice guy and mentor.

It Worked for Me: Saving Old Shielding Paint

2022
AL#147 p.69               
John Jordan                                                                                           

▪ Your bottle of expensive shielding paint is getting old and gloppy. Save it with simple material available at the art supply store.

It Worked for Me: Special-Purpose Files

2022
AL#147 p.70               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Specialty files intended for sharpening steel tools are unexpectedly perfect for specific lutherie tasks. In this case we are talking about files made for sharpening brace-and-bit augers, and files made for sharpening Japanese pull saws.

Letter to the Editor: No Golden-Age Martin Duds

2023
AL#148 p.6               
Dan Alexander                                                                                           

▪ Dan has been a vintage guitar dealer for decades. He avers that there is no such thing as a bad-sounding Martin Guitar made between 1930 and 1944.

Letter to the Editor: Waldheim School Post-Pandemic Update

2023
AL#148 p.6               
Glen Friesen                                                                                           

▪ The long-running guitar-building program on the Saskatchewan prairie had another successful year. But the future looks uncertain as shop teacher Frisen moves toward retirement.

Letter to the Editor: Guitar-Building Program for Kids in Mexico City

2023
AL#148 p.7               
Federico Sheppard   Adam Levin                                                                                       

▪ Federico Sheppard and Kithara Project cofounder Adam Levin announce a new guitar-building program for at-risk youth in Mexico City. Mentions Boston and Detroit.

Letter to the Editor: Mandolins in Heaven

2023
AL#148 p.7               
Steve Dickerson                                                                                           

▪ Some say we will play mandolins in heaven. Oh no? Go ahead; prove that we will not! Dickerson discusses this matter and reviews the evolution of his lutherie work.

It Worked for Me: Fret Pressing Order

2022
AL#146 p.69               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ When you are pressing frets into an unmounted fretboard, it matters what order they go in, though that’s counter-intuitive.

It Worked for Me: Humidifier from Ball-Point Pen

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.

Letter to the Editor: Passing of Don Teeter

2022
AL#147 p.5               
Ron Lira                                                                                           

▪ One long-time guitar repairer and GAL member eulogizes another. Honest Ron Lira tells us of the passing of his friend, the well-known author Don Teeter.

Letter to the Editor: Lutherie Estates

2022
AL#147 p.6               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ Lutherie estates. That’s all the wood, tools, jigs, and parts left over when a luthier retires or passes away. What to do with these materials is becomeing a real issue as the origian; Lutherie Boomers age out. Condino says we will soon be drowning in this stuff.

Letter to the Editor: Importance of Connecting at GAL Conventions

2022
AL#147 p.7               
Ralph Novak                                                                                           

▪ The pandemic has taken a toll on many aspects of life. Novak keenly feels the loss of in-person interaction with luthiers, and looks forward to the upcoming GAL Convention.

Letter to the Editor: Remembering H.E. Huttig and Chico Taylor

2022
AL#147 p.7               
George Taylor                                                                                           

▪ In the 1960s, Hart Huttig, a founder of the American Lutherie Boom, had a guitar-playing friend named Chico Taylor. Decades later, Chico’s son has sent us a photo and a remembrance.

Meet the Maker: Beau Hannam

2022
AL#147 p.8               
Brian Yarosh   Beau Hannam                                                                                       

▪ Beau Hannam came up in the productive and innovative shop of Australian luthier Gerard Gilet, then migrated to Colorado to found his own shop making guitars and ukuleles. He’s all over the Interwebs with his generous lutherie advice and his gorgeous instruments.

Foolproof Straight-Saddle Slotting Jig

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.

Basic Steel-String Guitar Action Setup

2022
AL#147 p.24               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Lutherie uber-pedagog Robbie O’Brien has taught beaucoup guitar makers and repair techs to set the action of steel string flattops, so his thoughts on the matter are crystal clear. Here he steps us through the process in a relaxed, logical, and concise presentation. From his 2017 GAL Convention workshop.

Guitar Evolution’s Missing Link: The Early 5-String

2022
AL#147 p.28               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ Baroque guitars were 5-course instruments. That is, they had ten strings in five pairs. Then suddenly here comes the 19th century and guitars had six single strings. Yadda yadda, now it’s today and everything is normal. The real story is a lot more interesting than that and it actually involves a “missing link;” the 5-string guitar. Luthier, guitarist, and scholar Buckland lays it all out for us.

GAL Instrument Plan #82: 1785 G.B. Fabricatore Guitar

2022
AL#147 p.36               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ This plan may authentically be built either as an early 6-string guitar, or as the “missing link” 5-string guitar.

Making a Replacement Nut

2022
AL#147 p.38               
Carl-David Hardin                                                                                           

▪ A lot of lutherie work gets done on the road by the techs who travel with bands. Makes sense when you think about it. And it’s also understandable that this work gets done with a minimum of tooling. Here’s a nice example of a new bone nut being made and installed on an old Gibson flattop.

Meet the Maker: Peggy Stuart

2022
AL#147 p.42               
John Calkin   Peggy Stuart                                                                                       

▪ Peggy Stuart is not famous as a guitar maker, but her life story is one that every luthier under age fifty should hear and think about. She was one of “Sloane’s Children,” struggling to make a guitar from that early book back in the dark ages of the middle 1970s. She discovered the GAL and soon attended conventions and wrote articles as her skills improved. But she ultimately saw that she would not be able to support herself as a luthier, and turned to law school. If you making a living building instruments in these days of milk and honey, thank your lucky stars and the Guild of American Luthiers.

Ironing Out a Warped Guitar Neck

2022
AL#147 p.52               
Michael Burton                                                                                           

▪ What do you do with a guitar that seems beyond repair? Repair it anyway. Why not? After decades of neglect and wildly improper storage, this sturdy Asian-built flattop had developed the mother of all neck warps. Burton ripped into it with clothes iron, heat blanket, router, and neck jig to replace the truss rod and fix earlier disastrous repair attempts. It turned out great.

Letter: Gortex Felt Paper for Restoration

2022
AL#146 p.2               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Gives updated info on guitar restoration materials that were mentioned by Elliott in AL#145.

Letter: Galvanized Sheet Steel for Side Bending

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.

Letter: Photos to Document Your Tools and Jigs

2022
AL#146 p.3               
Taffy Evans                                                                                           

▪ When the day comes when you want to give away your tools and jigs, that will be easier to do if you remember what they were for. Document them with photos now. You will be glad you did.

Letter: Early Kasha/Schneider Guitar Lilli VII

2022
AL#146 p.5               
Ted Moniak                                                                                           

▪ Mentions Richard Schneider, Michael Kasha, and how to determine guitar value for appraisal and considerations for purchase. See letter same issue same title from Jeffrey R. Elliott.

Letter: Early Kasha/Schneider Guitar Lilli VII

2022
AL#146 p.5               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Mentions Richard Schneider, Michael Kasha, and how to determine guitar value for appraisal and considerations for purchase. See letter same issue same title from Ted Moniak.

Remembering the Master’s Last Class

2022
AL#146 p.6               
Flip Scipio                                                                                           

▪ Ten years ago, Flip Scipio attended the last of the summer seminars given by José Romanillos at his base in Sigüenza, Spain. Now, after the recent passing of the Maestro, this review is both informative and poignant.

Meet the Maker: Cindy Hulej

2022
AL#146 p.14               
Max Mclaughlin                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a story that will sound familiar to a lot of us old farts of the Lutherie Boom generation for the decades-old echoes that it evokes. A bold young person wants to do unusual and arty things with guitars, and they find an older mentor in the crowded back room of a New York City guitar store. That takes you back, don’t it Gramps?

The Difficult Case of Getting Too Old

2022
AL#146 p.22               
Don Barnes                                                                                           

▪ Remember those heroic old days when a few of us self-starting hippies dreamed of a forging a renaissance of guitar making in America? Well if you do, you are probably already past “retirement age.” What will become of all your tools and wood? Will your grandkids just toss them out? Time to start thinking about it. Sorry.

Closing Up Shop

2022
AL#146 p.23               
Samuel Barnes                                                                                           

▪ Remember those heroic old days when a few of us self-starting hippies dreamed of a forging a renaissance of guitar making in America? Well if you do, you are probably already past “retirement age.” What will become of all your tools and wood? Will your grandkids just toss them out? Time to start thinking about it. Sorry.

Meet the Maker: David Thormahlen

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.

An All-American 7-String Guitar

2022
AL#146 p.38               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ Sometimes you get a customer who just wants you to run wild. Check out the design and build process of this 17.75-inch, 7-string, multiscale black-locust flattop guitar. Fun!

Measuring Mechanical Properties of Neck Blanks

2022
AL#146 p.44               
Mark French   Alyssa Fernandez                                                                                       

▪ How stiff is that neck blank? You could cut all your blanks to the same dimensions and then set up a rig with a hanging weight to measure deflection and such. But hey, got a smart phone? It can listen while you tap on a bunch of neck blanks, and then tell you how stiff each one is.

Earidescent Nightingales: A New Instrument Family

2022
AL#146 p.50               
Richard Bozung                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a new kind of autoharp that can change keys in seconds without retuning or switching chord bars. It’s easy to build, and sounds great because you play it with your ear pressed to the side.

Universal Side Caul

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.

Reviews: Ukulele Making Course with Heidi Litke

2022
AL#146 p.60               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Ukes are serious lutherie projects these days. Standards and expectations are high. The same is true for instructional videos. The reviewer is favorably impressed with the instruments, the instructors, and the presentation.

The Confidence Game — Overcoming the Fear

2022
AL#146 p.62               
Aaron Cash                                                                                           

▪ Lutherie is way cool. The guitars that people are making these days are mind-blowing. Standards of craftsmanship and creativity are sky high. And all that can be daunting to a sincere wanna-be. Here’s how to talk yourself into not talking yourself out of it.

In Memoriam: José Luis Romanillos Vega

2022
AL#146 p.64               read this article
Federico Sheppard   Kevin Aram   Josep Melo   Mónica Esparza                                                                               

▪ Romanillos was a towering figure in the lutherie field during a long and productive career as a maker and scholar. He was also a generous mentor and friend to many guitar makers. Four of those makers share fond memories of him here. Many more will miss him.

In Memoriam: G.D. (George) Armstrong

2022
AL#146 p.68               read this article
Staff                                                                                           

▪ G.D. lived in Yamhill, Oregon, built a wide variety of instruments, was the repairman and proprietor of the Newburg (Oregon) Music Center, and was a regular attendee at GAL Conventions in Tacoma

Strategies for Peghead Overlays and End Grafts

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.

Ruminations on Historic Guitar Restoration

2022
AL#145 p.16               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Elliott is best known for his long career of making classical guitars of the highest quality, but he has also undertaken some major restorations of important historic instruments. Here he reviews three projects and shares thoughts about his approach. Mentions Jose Romanillos, Hermann Hauser Sr., Antonio de Torres, Francisco Tarrega, Francisco Gonzalez, Peter Radcliff.

Meet the Maker: Matt Brewster

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.

The Musical Instrument Museum — A Must-See for Luthiers

2022
AL#145 p.32               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Frequent author Mark French spends a lot of time in the physics lab and the workshop. But here he emerges, blinking, into the Arizona sunshine to visit a fabulous musical instrument museum. In fact, it’s The Musical Instrument Museum.

Hand-Powered Radius Sanding Jig

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.

Small is Beautiful: the Piccolo Balalaika

2022
AL#145 p.42               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ Here’s the story of a big guy and his little balalaika. After rashly promising a friend that he would make a balalaika although he knew nothing about the distinctively triangular Russian instrument. We’ve all been there, right? Sjaak went on to explore and build the rare descant member of the family. Mentions balalaika player Jan Van der Hoogt.

A 2×4 Twofer

2022
AL#145 p.46               
C.F. Casey                                                                                           

▪ We sometimes hear of a luthier who enjoys the challenge of building an instrument from lumber-yard materials rather than from picked and approved tonewoods. but Casey goes one better when he makes two successful instruments from a single softwood two-by-four. And it had a knot in it, just for extra fun.

Steel String Guitar Nut Slotting Using a Stick-On Template

2022
AL#145 p.48               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Mottola precisely describes his process for slotting a nut. All the spacing work is done on-screen, then printed out to make a template for the bench work.

Making Control-Cavity Jigs

2022
AL#145 p.52               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Using simple, non-dedicated tooling, Calkin steps us through his straightforward, no-nonsense process of routing control cavities in solid guitar bodies.

Vertical Bending-Iron Table

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.

Review: Building the Steel String Acoustic Guitar by R.M. Mottola

2022
AL#145 p.60               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Our frequent author and online lutherie resource hero RM Mottola has finally gone all the way. He has written Building the Steel String Acoustic Guitar, a comprehensive, detailed construction method for building a flattop guitar. Speaking of frequent authors, Federico Sheppard reviews it.

Review: Building the Steel String Acoustic Guitar by R.M. Mottola

2022
AL#145 p.60               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Our frequent author and online lutherie resource hero RM Mottola has finally gone all the way. He has written Building the Steel String Acoustic Guitar, a comprehensive, detailed construction method for building a flattop guitar. Speaking of frequent authors, John Calkin reviews it.

Review: Inlay Techniques with Larry Robinson

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.

In Memoriam: Jonathon Peterson

2022
AL#145 p.64               read this article
Staff   Cyndy Burton   Jeffrey-R. Elliott   Woodley White                                                                               

▪ Jon was a member of the GAL staff for over two decades. He wrote many articles, and did all the photography for Robert Lundberg’s landmark book Historical Lute Construction.

In Memoriam: Laurence “Buzz” Vineyard

2022
AL#145 p.67               read this article
Rick Rubin   Michael Elwell                                                                                       

▪ Buzz was a very early GAL member who made beautiful and unusual mandolins and archtop guitars.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2022
AL#145 p.70               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin thinks about a few things that have changed since he started making guitars nearly 50 years ago. And some things that have not.

It Worked for Me: Mount Fret Erasers on a Handle

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.

It Worked for Me: Sawdust in Fretboard Slots

2021
AL#144 p.71               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ You might decide to cram sawdust into those nice freshly-cut fret slots. Sounds weird? It’s so you can wax the board before fretting and not get wax into the slots.

It Worked for Me: Flattening a Plank

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.

Letter: Praising Dragonplate as a supplier of carbon rods

2022
AL#145 p.3               
Raven Ravary                                                                                           

▪ Raven likes the Dragonplate company as a supplier of graphite epoxy material. Awesom customer service, he says.

Letter: How Do You Close Up Shop?

2021
AL#144 p.5               
Rossco Wright                                                                                           

▪ Long-time GAL member and small-scale guitar manufacturer Wright asks how one should wrap up a lutherie business when the time comes to retire.

“Restomodding” Wall-Hanger Guitars

2021
AL#144 p.6               
Roger Haggstrom                                                                                           

▪ A hundred and some years ago, Swedish folks sat around the house all of a dark winter and sang hymns together, accompanied by the strummings of cheap mass-produced guitars. Those days are gone, but a lot of the guitars are still hanging on the walls of old houses. Roger Häggström has made a business of restoring them to useful condition and modifying them to sound and play better than they ever could have. He restores and modifies. Restomods. Mentions the Levin guitar company.

Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part Two

2021
AL#144 p.24               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Federico Sheppard completes his uncompromising copy of FE08, the elaborate early opus of the master luthier Antonio Torres Jurado. Beautifully figured wood and excruciatingly detailed marquetry come together and receive a French polish finish. Mentions Jose Romanillos, Marian Romanillos, Eugene Clark, and Robert Ruck.

Meet the Maker: Robert Anderson

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.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six

2021
AL#144 p.44               
Mark French   Charles Fox                                                                                       

▪ In this concluding episode of the series, the neck is fretted and the frets are filed and polished. Threaded inserts are installed in the heel and the neck is attached. Finally, the bridge is glued on, the nut is set in position, and the guitar is strung and set up.

Getting Good Inlay Results with Inexpensive CNC Routers

2021
AL#144 p.52               read this article
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.

Guitar Making as a Teaching Tool

2021
AL#144 p.56               read this article
Debbie French   Mark French                                                                                       

▪ There is a national movement to teach teachers how to teach STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math) to high-school students; you have them make guitars. Turns out people think it’s fun to make guitars. Who knew?

Product Review: SuperMax 16-32 Drum Sander

2021
AL#144 p.60               
Ralf Grammel                                                                                           

▪ Thickness sanders have come a long way since the days when luthiers commonly made their own jury-rigged and cantankerous contraptions. Two experienced builders give the SuperMax 16-32 a thorough workout and pronounce it worthy and workable for an individual luthier’s shop.

Product Review: SuperMax 16-32 Drum Sander

2021
AL#144 p.61               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Thickness sanders have come a long way since the days when luthiers commonly made their own jury-rigged and cantankerous contraptions. Two experienced builders give the SuperMax 16-32 a thorough workout and pronounce it worthy and workable for an individual luthier’s shop.

Review: Vincente Arias (1833-1914) The Forgotten Luthier

2021
AL#144 p.65               
Kevin Aram                                                                                           

▪ Our reviewer Kevin Aram praises this gorgeous book which includes interviews with several luthiers about the methods and ideas of the great Spanish master builder.

Review: Michael Bashkin Fretting Course from ObrienGuitars.com

2021
AL#144 p.66               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Online video lutherie instruction has come of age. Our reviewer John Calkin is a veteran luthier and a fan of lutherie videos from way back in the VHS days. He gives this course a strong reccomendation.

In Memoriam: Wesley Brandt

2021
AL#144 p.68               read this article
Michael Yeats   Dan Compton   Mark Moreland   Chris Brandt                                                                               

▪ Wesley Brandt was a luthier in Portland, Oregon who reached a rare degree of quality in his work with early instruments. Four friends mourn his sudden passing. Many more will miss him.

Review: Acquired of the Angels: The Lives and Works of Master Guitar Makers John D’Angelico and James L. D’Aquisto by Paul Schmidt, third edition

2021
AL#143 p.63               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ The second edition of this book was reviewed in American Lutherie by Linda Manzer in AL#59, 1999.

Review: The Master’s Bench by Paul Schmidt and Arian Sheets

2021
AL#143 p.63               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ This book is published by the National Music Museum (NMM, formerly Shrine to Music Museum) as a companion to their permanent exhibit of guitars and tools of John D’Angelico, James L. D’Aquisto, and Paul Gudelsky.

Review: Electric Guitar Building with Mike Snider (video download)

2021
AL#143 p.66               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ This is a major instructional video from Robbie O’Brien’s school, with a running time of 14 hours.

It Worked for Me: Magnetic Table Saw Jig for Narrow Ripping

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.

It Worked for Me: Junk Plane Makes Sanding Beam Handle

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.

It Worked for Me: Modified Zyliss Vise

2021
AL#143 p.70               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Kennel modifies the often-seen but seldom-used Zyliss vise into a configuration that is specifically engineered for safely and securely holding guitar necks.

It Worked for Me: Magnets Hold Truss Rod Cover

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.

Cleaning Shop Part 1

2021
               read this article
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ In your workshop, are you drowning in a sea of beautiful little scraps of wood? Dr.JC is here to administer some tough love about your hoarding problem.

Cleaning Shop Part 2

2021
               read this article
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ In your workshop, are you drowning in a sea of beautiful little scraps of wood? Dr.JC is here to administer some tough love about your hoarding problem.

Quickie Sander Fence

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.

Letter: Seeking Plans for Scaled-Down Classical Guitars

2021
AL#144 p.4               
Ron Berge                                                                                           

▪ Berge seeks plans for small classical guitars, suitable for kids. Readers suggest he look at commercially available student models and draw his own plans. Hope that was helpful.

Letter: Response to: Seeking plans for Scaled-Down Classical Guitars

2021
AL#144 p.4               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Berge seeks plans for small classical guitars, suitable for kids. Readers suggest he look at commercially available student models and draw his own plans. Hope that was helpful.

Letter: Response to: Seeking plans for Scaled-Down Classical Guitars

2021
AL#144 p.4               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Berge seeks plans for small classical guitars, suitable for kids. Readers suggest he look at commercially available student models and draw his own plans. Hope that was helpful.

Letter: Questioning Sheppard’s Timeline of Torres FE08

2021
AL#144 p.5               
Clifford Wilkes                                                                                           

▪ Details about the timelime of Sheppard’s construction of the replica of Torres’ FE08 are clarified somewhat.

Letter: Response to: Questioning Sheppard’s Timeline of Torres FE08

2021
AL#144 p.5               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Details about the timelime of Sheppard’s construction of the replica of Torres’ FE08 are clarified somewhat.

Letter: Strengthening the Bolt-On Guitar Neck Joint

2021
AL#144 p.5               
Jonathan Dale                                                                                           

▪ In the Letters section of AL#143, Sjaak Elmendorp said that for a bolt-on neck on a flattop guitar, the non-glued fretboard extension causes a structural risk whereby the neck can break off at the heel. Dale says to leave the fretboard unglued, but add a dowel to the neck’s heel.

Letter: Meeting Julian Bream

2021
AL#143 p.2               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ Jim talks about meeting famous guitarists through his teacher Eli Kassner. Mentions John Williams, Leo Brouwer, and the Toronto Guitar Society.

Letter: Appreciating Charles Fox and John Calkin

2021
AL#143 p.2               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ Harry praises Charles Fox for his decades of work as a lutherie teacher. He also encourages communal lutherie projects such as the cigar-box swap described by John Calkin in AL#142. Mentions Bryan Galloup.

Letter: Charles Fox Neck Angle Sander

2021
AL#143 p.3               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Steve asks for more specific info on the device seen on the cover of AL#141. It is a sander which refines the plane of the top at the neck joint so that the angle of the neck will give the correct height of the bridge saddle. Mark answers and provides explanatory photos.

Letter: Sealer for MDF Jigs

2021
AL#143 p.5               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Leo asks what sealer Charles Fox uses on his MDF jigs, noting that they look great in the Guild’s Fox Method series and that Charles says he has been using some of them for twenty years. Author Mark French responds with info straight from Charles. He also comments on the use of MDF as wasteboards for vacuum hold-downs in CNC work.

Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08

2021
AL#143 p.6               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ It is a story of mystery, dedication, and destiny. The wide-eyed young novitiate is mentored by oracles, sorcerers, and craftsmen until he finds his great quest and pursues it against all odds. To put it more plainly, but no more truthfully, it is the story of Federico Sheppard constructing a copy of FE08, the astonishingly elaborate early opus of the master luthier Antonio Torres Jurado. Mentions Nick Kukich, Ray Jacobs, Shel Urlik, Jose Romanillos, Richard Brune, Robert Ruck, Robert Lundberg, Abel Garcia Lopez, Nicolo Alessi.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five

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.

Soundboard Construction of Vinaccia Mandolins Around 1900

2021
AL#143 p.30               
Alfred Woll                                                                                           

▪ The Vinaccia family was at the heart of the development of the Neapolitan mandolin, beginning in the mid-18th century and running well into the 20th. This article follows those developments with changing string technology and musical taste. The author then gives us a step-by-step demonstration of making the distinctive arched-and-canted soundboard.

Norwegian Spruce

2021
AL#143 p.40               
Leonardo Michelin-Salomon                                                                                           

▪ In AL#141 Leonardo showed us how he was building Romantic-era guitars at the craft school in Norway. This time he is taking a deep dive into building with local spruce. Although the trees are not big, the wood is very good. Mentions Gennaro Fabricatore, Johann Anton Stauffer, Josef Pagés, Coffee-Goguette.

Measuring Resonant Frequencies of an Acoustic Guitar

2021
AL#143 p.48               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Here’s how to quickly make a frequency-response curve of a guitar on your bench, using a handheld digital recorder and free software. Not cheap and easy enough for you? The author goes on to tell you how to do the whole thing on a smart phone. Mentions Spectroid, MATLAB, and Audacity.

Vise on a Stick

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.

First Build: A Lumberyard Ukulele

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.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2021
AL#143 p.60               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Mottola gives short, not-too-technical summaries of two articles recently published online by Savart Journal. In the first, Mark French et al. take on the fraught task of “Comparing Subjective and Objective Data from a Pool of Classical Guitars.” In the second, Gabriele Caselli et al. present an “Analysis of Violin Combination Tones and their Contribution to Tartini’s Third Tone.”

Review: The Diary of Agustin Barrios Mangoré: His Concert Autograph Book by Richard Pinnell and Frederick Sheppard.

2021
AL#143 p.62               
Bryan Johanson                                                                                           

▪ Contains many colorized historic photos of the great virtuoso and an essay on his career, in addition to the complete full-color facsimilie of his autograph book with notes and translations.

Remembering Julian Bream

2021
AL#142 p.6               
Cyndy Burton   Jose Romanillos   R.E. Brune   Jeffrey R. Elliott   Kevin Aram   Gary Southwell   Simon Ambridge                                                                   

▪ The great classical guitarist Julian Bream was well known for supporting and encouraging contemporary composers and promising young players. Less noticed by the public, but of special importance to luthiers, was Bream’s work with a handful of classical guitar makers from whom he commissioned the fine instruments that he played. In this article, those luthiers offer memories of their interactions with Julian Bream. Mentions Hermann Hauser Sr.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four

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.

A Modern Venezuelan Cuatro

2021
AL#142 p.22               
Luis Colmenares                                                                                           

▪ The traditional Venezuelan cuatro is a small 4-string instrument with a distinctive flush fretboard and wooden tap plate covering the entire upper bout. See our GAL Instrument Plan #58. The author of this article is a working musician and a member of the Venezuelan diaspora. He has developed an electric version of the instrument for playing the evolving music of the Venezuelan culture.

Uncle Dan’s Favorite New Vise

2021
AL#142 p.28               
Dan Erlewine                                                                                           

▪ Good ol’ Dan Erlewine is known for finding and spreading efficient new tools and techniques for guitar makers and repairers, as well as for mentoring and promoting young talent in the lutherie field. He’s at it again in this article, as he loosely wrangles a team to consult on the design of a specialized new shop vise.

The Terz Guitar

2021
AL#142 p.30               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ The terz guitar was a smaller Romantic-era guitar, which played in a higher range and was written in a different key. Knowing this history helps us understand several otherwise-puzzling old instruments.

GAL Instrument Plan #80 – Terz Guitar

2021
AL#142 p.36               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ This plan drawing of an anonymous instrument from the early 19th century includes the authentic adjustable neck joint and the rule-of-18 fret spacing.

New Frets in Old Nibs

2021
AL#142 p.38               
Ben Haskenhoff                                                                                           

▪ The author steps us through a full refret of a solidbody guitar with a bound fretboard where the new frets nestle right back into the binding. Save the nibs!

The $75 Guitar Challenge

2021
AL#142 p.40               
Doug Hunt   Mark French                                                                                       

▪ Two luthiers dare each other to make a useful guitar for a total investment of $75 each. One makes a flattop, the other a solid body. There are rules, and rules are meant to be broken.

Side Bender and Body Mold Cut from One Sheet of Plywood

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.

Tuning a Marimba Bar and Resonator

2021
AL#142 p.55               
Max Krimmel                                                                                           

▪ If you are luthier who does not remember the name of Max Krimmel, you might be under age fifty. Max was a pack leader in the early days of the American Lutherie Boom, before he went on to specialize in a few of his many other artistic interests. Anyway, why and article about marimbas? As Max says, “Think of it as deep background learning.”

Big Shop-Made Dovetail Clamp

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.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2021
AL#142 p.60               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Sometimes a bargain is no bargain, like when the work that a power tool accomplishes is less valuable than space it uses in your shop. If you don’t love something, set it free.

Review: Jose Luis Romanillos Guitars, The Guijosa Period, 1993-2015

2021
AL#142 p.62               
Monica Esparza                                                                                           

▪ A positive review of this elaborate, gorgeous, thorough, and expensive book by Josep Melo. Mentions Pepe Romero.

It Worked for Me: Hide Finish Checks with Linseed Oil

2021
AL#142 p.68               
Reg Beardsley                                                                                           

▪ Fix finish checking with diluted linseed oil. You have to dilute it with mineral spirits to reduce the viscosity. Some discussion of refractive index.

Auxiliary Workbenches and Tables

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.

Drawing the Traditional Acoustic Guitar Pickguard

2020
AL#141 p.62               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Pickguard outlines are like body shapes; you could copy them, or you could sketch them freehand. Or, if you are serious about it, you could construct them geometrically. Mottola gives us step-by-step instructions for drawing a pickguard to fit any size or shape of guitar to get that authentic traditional look.

Review: Sinier de Ridder’s The Spanish Guitar

2020
AL#141 p.65               
Chris Sobel                                                                                           

▪ Françoise and Daniel Sinier de Ridder, authors of The Spanish Guitar, will be familiar to American Lutherie readers from their ambitious restoration articles. Our reviewer loves this lavish and informative picture book.

Letter: Glue Down the Fretboard Extension

2021
AL#142 p.3               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ Lesson learned from a puppy-vs-guitar encounter: glue down the fretboard extension over the body of a flattop guitar when using a bolt-on neck.

Review: 34 Iconic Guitars in Life Size

2020
AL#140 p.67               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ A positive review. Mentions Martin, Gibson, National, D’Angelico, Selmer, Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Danelectro, Vox, Val-Pro.

Question: How Big should a Flamenco Guitar Tap Plate Be?

2020
AL#140 p.69               
Stephen Faulk                                                                                           

▪ Describes mounting tap plates with white glue, and with adhesive Mylar transfer sheet. Mentions David Serva, Diego del Gastor, Paco de Lucia.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three

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.

When Your Business Hits a Bump

2020
AL#141 p.18               
Evan Gluck                                                                                           

▪ What should you do when an unexpected event upsets the smoothly-running apple cart of your guitar-repair business? Don’ freak out. Take good advice from the trustworthy folks around you, and proceed with confidence. That’s the story, but raconteur and lutherie superstar Evan Gluck tells it better.

Romantic Guitars in Norway

2020
AL#141 p.26               
Leonardo Michelin-Salomon                                                                                           

▪ A Uruguayan luthier enrolls in a craft school in Norway to study Romantic-era guitars built by Italian, German, and French makers two hundred years ago. He writes an article about his techniques and discoveries that is published in an American journal with readers in over forty countries. Yes, it’s a big beautiful lutherie world. We are all just leaves on one wide-spreading, figured-maple branch.

Ukulele Scale Intonation

2020
AL#141 p.34               
Peter Hurney                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a direct and accurate real-world method for calculating the exact position of a uke bridge. The jig does all the work and considers all the variables. No math required!

GAL Instrument Plan #79: 1964 Harmony/Regal Guitar

2020
AL#141 p.36               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a detailed drawing of a straightforward and ubiquitous mid-century, solid-wood, American-made guitar. This inexpensive model was the first instrument of a generation of would-be folkies and rockers. Not a classical, but certainly a classic.

Beachcombing for Cedar

2020
AL#141 p.38               
Gerry Chicalo                                                                                           

▪ All the guitar soundboards ever made don’t add up to a toothpick in the vast lumberyard of the timber industry. A stray cedar log that washes onto a beach in British Columbia can be lutherie gold, and harvesting it can be a lot of nice fragrant outdoor fun.

The Seven-Year Itch

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.

Stiffer Guitar Linings

2020
AL#141 p.47               
F.A. Jaen                                                                                           

▪ These linings are something like reverse kerfing, but they are built up in place, starting with an ingeniously aligned set of individual blocks. There’s always a new way to do it.

Guitar Making with an X-Carve CNC Router

2020
AL#141 p.50               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Here come the robots. Although CNC routers are not yet at the Jetsons stage, we are far beyond the days when computer-driven tools were only in luthiers’ dreams, not their workshops. Mark French brings us up to date as he selects and installs an inexpensive machine in his home shop.

The Kitchenpunk Resophonic Lap Steel

2020
AL#139 p.48               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ Check it out: a standard cheeze grater is easily adaptable as a guitar tailpiece. But why would you even want to know that? Because you are crafting an electric lap steel guitar on a kitchen theme, obviously! This instrument uses pots, pans, flatware, everything but the kitchen table. Wait a minute…. Yes, it actually does use the kitchen table.

If You Want to Build Guitars, Build Guitars

2020
AL#139 p.56               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ Harry has been a lot of places and made a lot of instruments in a lot of shops. Now, after fifty years as a luthier, a lutherie teacher, and a hired-gun designer, he’s right back where many folks started: in a spare bedroom. He encourages us (and himself) not to let a humble shop space be an excuse for inaction. Just do it (registered trademark)!

The Guitar Woods Experiment

2020
AL#139 p.58               
Roger Bucknall                                                                                           

▪ Can people really hear the difference between different back-and-sides wood? Brittish guitar builder Roger Bucknall is in an excellent position to explore this question. He’s the founder (in 1973) and still head honcho of boutique brand Fylde Guitars. He made a set of identical guitars except for the wood choices, and….. Read the article to see what happened.

In Memoriam: Felix Manzanero

2020
AL#139 p.61               read this article
Ronald-Louis Fernandez                                                                                           

▪ Felix Manzanero was a classical guitar maker and collector in Madrid. He spent twelve years in the shop of Jose Ramirez II, starting at age fourteen. Felix was a friend of author Ron Fernandez’ father, and then a lifelong friend of Ron; they visited each other’s homes in Spain and California. Mentions Seiko Sesoko, Laurindo Almeida, Manitas de Plata, Sabicas, Segovia, Paracho, German Vazquez Rubio.

Review: McDonald’s The Ukulele: An Illustrated Workshop Manual and Weissenrieder and Greenbaum’s The Uke Book Illustrated

2020
AL#139 p.63               
Pat Megowan                                                                                           

▪ Our reviewer compares, contrasts, and waxes eloquent about The Ukulele: An Illustrated Workshop Manual by Graham McDonald and The Uke Book Illustrated by John Weissenrieder and Sarah Greenbaum. In addition to a lot of thoughful and practical analysis, he uses the metaphore of different ice-cream eating experiences to explain their complex relationship.

Questions: Floating Fretboard Extension

2020
AL#139 p.69               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ When you use a bolt-on neck for a flattop guitar, can you just not glue down the part of the fretboard that lies on the soundboard?

Questions: Good Advice for Beginning Uke Makers

2020
AL#139 p.69               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Our resident straight-shooting curmudgeon says to start with super-simple kits, then move to good-quality kits, then just make ukes.

Questions: When is the Sap Down for Tree Cutting

2020
AL#139 p.70               
Tom Thiel                                                                                           

▪ They say to cut lutherie trees when the sap it down. But what does that really mean? Also, that old story about cutting the trees during the right phase of the moon might be more than a story.

Chalk-Fitting Guitar Braces

2020
AL#140 p.2               read this article
Stephen Marchione                                                                                           

▪ The braces in an archtop guitar are very similar to the bars in fiddles, and Marchione fits them with the same traditional techniques. The mating surface of the brace is roughed out with a chisel, then refined with a small plane, and perfected with files and scrapers. Chalk shows the whole truth of the fit. Believe the chalk.

Meet the Maker: John Jordan

2020
AL#140 p.10               
Paul Schmidt   John Jordan                                                                                       

▪ John Jordan was a young guy happily repairing instruments and making guitars when he got a commission to make an experimental electric violin. It turned out well enough to take his career in a new direction. Read his story and see some of his diverse and beautiful work. Mentions Ervin Somogyi, Shelley Rosen, Rolland Colella, Dave Matthews, Boyd Tinsley, nyckelharpa, D’Angelico, D’Aquisto, Neyveli S. Radhakrishna, Miri Ben Ari.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two

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.

A Larson Bros. Harp Guitar Restoration

2020
AL#140 p.34               
Kerry Char                                                                                           

▪ This ornate contraption had seen a lot of use and abuse in almost a dozen decades of service. Long-ago modifications plus the pull of sixteen strings left it in a sorry state. It had to be taken in hand rather decisively to be brought back into playing condition. Two necks, the back, the enormous bridge, and a lot of bracing came off. Content warning: contains lutherie gore.

Javier Campos Tijeras, The French Polisher’s French Polisher

2020
AL#140 p.48               
Federico Sheppard   Javier Campos-Tijeras                                                                                       

▪ Many of the fine hand-made guitars that are born in Ganada, Spain, spend a few weeks in the shop of Javier Campos Tijeras receiving a light, thin coating of shellac before they venture out into a cruel world of fingernails, cigarette smoke, and shaky guitar stands. Javi explains his process and holds nothing back about the specific materials and supplies he uses.

Little Lutherie Class on the Prairie: Teaching Guitar Making in a Saskatchewan High School

2020
AL#140 p.52               
Glen Friesen                                                                                           

▪ Some public servants take on challenging tasks that many of us would fear to attempt. I’m not talking about fire fighters or the people who change light bulbs on the tops of suspension bridges. I’m talking about high school shop teachers. And here’s a guy who has been teaching guitar making in public school for twenty years. Hats off to you, sir! And respect to the students. These guitars look pretty good.

Bamboo Laminate for Classical Guitar Back and Sides

2020
AL#140 p.56               
Geoff Needham                                                                                           

▪ Bamboo is kinda like wood, right? Ever wonder if you could make a guitar out of it? Nowadays it comes in large panels of edge-laminated strips that are about the right thickness. The author made two nice classical guitars with bamboo sides and backs, and gives the material a big thumbs-up for workability, appearance, and sound. Mentions Miguel Rodriguez and Domingo Esteso.

Making Notched Straightedges

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.

In Memoriam: Graham Caldersmith

2020
AL#140 p.60               read this article
Juan-Oscar Azaret                                                                                           

▪ Pioneering guitar maker, guitar designer, acoustics researcher, and author Graham Caldersmith has passed away. If you knew him, perhaps from his attendance at GAL Conventions, read this affectionate remembrance. If you didn’t, read it to find out what we’ve lost. Mentions Carleen Hutchins, Jim Williams, Greg Smallman.

When Does “Replica” Become “Inspired By?”

2020
AL#140 p.62               
C.F. Casey                                                                                           

▪ Nearly twenty years ago, Casey made a detailed drawing of a 7-string Russian guitar which we published as GAL Instrument Plan #48. Recently, he was called on to make a replica of that instrument. Sure, he had the drawing, but he took a few liberties with the project. He tells us what he did, and why. The original guitar showed some Stauffer inspiration.

It Worked for Me: Cheap Kerfing Clamps

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.

It Worked for Me: Clamp for Stubborn Binding

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.

Review: Martinez’ Orfeo Magazine

2019
AL#138 p.66               
Bryan Johanson                                                                                           

▪ Orfeo Magazine represents a new idea in marketing. It is free online, or you can buy it as gorgeous coffee-table books of collected issues. Either way, it sure is pretty. Written and photographed by Alberto Martinez, Orfeo Magazine presents one man’s lavishly illustrated pilgrimages into the world of the classical guitar.

Questions: Cupped Top Sets

2019
AL#138 p.69               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ What do you do with cupped soundboard sets? Go ahead and use them. Calkin offers some practical tips for avoiding problems.

Questions: Remove Back from 19th-century Guitar

2019
AL#138 p.70               
Art Robb                                                                                           

▪ How do you take the back off a 19th-century guitar? Carefully, and slowly. The author offers good advice based on long experience.

Letter to the Editor: Lap Steel Question and Alternative Wood

2020
AL#139 p.2               
Dean Coss   John Calkin                                                                                       

▪ Does a solid body lap steel guitar need a truss rod? No. Plus a discussion of alernative woods and some appreciation of the virtues of quick-and-dirty lutherie.

Letter to the Editor: First Guitar and Appreciating Charles Fox

2020
AL#139 p.2               
Ron Zentz                                                                                           

▪ Ron has been a woodworker for decades and finally maade a guitar after attending a Charles Fox survey course. He’s glad he did.

Guitar Maker Without Borders

2020
AL#139 p.6               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a lutherie carreer so wide-ranging, so full of amazing travels and fortuitous connections, that you might be thinking of Baron Munchausen or Forrest Gump. But this is a true adventure, and he left a lot of it out in order to pack the story into a 75-minute lecture. Must read to believe. From his 2017 GAL Convention lecture. Mentions Torres, Simplicio, Garcia, Leo Kottke, Bozo Podunavac, Ray Jacobs, John Fahey, Peter Lang, Norman Blake, Robert Larson, Agustin Barrios, Ray Whitely, Sanfeliu, Enno Voorhorst, Jeffrey Elliott, Cyndy Burton, Richard Brune, Jorge Morel, Pepe Romero, Shel Urlik, Romanillos, Dmitry Zhevlakov, Paracho, Abel Garcia, Antigua Casa Nunez, Cecilio Lopez, Fernando Sor, Francois de Fossa, Cite de la Musique, Santos Hernanadez, Domingo Esteso, Antonio Marin, Eugene Clark, Michael Partington.

The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One

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.

The J-45: Gibson’s Workhorse Guitar

2020
AL#139 p.35               
Kerry Char                                                                                           

▪ Vintage guitar restoration specialist Kerry Char runs down the many changes that Gibson’s most popular flattop has gone through over the decades. Then he presents a full drawing of one that falls into the best period of the model: a well-worn example from 1947.

Meet the Maker: Arie van Spronssen

2020
AL#139 p.38               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ Holland had a lutherie boom in the 1970s, too. Arie started out as a carpenter, but moved into lutherie after an injury. Today he makes steel string guitars and a variety of other instruments. Mentions Roger Siminoff, Irving Sloane, Arthur Overholzer, Cees van Loon, Vox Humana, preparing cow bone, humidity control.

Less Than a Thousand Guitar Repair Tips

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.

Letter to the Editor: Doolin-Style Magnetic Thickness Gauge

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.

Letter to the Editor: Americans Should Use Metric System

2019
AL#138 p.2               
Rolf Hagglund                                                                                           

▪ The author says we Americans should just go ahead and join the rest of the civilized world in using the metric system.

Letter to the Editor: Still Luthing at Age Ninety

2019
AL#138 p.3               
Bill Garofalo                                                                                           

▪ The author has been a GAL member for many years. Lutherie has always been a hobby for him, not a profession. At age ninety, he continues to produce simple and unpretensious instruments with a considerable element of immediacy.

Tropical Hardwoods: Global Perspectives and Outlook

2019
AL#138 p.6               
Michael Bashkin                                                                                           

▪ Michael Bashkin’s lutherie cred is unimpeachable, and it turns out that he previously had a career in forestry, with years of experience in many places from the tropics, to the temperate zone, to the arctic. So he knows a lot about trees and about wood. How should we feel about using the earth’s dwindling supplies of fine traditional woods to make our wonderful, precious guitars? And will our clients give us less of their wonderful, precious dollars if we don’t? Let’s ask Michael. This fascinating article is based on his 2017 GAL Convention lecture.

Flamenco on the Front Range

2019
AL#138 p.20               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Author Mark French is walking the lutherie path in the reverse direction of many makers. As a physics prof trained in the crazy magic of CNC and industrial robot processes, he had made a lot of guitars before he did much in the way of traditional low-tech hand-tool work. As part of an intensive effort to fill in those gaps, he attended an eight-day course at Robbie O’Brien’s shop in Colorado to make a flamenco guitar with Spanish luthier and licensed bloodless toreador Paco Chorobo. O’Brien went to Spain and visited Paco’s shop in 2015. Read all about it in AL124.

Cheap and Easy Electric Lap Steel

2019
AL#138 p.28               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Got a used humbucker, a wall stud, some extruded aluminum, and a couple other odds and ends? Make a lap steel guitar! Author John Calkin likes to get right down to business. There’s nothing precious or over-thought here. Minimum tooling, maximum lutherie fun. This is how Leo Fender got his start, ya know.

GAL Instrument Plan #77: Archangel Fernandez Flamenco Guitar

2019
AL#138 p.36               
Tom Blackshear                                                                                           

▪ Arcangel Fernandez was a student of Marcelo Barbero, and he is considered to be one of the best Spanish makers of flamenco guitars in latter half of the twentieth century. This instrument is a blanca, with sides and back of cypress, and has a slotted peghead for tuning machines.

Meet the Makers: Jay Lichty and Corrie Woods

2019
AL#138 p.38               
Steve Denvir   Jay Lichty   Corrie Woods                                                                                   

▪ Jay Lichty was late to the lutherie game, having spent a lot of years in a real job building houses as a general contractor. But he’s deep into instrument making now, and finding success with an eclectic line of ukuleles and small guitars. Jay’s wife, Corrie Woods, is the marketing department, working with photography and online media to make the most of Jay’s work at the bench. Together, they are making it work. From their lecture at the 2017 GAL Convention.

Resurrection and Modification of an Inexpensive Old Factory Guitar

2019
AL#138 p.48               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Sometimes when a vintage instrument is being restored, you want to leave a few of the dings and a lttle of the funk, just for authentic flavor. Sometimes you want to leave the big dings and all the funk, and end up with something that is very tasty to a certain sophisticated palate. Mottola takes a century-old beater and ends up with a sweet-playing silk purse disguised as a sow’s ear. Mentions B&J, Buegeleisen and Jacobson, Oscar Schmidt, and Stella. Instrument is ladder-braced.

A Bridge to Many Tones

2019
AL#138 p.54               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ Harry teams up with the owner of one of his flattop guitars to try some major changes to the bridge and evaluate the results. He reaches conclusions about the relationship between saddle height and bridge beefiness. And speaking og beef, Harry shows how he makes individual tapered saddles out of chopsticks.

Rope Binding

2019
AL#138 p.56               
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Rope binding uses contrasting wooden lozenges around the outer edge of a guitar, such that when they are rounded over, the binging seems to be twisted like a rope. The effect was popular in the early 20th century on ukuleles and Hawaiian guitars. The author takes us throught the process of slicing and dicing to produce the binding strips.

Simple Neck-to-Body Sanding Jig

2019
AL#138 p.60               
Terence Warbey                                                                                           

▪ If you will attach a neck to a body with bolts rather than a dovetail, you will first want the two pieces to fit tightly at the correct angle. This can be done by a process which is sometimes called flossing; sandpaper is pulled between them while they are pushed together. The author presents a simple jig to facilitate this process.

Questions: Bradley Signal Generators

2019
AL#136 p.69               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Can you still get Bradley signal generators, the kind used for glitter-testing instruments and instrument parts, now that Don Bradley has passed away? No, but there are many more-modern alternatives.

Questions: Glue Joint Clamping Pressure

2019
AL#136 p.69               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ How much clamping force do different types of clamps exert? Blilie shows us how to calculate the force for some kinds of clamps, and comments about how much force is enough.

Questions: Should I Get a Receipt When I Drop Off My Guitar For Repair?

2019
AL#136 p.71               
Stan Werbin                                                                                           

▪ Stan Werbin of Elderly Instruments does not want to speak for other shops, but he says his busy repair shop is always happy to provide any needed paperwork.

Meet the Maker: Todd Cambio

2019
AL#137 p.4               
Federico Sheppard   Todd Cambio                                                                                       

▪ Federico has traveled the world to bring us news of excellent and unusual luthiers and their work. This time he journeyed from Green Bay, Wisconsin all the way to Madison, Wisconsin to meet a guy who keeps his work on the cutting edge of innovation by closely following the century-old work of American guitar factories, and Italian-American luthiers who worked in New York City before WWI. A word to the wise: Tulip poplar is not, and never shall be, banned by CITES or the Lacey Act. Mentions the Acosta family; John D’Angelico; Lydia Mendoza; Lonnie Johnson; Stella; Regal; Oscar Schmidt; Harmony; Lyon & Healy; Lead Belly; Favilla.

CNC Routers for Luthiers

2019
AL#137 p.16               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ CNC Routers are kinda like computers. Once they were huge and cost more than a house. Therefore they were mostly in the domain of large corporations. Now they are far smaller, and the price tag is closer to a few months’ rent. Therefore they will be ubiquitous. This article lets you know what it would take to get on the bus. Mentions Easel; VCarve; BobCAD; Draftsight; AutoCAD; SketchUp; Fusion 360; Rhino3D.

Let’s Catch Up with Joshia de Jonge

2019
AL#137 p.22               
Cyndy Burton   Joshia de-Jonge                                                                                       

▪ Joshia de Jonge was a sensation at the 1998 GAL Convention when, as a young female luthier, she brought a nicely-made and fine sounding instrument to the classical guitar listening session. It helped to have grown up in a guitar-making family. And now that she has left her parents’ home and shop, she is raising guitar-making sons. Mentions Geza Burghardt; Linda Manzer; Sergei de Jonge; Eric Sahlin.

Joshia’s Twisted Neck

2019
AL#137 p.26               
Tim Olsen   Joshia de-Jonge                                                                                       

▪ Here’s Joshia’s method of building an elevated neck with a sophisticated geometry to let the bridge height be constant across its width while the low strings have the necessary clearance over the frets. It is inspired by the work of Eric Sahlin.

Delving into the Vagaries and Mysteries of Early Gibson Guitar Strings By Way of the Harp Guitar

2019
AL#137 p.32               
Gregg Miner                                                                                           

▪ Ready for an Americana-infused, vintage-lutherie, history-detective-style nerdfest? Yes, that old joker Orville Gibson is still full of surprises, even now, a century after his death. We have a lot to learn about string material, tension, intention, and nomenclature. Not to mention marketing and musical snobbery.

Dovetailed Neck Reset

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.

The Totnes School of Guitar Making

2019
AL#137 p.52               
J.A.T. Stanfield                                                                                           

▪ There are many settings in which one might receive lutherie instruction these days. Looking for a change of scene? This article describes a 12-week course held in a 300-year-old building near the Devonshire coast of southeast England. It has a 40-year history and roots in the legendary London College of Furniture program. Mentions Norman Reed and Phil Messer. Also describes a systematic method of planing a board flat. Discusses doming a flat soundboard with shaped cauls and a go-bar deck.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2019
AL#137 p.58               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Mottola gives short, not-too-technical summaries of two articles recently published on-line by Savart Journal. The first is an update of frequent author Mark French’s efforts to define stringed instrument body outlines by use of math equations. The second looks at what can be learned about lutherie wood by reading ancient Chinese texts.

In Memoriam: Fred Campbell

2019
AL#137 p.60               read this article
Tom Ribbecke                                                                                           

▪ Fred Campbell was a fixture on the lutherie scene for decades, specializing in finish work. Many of his friends will recall that he was notably forward in his appreciation of his Scottish heritage.

In Memoriam: Leo Bidne

2019
AL#137 p.61               read this article
Tim Olsen                                                                                           

▪ Leo Bidne was great example of the restless rabble from which the GAL arose in the early 1970s. He was a curious and persistant teenager who, without instruction and with slim resources, managed to make guitars. Leo was member of the GAL Staff in its formative days.

Trevor Gore Teaches Modal Tuning

2019
AL#137 p.62               
Greg Maxwell                                                                                           

▪ Australian luthier Trevor Gore is the co-author of the two-volume book Contemporary Acoustic Guitar, Design and Build. Gore teaches a three-day seminar in which he demonstates his very specific and number-based method of measuring and controlling the resonant frequecies of guitars. Maxwell attended one such seminar, held at Robbie O’Brien’s shop, and gives a brief overview.

Review: Paredes’ Guitarra Clasica Moderna — Historia, diseno y construccion

2019
AL#137 p.66               
Juan-Oscar Azaret                                                                                           

▪ This new book is a thoroughly illustrated step-by-step method for making classical guitars, using mostly inexpensive small power tools. It also takes a luthier’s look at a dozen different instruments by well-known hand-makers. Yes, it is only in Spanish. But even if you do not read Spanish, our reviewer says you will probably still get a lot out of it. The author of the book, Luis Alberto Paredes Rodriguez, is a long-time Guild member, a GAL Convention presenter, and an AL author. He takes a close look at twelve different guitar designs, by Voboam; Stradivari; Grobert; Lacote; Panormo; Torres; Esteso; Hauser; Ramírez; Fleta; Schneider/Kasha; Romanillos; and Smallman. He goes so far as to build one of each.

Questions: Quarter-Step Fretting

2019
AL#137 p.69               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ What’s the best way to calculate the extra freets for a quarter-step fretting scheme? And how accurately do they need to be placed?

Letter to the Editor: Just Intonation Fret Layout

2019
AL#136 p.3               
John O’Sullivan                                                                                           

▪ Guitars don’t always have twelve equally-spaced frets per octave. They almost always do, but not always. Here’s another take on the possibilities, ccalled Eagle 53, which attempts to come closer to the beautiful dream of just intonation.

Bob Ruck as I Knew Him

2019
AL#136 p.4               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Robert Ruck was one of the young self-starters who founded the American Lutherie Boom, and he remained a leading light in the movement until the end of his life. Federico Sheppard was an aquaintence and admirer who became closer to Ruck when they spent time together at Federico’s place on the Camino de Santiago in Spain one summer. In this article, Federico presents a photo tour of Ruck’s shop in Eugene Oregon and explains some of the tools and techniques we see. Mentions French polishing with hardware-store shellac. Mentions Richard Brune.

A Smashed Top and a Shattered Headstock

2019
AL#136 p.12               
Kerry Char                                                                                           

▪ A cool old Gibson-era Epiphone guitar got well and truly smashed in an incident involving large and excited dogs. Better call Char! Kerry Char, that is. He jumps right in to remove the top, take off the braces, and then put the whole thing back together and polish it up nice before you can say “Kalamazoo!” From his 2017 GAL Convention slide show.

Mechanical Impedance

2019
AL#136 p.20               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ We all know what “impedance” is, right? It’s that stuff… the force that… well, what is it really? Turns out it’s something like pushing a kid on a swing at the wrong time. And it has a lot to do with the resonances of acoustic instruments, which has a lot to do with how they sound. Anyway, in this largely math-free presentation, Professor Mark gives us the scoop.

Our Man in Manhattan: The American Guitars of the Tatay Family

2019
AL#136 p.22               
January Williams                                                                                           

▪ Before there were cheap Spanish guitars from Asian factories, there were cheap Spanish guitars from hard-working Spanish luthiers using traditional methods. If there was an inexpensive classical guitar kicking around your house or dorm room before about 1965, it might very well have been a Tatay. The family business was in Valencia, Spain, but they had an outpost in New York where one of the brothers turned out instruments at an amazing pace.

Tatay Instrument Identification and Dating Guide

2019
AL#136 p.28               
January Williams                                                                                           

▪ There are Tatay guitars, and then there are Tatay guitars. They could be from Valencia or New York; from one of four generations of the family; from one maker or his brother, father, son, uncle, or cousin. This article helps you sort them out. Photos of representative guitars, and lots of photos of labels from the various eras.

Meet the Maker: Shaun Newman

2019
AL#136 p.36               
Mike Gluyas   Shaun Newman                                                                                       

▪ Although he had fallen in love with the classical guitar the first time he heard one as a teenager, Shaun Newman was already well along in a career as a language teacher when he first tried to make one. He was lucky enough to find a mentor in his corner of England, and he has been making and restoring an impressive variety of fine instruments for the last thirty years.

Case Study of a 1935 Guitar by Cremonese Luthier Luigi Digiuni

2019
AL#136 p.42               
Massimo Maddaloni   Lizabeth-Jane Hella   Giacomo Parimbelli                                                                                   

▪ From the time that the violin was invented, Cremona was the world center for the highest quality string instrument making, until it gradually became known for lower-quality mass production of fiddles. After its dark age, Cremona has more recently seen a renaissance of its lutherie heritage. This article looks at an unusual guitar made by a Cremonese luthier in the 1930s and sees echoes of the old masters in its design. Mentions Stradivari, Panormo, Fibonacci spiral, Archimedean spiral, golden ratio.

Measuring Scale Length of Fretted Instruments

2019
AL#136 p.48               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ What’s the scale length? Isn’t it just twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret? Yeah, kinda, but there can be a lot of complicating factors when working on old instruments. Like maybe the nut position was compensated, or just cut wrong. Or maybe the 12th fret was a little off. The fret positions might have been calculated using the old rule of 18. Here’s how to find out what’s really going on.

Delrin Frets

2019
AL#136 p.52               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ Many years ago, innovative classical guitar maker Richard Schneider made instruments with frets made of rod stock set in wide saw kerfs. Fleishman updates the idea by having round-bottomed slots cut by CNC and laying in Delrin rod.

A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course

2019
AL#136 p.54               
Mark French   Charles Fox                                                                                       

▪ 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.

Review: Martinez’ 34 Classical Guitars in Life Size

2019
AL#136 p.66               
Peter Tsiorba                                                                                           

▪ It’s called a book, but the format is a box of thirty-four folded sheets, each one a life-size photo poster of a famous guitar. Our reviewer takes a close look. Mentions Antonio Torres.

It Worked for Me: String Clips for Neck Work

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.

Questions: Guitar Bindings can be Thicker Than Sides

2018
AL#134 p.69               
Luis-Alberto Paredes-Rodriguez                                                                                           

▪ Is it bad to cut into the lining when routing a binding channel? Paredes says no it’s actually a good thing. He shows how he does it, and says that in this he is a follower of the late Arthur Overholtzer.

Questions: How Hide Glue is Tested for Gram Strength

2018
AL#134 p.69               
Eugene Thordahl                                                                                           

▪ How do they test for hide glue gram strength? It’s actually kinda technical and involves expensive lab gear. But Thordahl tells us how to get a good estimate the easy way.

Setting a Violin Neck Like a Professional

2018
AL#135 p.4               
Charles Rufino                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a close look at the process of setting a violin neck. No innovative tools or new miracle adhesives here; just good old-fashioned methodical, careful work with traditional toos and designs. From his workshop at the 2017 GAL Convention.

Training the Next Generation

2018
AL#135 p.16               
Dan Erlewine   Erick Coleman   Chelsea Clark                                                                                   

▪ “Uncle Dan” Erlewine has been a constant presence in the American Lutherie Boom era, because he personifies the can-do ethos that underlies the whole dang movement: figure something out, and tell everybody about it. As a young man hoping to move from rocker to luthier, he found a generous mentor in Herb David of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dan has paid that forward many times as he has brought young people into his shop and given them a place to grow. Mentions Herb David, Mark Erlewine, Jerry Garcia, Albert King, John O’Boyle, David Surovel, Bryan Galloup, Charlie Longstreth, Tom Erlewine, Gary Brawer, Joe Glaser, Steve Olson, Albert Garcia, Elliot John-Conry, Adam Fox, Exodus Almasude, Johan Powell, Max Feldman, Paul Lampley, Aaron Smiley, Rodrgo Gomez, Chelsea Clark. From his lecture at the 2017 GAL Convention.

Removing Top and Back Guitar Plates

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.

GAL Instrument Plan #76: 1957 Martin 0-15 Guitar

2018
AL#135 p.36               
Tim Olsen                                                                                           

▪ Martin’s 15-style guitars were the bottom of the line back in the 1940s and ’50s. All the fancy stuff was stripped away, leaving a very respectable all-mahogany guitar with no binding. Here’s a drawing of the smallest, cheapest one in the time-tested series. Hardwood top.

Meet the Maker: Rafael Mardones Sr. and Jr.

2018
AL#135 p.38               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ In his youth, before Federico Sheppard found his calling as a luthier, he was a mere physician working for the Olympic Games. One day he heard a classical guitar being played on the radio of his car. It shook him to “his inner core being” as Lord Buckley would say, and changed the course of his life. And now he has finally made the pilrimage to Chile to visit the shop of the man who made that guitar, Rafael Mardones, and his son, Rafa Jr.

The Convolution of a Guitar Note

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.

Guitar Making: The Luthier’s Bench and the Factory

2018
AL#135 p.54               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Lutherie is changing. Digital tools are transforming factories, and also opening new possibilities to individual shops. This brigs up new issues. Like, what if the normal accuracy gets so high that the instruments sound too similar to each other? Will it become desirable to build in a certain amount of random variation?

A DRO Fret Slotter

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.

In Memoriam: Robert Ruck

2018
AL#135 p.60               read this article
Federico Sheppard   R.E. Brune   Peter Oberg                                                                                   

▪ Good ol’ Bob Ruck was part of the dozen or two friends whose talent and commitment formed the basis for the American Lutherie Boom. He was always way ahead of the curve, and as they developed, his fine classical guitars provided inspiration for others of his generation. Three friends who knew him well share their appreciations. Article mentions Hart Huttig, J.R. Beall, John Shaw, Ervin Somogyi, Manuel Barrueco, Neil Ostberg, yoga, tai chi.

It Worked for Me: Tiny Chisel from X-acto Blade

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.

It Worked for Me: Post-it Notes Improve Brace Gluing

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.

Questions: Steel for Paracho Knife Blades

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?

Reviews: Cuzzucoli and Garrone’s Classical Guitar Design

2018
AL#133 p.66               
Juan-Oscar Azaret                                                                                           

▪ This big new book, written in Italian, is available in English. It’s got some math in it. (Insert your own joke here about still being in an incomprehensible language.) Our reviewer finds a lot of value in it, which he explains in some detail.

Happy 85th Birthday, Maestro Jose!

2018
AL#134 p.4               
Monica Esparza                                                                                           

▪ There was a party in Spain when luthier, scholar, teacher, and author Jose Romanillos turned 85. Luthiers, musicians, dignitaries gathered to honor him. We get a close-up look through the eyes of his longtime admirer and student Monica Esparza.

A Glance Back

2018
AL#134 p.6               
Cyndy Burton                                                                                           

▪ Jose Romanillos has been an influential maker for the last fifty years, beginning with his fruitful collaboration with Julian Bream. Here we see a few photos that put his long career in perspective.

Appreciations of Jose Luis Romanillos Vega

2018
AL#134 p.9               
Monica Esparza   Josep Melo   Stefano Grondona   Antigoni Goni                                                                               

▪ Two guitarists and a luthier tell their stories of working with Romanillos.

Warmoth Guitar Products in the 21st Century

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.

Seeking Quality and Consistency in Classical Guitar Sound

2018
AL#134 p.34               
Greg Byers                                                                                           

▪ So you made a classical guitar, and it sounds good. You want your next one to sound good, too. You want your output to be consistently good. How do you do that? After decades of lutherie experience, Byers has developed a method of recording the frequency responses of the soundboard at each major stage of construction. Does the tap-tone of the raw top set tell the whole story? No, but it can help you steer the project to a successful conclusion.

Let’s Catch up with Harry Fleishman

2018
AL#134 p.42               
Michael Bashkin   Harry Fleishman                                                                                       

▪ Everybody knows Harry Fleishman, right? We first “Met the Maker” in 2001, but by then Harry had already been an active GAL author and convention attendee for some time. Now we are catching up with him. This recent chapter of his story is a doozy, with major moves, businesses opening and closing, fruitful collaborations, international travel, and new beginnings.

Talking about Tone

2018
AL#134 p.52               
Chris Herrod                                                                                           

▪ You’ll often read article in American Lutherie where scientists explain the sound of guitars in terms of resonant frequencies and onset transients. On the other hand, longtime wood merchant Chris Herrod is here to give the metaphoric pendulum a big old shove back to the right-brain tradition of using evocative adjectives like “dry,” “creamy,” and “poignant.” He also discusses psychoacoustics research and how confident we should be about our “ears.”

Making Long-Radius Curve Templates

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.

What Were They Thinking?

2018
AL#133 p.56               
C.F. Casey                                                                                           

▪ We’ve all seen bad repairs. They can be frustrating, or maybe enraging. But sometimes they are just dazzling in their spectacular daring and ignorance. Here’s a couple of those.

The Pretty Good Setup Tailpiece

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.

Business Tips for the Repair Shop

2018
AL#133 p.62               
Paul Neri                                                                                           

▪ Here’s some good, simple advice on how to keep your repair customers happy from a guy with decades of experience.

Product Reviews: Gluboost Fill and Finish

2017
AL#132 p.71               
Cat Fox                                                                                           

▪ Experienced guitar repairer Cat Fox gives a big thumbs-up to Glooboost products for drop fills on lacquer. Well, her thumbs are not that big. Just regular.

Letter to the Editor: Brace Sanding Using Higher Grit Sandpaper

2018
AL#133 p.3               
Brent Benfield                                                                                           

▪ Do finely-sanded guitar tops actually sound different from the usual ones? An experienced luthier writes in to aver that they do.

In the Footsteps of Mangore

2018
AL#133 p.6               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ There are luthiers way up in the tributaries of the Amazon River. They have wood galore, and they are teaching large numbers of local kids to make their own instruments. But they are short on good sharp tools and modern information. Our intrepid adventurer Federico Sheppard sets out to address that lack by bring in donated tools and holding master classes. He was multi-tasking; on the same trip he researched and commemorated the 1931 visit of Agustin Barrios to the remarkable Teatro Amazonas, which you might recognize from the Werner Herzog movie Fitzcaraldo. And he got in some fishing.

Meet the Maker: Mark French

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.

Restoration of a Guitar by Thomas Duran made in Seville 1684

2018
AL#133 p.34               
D.-and-F. Sinier-de-Ridder                                                                                           

▪ So you need to restore a guitar that is a third of a millienium old. Of course it was originally a Baroque guitar. A couple hundred years ago somebody chopped it into a Romantic-era 6-string guitar. No prob, you’ll just find a similar authentic instrument for a guide. Except there aren’t any. Spain was packed with them 300 years ago, but now not a single one is known to exist in original condition. Nonetheless, a full and successful restoration is made.

Travel Guitar with In-Body Tuning System

2018
AL#133 p.40               
John Armstrong                                                                                           

▪ Many different designs have addressed the problem of making a travel guitar with a full scale length. Here’s one that solves the problem by completely redesigning the tuning mechanism so that it can fit into the body behind the bridge.

More Stiffness and Density Data for Lutherie Woods

2018
AL#133 p.48               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ We all have ideas about the stiffness of brace wood, probably based on a combination of intuition, hearsay, and informal flexing. Blilie aims to accumulate more quantitave data. Here he reports on his latest tests. He also describes his methodology and the reasoning behind it. This is Blilie’s third article on this topic.

Some Thoughts on CAD and 3D Printing for Luthiers

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.

More Glue Strength Testing Data

2017
AL#131 p.53               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ Unless you are really messing it up, the glue line is stronger than the wood. And here’s more numbers to prove it. Blilie uses real lab gear and standard statistical analysis to drive the lesson home.

Pickguard Cracks: A New Twist on a Common Soundboard Repair

2017
AL#131 p.58               
Kjell Croce                                                                                           

▪ Everybody has seen them; those cracks on the tops of old Martins that form just south of the soundhole when the pickguard shrinks. Croce shows us how to close and reinforce the crack, and then make a well-behaved modern pickguard.

Tiny Files for Fret Work

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.

An Adjustable Compensating Guitar Nut Design

2017
AL#131 p.66               
Paul Eliasson   Orn Eliasson                                                                                       

▪ Relax. The clunky Frankenstein of a nut in this photo is not the design to which the article title refers. The Eliasson design is sleek and compact.

Letter to the Editor: Guitar Compensation Experiment at 2017 Convention

2017
AL#132 p.3               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Mottola collected some data about string length compensation at the 2017 GAL Convention. He promises to publish soon.

Letter to the Editor: Baroque Relief Carving for Electric Bass

2017
AL#132 p.3               
Matias Crom                                                                                           

▪ The Guild has always taken the attitude that all lutherie info is good for all luthiers. Here’s a case in point. A Guild member has specialized in electric guitars and in Baroque instruments at different points in his career. He unites those ideas in an electric bass with relief carving based on rosette designs from our landmark book Historical Lute Construction by Robert Lundberg.

Letter to the Editor: Guitar Building Classes in Spain

2017
AL#132 p.5               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Federico talks about the possibility of guitar building classes at his 1000-year-old church in Spain.

Meet the Maker: Michael Bashkin

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.

Classical Guitar Setup

2017
AL#132 p.18               
Kevin Aram                                                                                           

▪ Kevin Aram has long been one of the very top classical guitar makers in the United Kingdom. Here he takes us through his process of setting the action on a classical guitar and making sure the frets are shipshape and Bristol fashion.

A Field Guide to Mandolins

2017
AL#132 p.30               
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Mandolins have come in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and styles in over 350 years of history. And while you are not likely to stumble upon the kind of mandolin that Vivaldi wrote for, you may find yourself looking at a century-old American factory-made cutie like this Smurf-head Regal, resplendent in muliple pearloids. This article gives you a quick introduction to the rich diversity in the great Family of Man(dolin).

Let’s Catch Up With Graham Caldersmith

2017
AL#132 p.44               
Juan-Oscar Azaret   Graham Caldersmith                                                                                       

▪ Graham Caldersmith’s articles in GAL publications go back a full thirty-five years, earlier than American Lutherie magazine itself. He’s located in a tiny town in the hinterlands of New South Wales, Australia. He uses his scientific training to develop innovative classical guitars, and has long been a leader in the effort to develop a family of guitars of different sizes and musical ranges. Our globetrotting reporter asks about his latest thoughts and methods, which include carbon-reinforced lattice bracing.

The “Mysteries” of Panormo

2017
AL#132 p.50               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Louis Panormo was a popular and influential instrument maker in mid-19th-century London. Some of the features of his guitars and the methods he must have used to produce them can be puzzling to 21st-century luthiers raised on the ideas and standards which have come down to us from Antonio Torres and his disciples. Author Mottola builds a Panormo replica and takes the opportunity to speculate on the master’s motivations.

An Inexpensive Resophonic Guitar

2017
AL#132 p.58               
Lee Herron                                                                                           

▪ Take a break from building that replica Joachim Tielke Baroque guitar and step up to this lutherie challenge. Build a fully-functional Dobro from a sheet of 3/4″ construction plywood, a few parts from the plumbing department, and various stuff from the thrift store. OK, you can also have a fretboard, a real set of tuners, and a set of strings. But when it comes to finding a resonator cone, you’ll have to punt. Or Bundt.

A Better Approximation to the Rule of 18

2017
AL#132 p.62               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ We think the old boys found the 1st fret position by dividing the string length by 18. Then they divided that by 18 to get the 2nd fret. Sounds like a job for that nerdy apprentice kid. But 18 is just an approximation of the “right” number; that is, the 12th fret won’t be right in the middle of the string. If you want to do it by hand, here’s some thoughts and numbers about what would be a better approximation, and how much better it would be.

It Worked for Me: Simple Binding Rabbet Sander

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.

In Memoriam: Jim Mouradian

2017
AL#130 p.62               read this article
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Jim Mouradian, shown here with his son Jon, ran a guitar repair shop and made electric basses. He was a generous and happy mentor to many.

In Memoriam: Peter Kyvelos

2017
AL#130 p.63               read this article
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Kyvelos was a world-respected maker of middle Eastern ouds. See his detailed step-by-step article on oud construction in American Lutherie #94 and American Lutherie #95.

It Worked For Me: Humidity Control

2017
AL#130 p.64               
Juan-Oscar Azaret                                                                                           

▪ Clever automatic control of a home’s central heating and air conditioning can yield effective humidity control without the use of dehumidifying equipment.

Letter to the Editor: Wood species study

2017
AL#131 p.3               
Samuele Carcagno   Chris Plack                                                                                       

▪ A study at Lancaster University seeks luthiers to help with a scientific study of the impact of wood choice on the percieved sound of acoustic guitars.

Meet the Maker: Bernhard Kresse

2017
AL#131 p.6               
Federico Sheppard   Bernhard Kresse                                                                                       

▪ Bernhard Kresse lives and works in his hometown of Cologne, Germany. He’s one of those guitar-making self-starters who was lured away from college by the siren song of lutherie. He has come to specialize in restoration and new construction of Romantic-era guitars, and also makes a “modern” classical guitar based on their advanced features.

Electric Bass Neck Rods

2017
AL#131 p.14               
David King                                                                                           

▪ That great big long thin neck of an electric bass is the ultimate test case for a truss rod. When renowned custom bass maker David King became dissatisfied with the performance of the rod he was using, he took a deep dive on the whole question of how rods work. Spoiler: Leo Fender was right. Mentions Michael Gurian and William Cumpiano.

Compression Neck Rod Installation

2017
AL#131 p.18               
David King                                                                                           

▪ If you are one of those spoiled-rotten kids who has always just dropped an under-over truss rod into a straight slot, you might want to see how a real old-school single curved compression rod is done.

Meet the Maker: Peter Tsiorba

2017
AL#131 p.20               
January Williams   Peter Tsiorba                                                                                       

▪ Peter Tsiorba began his working life as a teenager making garments in a semi-legit Soviet cooperative. Today he’s a family man and a maker of classical guitars in the lutherie Mecca of Portland, Oregon.

Spanish Students Stop Traffic in Paris

2017
AL#131 p.44               
Paul Ruppa                                                                                           

▪ Without the mandolin orchestra fad of the early 20th-century, we might not see Gibson mandolins today except in museums. The story of the pop-music sensation that triggered that fad is even more curious and unlikely than we have previouosly known. Get the straight poop here. Includes extensive historical references and illustrations.

The Soundpost Cannon Incident

2017
AL#131 p.50               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ Pop goes the soundpost! Can this affordable old Kay bull fiddle be saved? Plywood-doghouse bass specialist James Condino shows us how.

The New Generation of Granada Guitar Makers

2017
AL#129 p.46               
Lisa Hurlong                                                                                           

▪ Lisa Hurlong is an American guitarist who moved to Spain many years ago. The guitar scene in Granada is rich and active. The various guitar makers have deep connections to each other that go back across decades of apprenticeships and partnerships. The young makers she describes here include Jose Marin Plazuelo, Jose Gonzalez Lopez, Juan Antonio Correa Marin, Francisco Javier Munoz Alba, Jose Luis Vigil Pinera, Jesus Bellido, Mauricio Bellido, Juan Manuel Garcia Fernandez, and Juan Miguel Carmona Trapero. Also mentions Manuel Francisco Diaz, Antonio Duran, Rafael Moreno, Antonio Marin, Manuel Bellido, Jose Bellido (Pepe Lopez), Eduardo Ferrer, Victor Diaz, Juan Miguel Carmona, and Rafael Moreno.

Drawing Acoustic Guitar Body Outlines Using Traditional Techniques

2017
AL#129 p.52               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Grab a piece of paper and a pencil. See if you can find that old plastic triangle. Mottola steps you through the process of actually drawing the outline of an Orchestra Model guitar. Keep a candle handy. If the power goes out you can keep working.

In Memoriam: Eugene Clark

2017
AL#129 p.56               read this article
Cyndy Burton   Marc Silber   Brian Burns   Michael Gurian   Jay Hargreaves   R.E. Brune   Jeffrey R. Elliott   Federico Sheppard                                                               

▪ Eugene Clark (1934-2016) was one of the earliest and most influential pioneers of the American Lutherie Boom. Mentions Manuel Ramirez, Domingo Esteso, Santos Hernandez, Jon Lundberg, Freddie Mejia, David Rubio, Michael Gurian, David Santo, Lucien Barnes, Freddie Mejia, David Serva, Warren White, Manuel Velazquez, Manouk Papazian.

It Worked for Me: Foam Caul for Clamping Bridge

2017
AL#129 p.63               
Rick Rubin                                                                                           

▪ Use that firm packing foam stuff to clamp a bridge on a flattop guitar. The foam can conform to small transducers that may be glued to the bridge plate.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2017
AL#129 p.64               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin’s manifesto of outlaw lutherie. He says real lutherie can be fun, spontanious, quick, and cheap. Relax. It’s good for you.

Reviews: The American Violin by Christopher Germain, Philip J. Kass, Darcy Kuronen, Dameron Midgett and John Montgomery

2017
AL#129 p.66               
Jeff-Lee Manthos                                                                                           

▪ A trained violin maker takes a thoughtful look at this luxurious picture book cataloging the fine violins of deceased American makers. Mentions Rembert Wurlitzer, Rene Morel, William Salchow, Simone Sacconi, Thomas Metzler, Freelan Stanley.

Questions: Water-slide decals

2017
AL#129 p.68               
Pete Daigle   Reg Beardsley                                                                                       

▪ Make water-slide decals using specially prepared paper and the right brand of color laser printer. Plus a description of how one could make traditional water-slide decals in the old-school way, that is, by silk screening.

Questions: Why would I want to use torrified or heat-treated wood?

2017
AL#129 p.68               
Mark Dalton   Andy Powers   John Calkin                                                                                   

▪ Torrified wood has been baked at similar temperatures as baking potatoes, usually in a reduced-oxygen atmosphere. Seems to make the wood lighter in weight, darker in color, and stiffer across the grain.

Questions: Where can I get my wood heat treated or torrified?

2017
AL#129 p.68               
John Calkin   R.M. Mottola                                                                                       

▪ There is no company offering a torrifying service, but maybe you can do something similar in a home oven. I said maybe. Don’t blame the GAL if you make a stinking mess. Or worse.

Meet the Maker: Jason Lollar

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.

Offset Soundholes and Sound Wedges

2017
AL#130 p.22               
David Freeman                                                                                           

▪ Freeman has made a number of guitars with varying combinations of off-center soundholes, graduated body depth, rolled-over edges, and adjustable side ports. He gives us his thoughts on how these design factors interact and how they advance his quest for a more erognomic steel string guitar.

Techniques for Guitar Repair Efficiency

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.

Meet the Maker: Jason Harshbarger

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.

Was the Rule of 18 Good Enough?

2017
AL#130 p.52               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Did ancient folk know what they were doing? Or did they just have the bad luck to be born too soon? This article can’t settle that question definitively, but it does give some new and helpful information for luthiers. Graphs compare the pitch accuracy of fret scales calculated by the 12th-root-of-2 method vs the Rule-of-18 method. Appropriate string length compensation is considered.

In Memoriam: Robert S. Cooper

2017
AL#130 p.59               read this article
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ Cooper was an early member of the GAL as well as a maker of large and detailed airplane models. He wrote what was at the time the only book in English about making a lute, based on the work of the Hauser family. He’s fondly remembered by R.E. Brune, who built lutes from that book in the 1970s.

In Memoriam: Ray Tunquist

2017
AL#130 p.60               read this article
Tom Bednark                                                                                           

▪ Tunquist ran the huge circular saw on which most of the wood for Martin guitars was cut in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. He is remembered by Tom Bednark, an early GAL member.

In Memoriam: Jim Forderer

2016
AL#128 p.65               read this article
James Westbrook   John Doan                                                                                       

▪ Guild members knew Jim Forderer as the guy who brought an RV full of important antique guitars to the GAL Conventions and let us play them. Disabilities advocates and Neil Young fans knew him as the co-founder of The Bridge School. Sometimes the angels don’t look like angels. Maybe all the time.

Reviews: McDonald’s The Mandolin — A History

2016
AL#128 p.68               
G.D. Armstrong                                                                                           

▪ Graham McDonald has written books about mandolin-family instrument construction as well as speaking at GAL Conventions and writing for AL. Now he has written a book about mandolin history, and long-time GAL member GD Armstrong likes it. John Calkin gives a good review to a recent addition to Robbie O’Brien’s large and deep online lutherie instruction catalog. This one focuses on Kent Carlos Everett’s fret work techniques.

Reviews: O’Brien’s Fret Work

2016
AL#128 p.68               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Graham McDonald has written books about mandolin-family instrument construction as well as speaking at GAL Conventions and writing for AL. Now he has written a book about mandolin history, and long-time GAL member GD Armstrong likes it. John Calkin gives a good review to a recent addition to Robbie O’Brien’s large and deep online lutherie instruction catalog. This one focuses on Kent Carlos Everett’s fret work techniques.

Letter to the Editor: Mansard guitar design has faceted back

2017
AL#129 p.3               
Clifford Wilkes                                                                                           

▪ This is one of many designs that makes a large steel-string guitar more ergonomic. The back is formed in three large flat facets.

Letter to the Editor: Experimental solidbody guitar by Doc Kauffman

2017
AL#129 p.3               
Leo Bidne                                                                                           

▪ An electric guitar by pioneering designer Doc Kauffman uses a speaker cone in place of a resophonic cone.

Let’s Catch Up With Linda Manzer

2017
AL#129 p.6               
Cyndy Burton   Linda Manzer                                                                                       

▪ The prolific maker of high-end flattop and archtop guitars talks about her mentors Jean Larrivee and Jimmy D’Aquisto, the lutherie biz, her collaborations with guitarist Pat Metheny, and a recent project in cooperation with other Canadian luthiers. Also mentions Paul Simon.

The 2×4 Ukulele

2017
AL#129 p.12               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin says real lutherie can be fun, spontanious, quick, and cheap. He makes a uke from a lumber-yard 2×4 to drive home the point.

The Monster in the Attic

2017
AL#129 p.20               
C.F. Casey                                                                                           

▪ When a neighbor brought in “Grampa’s old guitar” for Fred Casey to look at, he got a shock. The guitar was a whopper. Or more properly, a monster. That’s what Lyon & Healy called this very wide guitar. It was pretty well smashed, but soon it was back in playing condition. Does this guitar make my hips look big?

Voicing the Modern Mandolin

2017
AL#129 p.24               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ Condino has developed a clever process by which he can string and play a new mandolin very early in the building process. This makes voicing much more accurate,a nd it reduces the risk of experimental materials and bracing patterns considerably. Must see to believe. Mentions the work of Lloyd Loar at the Gibson company in the 1920s.

GAL Instrument Plan #75: 1926 Gibson “Snakehead” A-Model Mandolin

2017
AL#129 p.34               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ It’s a clean, simple classic from the golden era. These are the working man’s mandos that Gibson was making while Lloyd Loar was busy making the fancy ones in the next room.

Meet the Maker: Dave Collins

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.

Let’s Catch Up with Jeffrey R. Elliott

2016
AL#127 p.22               
Chris Sobel   Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                       

▪ Jeffrey R. Elliott has been a luthier for about 50 years, and a GAL member for about 40 years. He has over 50 GAL author credits to his name and has been a frequent GAL Convention presenter. The last time we interviewed him about his life and work was about 30 years ago, so there is a lot of catching up to do.

Jeffrey R. Elliott Open Harmonic Bar Classical Guitar

2016
AL#127 p.34               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ In his interview, Elliott goes into some depth about the development of his classical guitar pattern. That decades-long evolution has produced his current sophisticated and successful design, which is presented here in detail. Of course we offer it as a full-scale two-sheet plan.

GAL Instrument Plan #74: 2016 Jeffrey R. Elliott Standard Concert Model Classical Guitar

2016
AL#127 p.36               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ In an interview in AL127, Jeffrey Elliott goes into some depth about the development of his classical guitar pattern. That decades-long evolution has produced his current sophisticated and successful design, which is presented here in detail. Of course we offer it as a full-scale two-sheet plan.

A Rubbed-Oil Finish Method for Classical Guitar

2016
AL#127 p.38               
Kevin Aram                                                                                           

▪ Conventional Wisdom says that rubbed-oil finishes are no good for guitars. Well, once again Conventional Wisdom is wearing a dunce cap, because Kevin Aram has made about 200 world-class classical guitars over the last twenty years using a finishing process that involves nothing but Liberon oil rubbed on with a rag. No sealer, no solvent, no compressor, no filters or exhaust fans. Heck, not even a brush. But it does require excellent surface preparation. He shows us exactly how to do it.

Meet the Maker: John Knutson

2016
AL#127 p.46               
Don Bradley    Knutson                                                                                       

▪ John Knutson personifies the pioneers of the Lutherie Boom generation; a self-taught, self-confident selfstarter who jumped right into making instruments as a young man. He showed his first mandolin at the GAL’s 1980 convention in San Francisco, and briefly met David Grisman there. Decades later he recorded a CD with Dawg, using guitars and mandolins that he built. There is more to his interesting story.

Effects of Grain Orientation on Brace Deflection

2016
AL#127 p.56               
Greg Nelson                                                                                           

▪ What’s stiffer: a spruce brace with vertical grain, or one with flat grain? How about diagonal grain? How would you know? Here’s an attempt to gather some data and present it in a way that makes sense. Challenge your assumptions by reading this article.

Reviews: True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley

2016
AL#127 p.61               
John Littel                                                                                           

▪ Lots of luthiers are doing nice clean, sophisticated, carefully developed work. Yes, our standards of fit and finish are high these days. But have we squeezed the soul out of it? Did we lose the spark of wonder as we chased the phantom of perfection? Nah. But you might like to check out this book about a guy who feels inspired to make some primitive and heartfelt instruments out of whatever the Universe sends him. And the Universe has a sense of humor.

In Memoriam: Don Bradley

2016
AL#127 p.71               read this article
Deb Olsen   Chris Herrod   Alan Carruth   Fred Carlson                                                                               

▪ Ouch. It’s tough to lose an old friend like good ol’ Don Bradley. Maker of frequency generators, keeper of llamas, attender of GAL Conventions, super great guy.

Letter to the Editor: Bevels

2016
AL#128 p.3               
Carl Samuels                                                                                           

▪ You know those new-fangled bevels that make fancy hand-made steel-string guitars more comfy to play? Ever wonder what it would be like to have a guitar that was beveled all the way around the body? American lutherie-boom pioneer Carl Samuels has already done it.

Considerations in Replicating Vintage Guitars

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.

Meet the Maker: Jeff Manthos

2016
AL#128 p.22               
Pat Megowan   Jeff-Lee Manthos                                                                                       

▪ People come to lutherie on many different paths. Some of us were nerdy model-making kids, or spoiled lefty college dropouts. Or maybe the garage band was our gateway into the opium den of guitar making. On the other hand, Jeff Manthos was a helicopter aircrewman and rescue swimmer in the Vietnam era. Then, unexpectedly, he went to the Violinmaking School of America in Salt Lake City. He has made a career of it, first in other shops and now on his own.

CNC in Small Shop Mandolin Making

2016
AL#128 p.32               
Andrew Mowry                                                                                           

▪ Andrew Mowry was a one-man mandolin-making shop known for precise high-quality work. When he made the jump and brought a small but capable CNC mill into the mix, he was not trying to flood the market, but rather to further improve his work. All the tools and methods he shows here are well within reach; you don’t need to be a factory to afford it, and it won’t turn you into a factory if you try it. Mowry still runs a one-man shop known for precise high-quality work. From his 2014 convention workshop.

Meet the Maker: Gabriel Fleta

2016
AL#128 p.48               
Cyndy Burton   Jeffrey-R. Elliott   Gabriel Fleta                                                                                   

▪ His grandfather Ignacio Fleta was a violin maker who started making guitars after repairing instruments by Torres, and his father Gabriel Sr. made guitars for decades as one of the legendary “hijos” of Ignacio who made guitars for Segovia, John Williams, and many others. Gabriel Fleta Jr. has been making guitars since the 1970s and has now inherited the family business. We visit his shop in Barcelona.

A Large New Set of Stiffness Data for Lutherie Woods and a Proposed Standard Test Method

2016
AL#128 p.58               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ We all have ideas about the stiffness of brace wood, probably based on a combination of intuition, hearsay, and informal flexing. Blilie aims to accumulate more quantitave data. Here he reports on his latest tests. He also describes his methodology and the reasoning behind it. This is Blilie’s second article on this topic. The earlier one is in AL128. A third article appears in AL133.

How to Prepare Bone

2016
AL#126 p.32               
Sean Barry                                                                                           

▪ So if you did go down to the butcher shop and get a big ol’ cow bone to make saddles and nuts, what would be your next step? Make some soup. No, really. That’s the first step to preparing bone for lutherie use. But it gets less appetizing after that.

1937 Hermann Hauser Sr. Classic Guitar, Ex Segovia (GAL Instrument Plan #33 Second Edition 2016)

2016
AL#126 p.34               
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ In 1992, GAL stalwart R.E. Brune measured and photographed this instrument, which Segovia famously called “the greatest guitar of our epoch” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Technology has changed for the better since then, and we are delighted to present this new edition of the plan, featuring color printing and razor-sharp lines.

GAL Instrument Plan #33: 1937 Hermann Hauser Sr. Classic Guitar, Ex Segovia

2016
AL#126 p.36               
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ In 1992, GAL stalwart R.E. Brune measured and photographed this instrument, which Segovia famously called “the greatest guitar of our epoch” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Technology has changed for the better since then, and we are delighted to present this new edition of the plan, featuring color printing and razor-sharp lines.

Proposed Standard Glue Strength Testing Method

2016
AL#126 p.38               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ How strong is glue? Like, is Titebond stonger than hide glue? Aside from forming generalized opinions based on observation or making assumptions based on conventional wisdom, how would you know? Jim Blilie proposes a test method to help us get more organized. It involves breaking a lot of little sticks.

Fixing a Smashed Guitar Edge with Antonio Tessarin

2016
AL#126 p.48               
Robbie O’Brien   Antonio Tessarin                                                                                       

▪ Robbie O’Brien keeps up a friendly lutherie competition with his old mentor Antonio Tessarin. Robbie is in Colorado and Antonio is in Brazil, but that’s no prob these days, what with the smartphones and the Interwebs and all that. In this article Antonio shows Robbie how he fixed a nasty smash on the edge of one of his own classical guitars. Sweet! What will Robbie do to one-up that?

Toothed Planes and Scraper Planes

2016
AL#126 p.58               
Rick Rubin                                                                                           

▪ The same thing that makes crazy grain figure beautiful can make it hard to work with a plane. So use a sander, right? Well, not everyone finds that to be a helpful or welcome suggestion. For them, toothed planes and scraper planes can be the solution. Rubin argues that excellent antique tools are available at reasonable prices and will do the job well.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2016
AL#126 p.60               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ RM describes, in plain English, the contents of two new articles of original research. In the first, high-powered microscopes are used to see if strings really do “wear out” or just get gunked up. In the other, a bunch of spruce samples are carefully finished and tested to see if different types of finish have different effects on acoustic damping.

Reviews: A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present by Sheldon Urlik

2016
AL#126 p.62               
Bryan Johanson                                                                                           

▪ The second edition of this important book is a considerable advance over the original.

Product Reviews: Aqua Coat Clear Wood Grain Filler

2016
AL#126 p.66               
Bob Gleason                                                                                           

▪ Gleason has been making instruments for a long time and he’s used a lot of different grain fillers. And he has considerable experience with this particular brand. He likes it a lot.

It Worked For Me: Small Sanding Block

2016
AL#126 p.68               
Todd Rose                                                                                           

▪ Using this sanding block is a simple and quick way to bring offending frets down perfectly level with others without disturbing them.

Questions: Nut Mounting

2016
AL#126 p.70               
Tim Shaw                                                                                           

▪ Should the bottom surface of the nut on a steel string guitar be parallel with the bottom of the fretboard, or with the peghead?

Questions: Katalox

2016
AL#126 p.70               
Eric Meier                                                                                           

▪ What is Katalox and is it a good substitute for ebony.

Letter to the Editor: Hauser Replica Guitar

2016
AL#127 p.2               
Byron Spain                                                                                           

▪ A Guild member built a guitar from GAL Plan #33, which was drawn from Segovia’s famous Hauser. This new guitar was then analyzed and compared to other fine instruments.

Traditional Lutherie Techniques for Violin and Guitar Making

2016
AL#127 p.4               
Charles Rufino   Stephen Marchione                                                                                       

▪ A guitar maker and a violin maker team up for a show-and-tell focusing on hide glue, sizing, linen reinforcement, hand-cut dovetail joints, and getting the best out of a spruce top wedge. From their 2014 GAL convention workshop.

Seven String Surgery

2016
AL#127 p.16               
Robbie O’Brien   Antonio Tessarin                                                                                       

▪ So you made a nice 6-string classical guitar for your client, and he loves it. Now he wants to play a 7-string. The guitar has a Spanish heel. What do you do? Saw off the neck and graft on a new one. Scary, but it turned out great. We see every gory step along the way.

Questions: Does it make an instrument louder to add unison strings?

2015
AL#124 p.71               
David Cohen                                                                                           

▪ Would a guitar be twice as loud if it to be all strung in double unison courses? The short answer is no. Dr. Dave gives the long answer.

Letter to the Editor: Leonardo Guitar Research Project

2016
AL#125 p.3               
James Blilie                                                                                           

▪ The Leonardo Guitar Research Project gathered very many data during their testing, which strengthens the confidence in the findings.

Contemporary Ukulele Making: Extended Soundport

2016
AL#125 p.4               
Jay Lichty                                                                                           

▪ Jay Lichty demonstrates the entire construction process of ukulele fiber sleeve soundports. From his 2014 GAL convention workshop.

Wood Stiffness: An Analysis of a Substantial Sample of Woods of Interest to Guitar Makers

2016
AL#125 p.20               
James Blilie   Alan Carruth                                                                                       

▪ Blilie and Carruth examine the stiffness and density of individual wood samples, making the process more quantifiable.

Secrets of Santos

2016
AL#125 p.24               
Federico Sheppard                                                                                           

▪ Santos Hernandez, universally considered one of 20th century’s Spanish guitar makers, had a reputation for secrecy. Federico Sheppard travels to Madrid to find the truth.

Traces of Santos

2016
AL#125 p.28               
Federico Sheppard   R.E. Brune                                                                                       

▪ On his quest for the secrets of Santos, Federico visits a permanent exhibit of Santos’ original tools and forms.

GAL Instrument Plan #73: 1934 Santos Hernandez Flamenco Guitar

2016
AL#125 p.34               
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ A detailed plan of a nice Santos flamenco guitar in the personal collection of R.E. Brune. A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.

Meet the Maker: Patrick “Doc” Huff

2016
AL#125 p.38               
January Williams   Patrick Huff                                                                                       

▪ Doc is a self-reliant man, independent thinker, joyful inventor, world traveler, and maker of highly original and unusual frailing banjos using a dizzying selection of gorgeous woods.

The Hand-Rubbed Sunburst

2016
AL#125 p.48               
James Condino                                                                                           

▪ James Condino does sunbursts on archtop mandolins the way they did it back in the 1920s: rubbing water stains directly on the bare wood.

A Simple Modification to Reduce Frequency Errors in Guitars

2016
AL#125 p.64               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Professor Mark French and his college students attempt to move the first two frets back a little, and push the nut forward a lot for mathematical accuracy.

Contemporary Ukulele Making: Adding a Beveled Cutaway

2016
AL#126 p.6               
Michael DaSilva                                                                                           

▪ DaSilva builds the uke body normally, then rips into it with a saw and a big honkin’ chisel. He fits a bent wood gore, then binds it, which is complicated by the changing angle. He demonstrated the whole process live at the 2014 GAL Convention.

Meet the Maker: Sebastian Nunez

2016
AL#126 p.12               
Federico Sheppard   Sebastian Nunez                                                                                       

▪ Sebastián Núñez was a teenager in a Buenos Aires garage band, making electric guitars and pickups and searching for prog rock records, until he followed his girlfriend to the Netherlands to escape the troubles in Argentina. There he fell in with a historic-house-restoring, Harley-riding, early-music luthier. He read every early-music magazine in the Utrecht University library while commuting to work. Now he’s an old master, making and restoring lutes, Romantic guitars, and harpsichords. Our globetrotting reporter Federico Sheppard drops in on his busy workshop.

Tales from the Soundhole: Guitar Repair Tips and Techniques

2016
AL#126 p.22               
Alex Glasser   Brian Michael                                                                                       

▪ Brian and Alex cover a number of interesting repair projects including crack repair and finish touchup on satin-finished guitars, cracked heel blocks, magnets, steamers, and even using a parked car as a neck heater. From their 2014 GAL Convention workshop.

Ukulele Building: Tradition and Trends

2015
AL#124 p.4               
Michael DaSilva   Bob Gleason   Jay Lichty   Woodley White                                                                               

▪ Four prolific uke makers take us into their shops to talk about how and why they build. From their 2014 GAL Convention panel discussion.

Meet the Maker: Sergei de Jonge

2015
AL#124 p.16               
Steve Denvir   Sergei de-Jonge                                                                                       

▪ It’s one of the founding legends of the American Lutherie Boom: the tale of Jean Larrivee’s original workshop in Toronto over forty years ago and the ragged young crew of would-be luthiers who gravitated there. From that beginning, Sergei de Jonge went on to found a lutherie dynasty in the Canadian back country.

Tropical vs. Nontropical Woods for Classical Guitars: The Leonardo Guitar Research Project

2015
AL#124 p.23               
Jacky Walraet   Brian Garston                                                                                       

▪ Everybody loves rosewood. Sounds great, looks great. In fact, it looks so great that we might be “hearing” its lovely, familiar deep color. Would non-tropical woods also make good-sounding guitars? And would they “sound” different if we took off the blindfold? To answer these questions, the Leonardo Guitar Research Project built a matched set of fifteen guitars and compared them under controlled conditions.

Meet the Maker: Bryan Galloup

2015
AL#124 p.26               
Mark Swanson   Bryan Galloup                                                                                       

▪ Bryan Galloup was raised in a family of machinists, hot-rod makers, and self-sufficent can-do types. As a teenager he had the good fortune to be mentored by guitar repair guru Dan Erlewine, and he eventually took over Dan’s shop.Today Bryan builds and repairs guitars while also running an active lutherie school.

The Bandola Llanera (and Its Cousins) New World Descendents with Old World Roots

2015
AL#124 p.32               
Tomas Orellana                                                                                           

▪ The bandola is many things to many people. Several traditional varients exist in northern South America. They share a deep, pear-shaped body, but the number and tuning of strings differ considerably. Author Orellana describes them, then focuses on one regional version.

Viva el Flamenco!

2015
AL#124 p.38               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Robbie O’Brien gets around. Among his many lutherie related projects, he recently went to Spain to film an instructional video on making a flamenco guitar. He met up with some great folks over there and brought home lots of great lutherie info. Warning: This article contains brief mentions of food, dance, song, architecture, passion, history, beauty, and cultural richness. There’s a big, wonderful world out there.

Making Bridges for Guitar Repair

2015
AL#124 p.48               
Brian Michael   Alex Glasser                                                                                       

▪ Even when an off-the-shelf OEM bridge is available, it might not be the best choice for an older guitar. Brian shows us his method of making a matching Martin-style bridge from the broken original. Alex goes a step further and reproduces a failed bridge from a Gibson SJ-200, which is complicated by pearl inlay and cutout wings. From their 2014 GAL Convention workshop.

Quick Heel-Crack Fix

2015
AL#124 p.58               
Todd Mylet                                                                                           

▪ Pull a couple frets, chip out two hunks of the fretboard, sink a couple screws, and glue the chips back in. You might not want to do this on a fine vintage instrument, but not every guitar that comes through the door is a pre-war D-28. Am I right?

Remembering Victor Pfeil

2015
AL#124 p.62               
Robert Miller                                                                                           

▪ Victor Pfeil was an old-school violin maker in the 1920s when he invented and then patented an electric solid body violin using a coil pickup.It did not set the world on fire, and Victor continued to make and repair violins for a few more decades. Author Robert Miller was a young man who knew Pfiel at the end of his career.

Reviews: O’Brien Online Mandolin Making Course

2015
AL#124 p.65               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin finds more treasure in the rich mine of Robbie O’Brien’s online lutherie instruction. Instructor Geoff Burghardt covers the process in detail in the 13-hour course.

Questions: Hide glue in hot, humid climates

2015
AL#124 p.69               
Jim Wimmer                                                                                           

▪ Folks who only use Titebond, or who live in comfortably cool countries, may think that traditional hide glue would not hold up in a hot, humid climate. Jim Wimmer has yars of experience as a violin maker and repairer in India. He says hide glue does just fine.

Questions: Tung oil for a glossy finish

2015
AL#124 p.69               
Jeff Jewitt                                                                                           

▪ Working with commercially-branded tung oil can be complicated. It may have unnamed additives, or may contain no actual tung oil at all. But yes, it is possible to produce a gloss finish by wiping tung oil.

GAL Instrument Plan #70: Baroque Guitar Based on Stradivari from MM.E.901.6

2015
AL#122 p.39               
Jan-Van Cappelle                                                                                           

▪ A body mold for a tiny guitar exists in the collection of Stradivari’s tools and jigs, but no such guitar has been discovered. This is a thoughtful recreation of what such a guitar may have been, based on the surviving guitars of Stadivari.

Tres Hermanas- Same DNA, Different Personalities

2015
AL#122 p.48               
Juan-Oscar Azaret                                                                                           

▪ Three sister guitars were constructed to study the sonic effects of the very different Kasha, Fleta, and Romanillos bracing designs.

Contemporary Ukulele Making: How I Construct Ukulele Tops

2015
AL#122 p.60               
Bob Gleason                                                                                           

▪ Gleason is a subjective builder, everything is tactile, and he gets his signature sound regardless of bracing style. From his 2014 GAL convention workshop.

Reviews: Guitar Makers: The Endurance of Artisanal Values in North America by Kathryn Marie Dudley

2015
AL#122 p.67               
Peggy Stuart                                                                                           

▪ Reviewer says the book is a fascinating look at the lives and stories that members of the lutherie community tell about how the current golden age of lutherie came about.

Questions: Chocolaty Tone

2015
AL#122 p.70               
Daniele Dubois   Claudia Fritz                                                                                       

▪ Arguing in favor of defining a tone as ‘chocolaty’ based on multidisciplinary research expertise combining acoustics, psychology, and linguistics.

Authenticity, Originality, and Unleashing a Personal Style in Violin Making

2015
AL#123 p.4               
Charles Rufino                                                                                           

▪ Why do some instruments made with a rough, crude style have an essence that draws you in, whereas ones meticulously perfect in every degree leave you cold? Rufino examines this question from his point of view as a violin maker with excellent traditional credentials of training.

Restoration of a Guitar by Antonio de Torres, 1875

2015
AL#123 p.16               
D.-and-F. Sinier-de-Ridder                                                                                           

▪ This guitar, built in 1875, is the 2nd instrument made in the second epoch of Antonio de Torres, and was subjected to numerous botched repairs over the years. The authors undertake a thorough restoration to put the guitar in playing condition.

All From the Same Litter: Jean Larrivee and his Apprentices

2015
AL#123 p.24               
Steve Denvir   Sergei de-Jonge   Grit Laskin   Linda Manzer   David Wren                                                                           

▪ Remembrances of long-ago days working in Jean Larrivee’s Toronto shop by guitar makers who are now considered some of the best in the world.

Thoughts on Larrivee’s Symmetrical Bracing

2015
AL#123 p.29               
Grit Laskin                                                                                           

▪ Larrivee’s bracing pattern might have come from his classical sensibility; the Martin method didn’t make sense to him. Laskin has been doing it Larrivee’s way for forty years.

Plate Bending for Bowed and Plucked Instruments

2015
AL#123 p.30               
Nupi Jenner                                                                                           

▪ Finding a practical solution for bending the plates of bowed or plucked instruments to the desired arching, before carving. The author approaces the problem from a background in viola da gamba by traditional methods.

A Modern Uke Family: Thoughts About Small, Smaller, Smallest

2015
AL#123 p.34               
Craig Sullivan                                                                                           

▪ The organization New England Luthiers puts the challenge to its membership to each build a ukulele and share the finished instruments when complete.

GAL Instrument Plan #71: A Modern Uke Family

2015
AL#123 p.39               
Craig Sullivan                                                                                           

▪ This popular plan gives full-scale views of each of four sizes of ukuleles. Be sure to read the article “A Modern Uke Family” in AL#123.

Meet the Maker: Ken Altman

2015
AL#123 p.40               
January Williams   Ken Altman                                                                                       

▪ Ken Altman is a bow maker living in Silverton Oregon, and is part of the group that produces the Northwest Handmade Musical Instrument Show.

The Octave Guitar

2015
AL#123 p.52               
Peter Rosenbladt                                                                                           

▪ Building an octave guitar, a small guitar tuned one octave higher than a regular guitar, which is common in Germany.

Herringbone Trim and Shell Purfling

2015
AL#123 p.58               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin has purfled and bound a lot of steel string guitars, both in his own shop and in his day job at Huss&Dalton. Here he shows us his current techniques to do a quick, clean, tight job with the traditional fancy trims.

A New Concept in Circle Cutting Jigs

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!.

Reviews: O’Brien Online Acoustic Guitar Building Course by Robert O’Brien

2015
AL#123 p.64               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ This online course provides information that an endless and distracting internet search will not yield.

Why Build a Multiscale Guitar?

2015
AL#121 p.52               
Ralph Novak                                                                                           

▪ Ralph has built a lot of multiscale guitars under his “Fanned-Fret” trademark. Here he looks at the advantages and possibilities of the multiscale approach and gives solid technical advice on cutting accurate multiscale fretboards.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2015
AL#121 p.58               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ RM Mottola works to build bridges between the dusty bustle of the lutherie shop and the bookish clutter of the egghead’s cubicle. (If the word “math” does not evoke a shuddering fear based on high-school humiliation, check out the Savart Journal, an online research publication hosted by the GAL.) RM describes, in plain English, the contents of two new articles of original research.

Reviews: Short Reviews of a Few Interesting Books on the Ukulele and C.F. Martin

2015
AL#121 p.60               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin looks at several books on ukulele, guitar, and American history, and finds interesting connections.

Product Reviews: Gatco Edgemate Carbide Knife Sharpener

2015
AL#121 p.62               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin likes the Edgemate Carbide Knife Sharpener. It’s intended for pocket knives and the like, but it’s also useful for a number of lutherie tools.

It Worked for Me: Add Binding to the Inside Edge of a Soundhole Utilizing PVC Pipe

2015
AL#121 p.65               
Clifford Wilkes                                                                                           

▪ Wilkes adds binding to the inside edge of a soundhole and avoids clamping damage by using a PVC pipe almost exactly the diameter of the soundhole.

Questions: Threaded Inserts in #101 Mottola Article

2015
AL#121 p.68               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Conversion formula for modeling the relationship between the torque on a bolt and the clamping pressure of the bolt in threaded inserts.

Let’s Catch Up With Nick and Jeanne Kukich

2015
AL#122 p.4               
Cyndy Burton   Jeffrey-R. Elliott   Nick Kukich   Jeanne Kukich                                                                               

▪ Nick and Jeanne Kukich, pop and mom of Franklin Guitars, discuss their 25 plus year partnership in life and work.

Building a Franklin Guitar- A Pictorial Overview

2015
AL#122 p.8               
Nick Kukich   Cyndy Burton                                                                                       

▪ Nick takes our reporter through the process of making a Franklin OM guitar.

Ukulele Neck Pocket Joints

2014
AL#120 p.54               
Jerry Hoffmann                                                                                           

▪ Hoffman’s ukes look like their necks have no heels. They do, he says, but the heels are just on the inside of the body. He gives us a detailed look at building two different styles.

Birth of the Tenor Lap Steel

2014
AL#120 p.62               
David Schneider                                                                                           

▪ Keep it simple. Sketch an outline on a piece of butcher paper. Go down to the Home Depot and get a few boards of that pink stuff that they call “mahogany.” Saw it up, bend it freehand, glue it onto blocks. Pretty soon you have a lap steel, no forms, jigs, or patterns needed.

Product Reviews: Generic Inexpensive Borescope

2014
AL#120 p.64               
Eron Harding                                                                                           

▪ Techy gizmos soon go from being cutting-edge miracles to being commodified trinkets, and that can bring the price down like crazy. Harding ordered a cheap borescope from Amazon. The crazy thing doesn’t even have a brand name on it. But the bang per buck is hard to beat.

Questions: Preventing Cloth Imprints During French Polish

2014
AL#120 p.70               
Cyndy Burton                                                                                           

▪ Preventing the impressing of a cloth weave pattern into the not-quite hard shellac following a French polish session.

Questions: Generalizing Tonal Differences Among Wood Types

2014
AL#120 p.71               
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Generalizing the tonal differences among the top woods, redwood, western red cedar, port oxford cedar, and the spruces.

The Creation of the American X Braced Guitar: A British Perspective

2015
AL#121 p.4               
James Westbrook                                                                                           

▪ The emergence of the X-braced steel string as the quintessential American guitar was the big pop-music story of the 20th century, as well as the cultural foundation for the American Lutherie Boom a few decades later. The Martin company made the first American X-braced guitars in the 1840s.

Meet the Maker: Arnold Schnitzer

2015
AL#121 p.16               
James Condino   Arnold Schnitzer                                                                                       

▪ Arnold Schnitzer was a young and successful working musician in the New York City area. When he found himself with the grown-up responsibilities of a wife and child, he decided to settle down and get a real job. Amusingly, that real job was hand-making string basses. But it has worked out well, so you never know. You’ll be glad you met him in this wide-ranging and lavishly illustrated interview.

Contemporary Ukulele Making: Neck Joining Methods

2015
AL#121 p.28               
Woodley White                                                                                           

▪ At the 2014 GAL Convention, each of the four makers on our ukulele panel took the opportunity to present short workshops in which they brought the attendees up close to some of their workbench techniques. Our coverge starts here with Woodley White, who showed six different neck joints for ukes; Spanish, dovetail, spline, domino, barrel-nut, and threaded-insert. He made one of each, and explains the differences.

Meet the Maker: Manuel Diaz

2015
AL#121 p.34               
Federico Sheppard   Manuel Diaz                                                                                       

▪ Manuel Diaz learned lutherie decades ago in a little shop in his hometown. Then he moved across the street and opened his own shop.But what a town, and what a street! This is the Cuesta Gomerez in Granada, Spain.

Holy Grail Guitar Show, Batman! (European Guitar Builders Take Berlin)

2015
AL#121 p.42               
Paul Schmidt                                                                                           

▪ Hey all you old hippie guitar makers in the first wave of the American Lutherie Boom: Guess what? Our crazy, beautiful, oh-wow-man dream came true. A generation of young Europeans took a look across the Atlantic and dug our lutherie love-fest. They started an organization to freely share info and encouragement. It only took them four decades, but they finally caught the true religion from us. And they are doing amazing, wild, and wonderful work. I told you this cooperation stuff would work.

Selecting Guitar Wood Based On Material Properties Part 2

2014
AL#119 p.43               read this article
Trevor Gore                                                                                           

▪ How do you pick wood for a guitar? If you stood up and shouted “Science!” this is the article for you. Also see Part 1 in AL #118. This is the second and final episode in the series.

Multiscale Fretboards and Fingerboards: The Long and Short of It

2014
AL#119 p.50               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ Multiscale fretboards have been around for centuries. Harry Fleishman has been around for decades. In that time he has built a lot of different permutations of the idea. Here he gives us some thoughts on how to do it accurately, elegantly, and efficiently.

Product Reviews: Garrett Wade Versatile Vise

2014
AL#119 p.54               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Remember the good old Versa Vise? They don’t make it any more. Boo! But now Garrett Wade makes a similar unit. Yay! Is it any good? Mottola takes a close look and delivers his report.

Reviews: The Fretboard Journal

2014
AL#119 p.58               
John Mello                                                                                           

▪ John Mello examines two favorite issues of The Fretboard Journal, #32 and #7, and relates the pleasure of the articles with his own mentorship experiences, in particular with Alvino Rey.

Manuel Velazquez, In His Own Words / Remembering Manuel

2014
AL#119 p.60               
Manuel Velazquez   Cyndy Burton   Eugene Clark   Armin Kelly   Robert Ruck   Jeffrey R. Elliott   Paul Szmanda                                                                   

▪ Manuel Velazquez made a lot of friends and fans in his exceptionally long career as a maker of fine classical guitars. Here are a few remembrances a few folks who admired his work and his life.

Questions: Writing a Book on Guitar Building

2014
AL#119 p.68               
Leo Lospennato   Mark French   John Bogdanovich                                                                                   

▪ Extensive advice on conceiving, structuring, and publishing a book on guitar building.

In Memoriam: Steve Newberry

2014
AL#119 p.71               read this article
Ervin Somogyi                                                                                           

▪ Steve was a guitarist, luthier, scholar, author, and experimenter who was a GAL member for twenty years and a regular at our conventions. He will be missed. Steve Newberry (Jan 2, 1928 – Aug 8, 2014).

Meet the Maker: Josep Melo

2014
AL#120 p.6               
Monica Esparza   Josep Melo                                                                                       

▪ Melo has been making guitars since the ’60s. In the ’90s he began to seek out and collaborate with the makers whose work he found the most inspiring. He published a gorgeous coffee-table book about it called Following the Masters. His deepest collaboration has been with fellow Spaniard Jose Romanillos. Ironically, they met at the 1995 GAL Convention in Tacoma.

The Business of Doing Business

2014
AL#120 p.21               
Evan Gluck                                                                                           

▪ Evan Gluck is doing just great as a one-man guitar repair operation, working out of his apartment in New York City. He has some simple and effective ideas about promotion and customer relations that really hit the spot with his audience at the recent 2014 GAL Convention.

Eight Days to a Dream

2014
AL#120 p.30               
David Smith                                                                                           

▪ David Smith is a guitarist and lutenist who has wanted to make guitars and lutes for decades. But he was distracted by school, career, family, and stuff like that. His self-starting lutherie adventures never took off. Recently he signed up for an eight-day one-on-one session with lutherie teacher Robbie O’Brien, and finally got that guitar built.

Meet the Maker: Jayson Bowerman

2014
AL#120 p.40               
Tom Harper   Jayson Bowerman                                                                                       

▪ Many of us in the Lutherie Boom generation started as pre-teen modelmakers or would-be wood crafters. Not Jayson Bowerman. He was studying manufacturing processes in college when he did his first woodworking in a shop class. Soon he was doing R&D at Breedlove.

Making Matching Templates

2014
AL#120 p.48               
Jayson Bowerman                                                                                           

▪ Bowerman steps us through the process of making an exactly-matching outside template from an existing inside template. The process is useful for making body molds and side-bending jigs from half-patterns.

Building the Tanbour

2014
AL#120 p.50               
Nasser Shirazi                                                                                           

▪ Mr. Shirazi has given us articles and plans about other instruments used in Persian classical music in the past. He adds to the collection with GAL Instrument Plan #69, the Tanbour, a long-necked lute with three thin steel strings.

GAL Instrument Plan #69: Tanbour

2014
AL#120 p.53               
Nasser Shirazi                                                                                           

▪ This plan is for the Tanbour, a traditional Persian instrument which is a long-necked lute with three thin steel strings and tied gut frets.

How I build Forty Eight Guitars a Year- With Almost No Tooling- Part 2

2014
AL#118 p.18      ALA4 p.66         
John Greven                                                                                           

▪ John Greven is famous for making a lot of guitars in his basement, all by himself, with a very limited set of tools. Greven gives us the step-by-step rundown. Part One was in American Lutherie #117. Part Two is the final installment and takes us up through the binding, the construction of the neck, inlay, and finishing. From his 2011 GAL convention workshop.

Construction Methods of Early Spanish Guitarreros

2014
AL#118 p.38               
James Westbrook                                                                                           

▪ So the “Spanish method” is to build a guitar face-down and put the back on last, right? Well, maybe not. Some older Spanish guitars appear to have had the tops put on last, based on clues like glue drips and the fitting of back braces. Also, tiny filled holes indicate that they may have been nailed into molds during construction.

Meet the Maker: Wade Lowe

2014
AL#118 p.46               read this article
Kent Everett   Wade Lowe                                                                                       

▪ Luthier Kent Everett is a prolific guitar maker and teacher. So who was his early mentor? Wade Lowe, that’s who. Wade was a machinist who worked his way into lutherie and had a shop that became the Mecca of a generation of Georgia guitarists and guitar makers.

Selecting Guitar Wood Based On Material Properties Part 1

2014
AL#118 p.55               read this article
Trevor Gore                                                                                           

▪ How do you pick wood for a guitar? If you stood up and shouted “Science!” this is the article for you. Also see Part 2 in AL #119.

Multiscale Peg Head Scarf Joint

2014
AL#118 p.60               
Harry Fleishman                                                                                           

▪ So you are making a neck with a multiscale fretboard. The nut will be at an angle, not the normal perpendicular. How do you deal with that fact when grafting the peghead? Harry shows you a simple and elegant method of cutting a compound angle that matches the nut.

Questions: Guitar Acoustics and Related Topics

2014
AL#118 p.68               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Reading up on the subjects of psychoacoustics, human sensory evaluation, music synthesis, audio electronics, and magic, in order to provide some insight on general guitar acoustics.

In Memoriam: Manuel Velazquez

2014
AL#118 p.71               read this article
Beverly Maher                                                                                           

▪ New-York-City guitar dealer Beverly Maher remembers her old friend and colleague Manuel Velazquez who recently passed away at age 97.

Rethinking the Semihollow Electric Guitar

2014
AL#119 p.6               read this article
Stephen Marchione                                                                                           

▪ Marchione offers a semihollow model that is a response to his professional touring clients’ desire for a smaller, tougher guitar with all the fine quality and detail of a full archtop. He steps us through his building process, which gets a little help from a CNC machine. From his 2011 GAL convention workshop.

Meet the Maker: Abel Garcia Lopez

2014
AL#119 p.18               read this article
Federico Sheppard   Abel-Garcia Lopez                                                                                       

▪ The town of Paracho is the center of guitar making in Mexico. As author Federico Sheppard says, they are known for making a lot of guitars, but not a lot of fine guitars. Well, here’s the guy who makes the good ones, like his father and grandfather before him. Take a close look at Abel’s workspace, tools, techniques, and family.

The Sabionari Guitar of Antonio Stradivari (A New Neck for a New Career: The Choice of Materials and Techniques For its Restoration)

2014
AL#119 p.28               
D.-and-F. Sinier-de-Ridder                                                                                           

▪ A couple hundred years ago, this Stradivari guitar was not only old, it was old-fashioned. The owner had it modernized from a 5-course Baroque guitar to a 6-string Romantic guitar. That meant making a new neck, removing the rosette, and opening the body to make a lot of changes to the bracing and lining. Nowadays, those changes are not just outdated, they are anachronistic and kind of sacrilegious. Sinier and de Ridder got the job of making a new, original-style neck and returning the instrument to Baroque configuration.

2014 GAL Convention/Exhibition

2014
AL#119 p.34               
Staff                                                                                           

▪ Another wonderfully successful GAL Convention, packed with information, music, and camaraderie has now passed into the record books. You will be seeing many major articles drawn from its lectures and workshops over the next few years. In the mean time, take a look at a few photos of the fun we had.

That Fine, Fake-Old Finish

2014
AL#117 p.48               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ An examination of varnish techniques to create the illusion of aged instruments and other aesthetic effects.

Elliptical Legacy

2014
AL#117 p.52               
James Condino   John Monteleone                                                                                       

▪ A history of the ellipse soundhole cutter device in lutherie and it’s lineage from D’Angelico to D’Aquisto to John Monteleone.

Reviews: Guitar Making in Nineteenth Century London: Louis Panormo and his Contemporaries by James Westbrook

2014
AL#117 p.60               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Guitar-making in Nineteenth Century London by James Westbrook is reviewed by R.M. Mottola, who discusses research and techniques in his own building of 19th century instruments.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2014
AL#117 p.65               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin ponders the phenomenon of how-to-book authors leaving out their most vital information. This may be due to the assumption of the knowledge of basic information often taken for granted.

Questions: Banjo-Style Guitar Neck

2014
AL#117 p.69               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Building a guitar in which the neck attaches to the body as a banjo neck attaches to it’s rim and a soundboard bracing to accommodate this.

Letter to the Editor: Successor to Gurian Instruments

2014
AL#118 p.6               
Michael Gurian                                                                                           

▪ Long-time maker of purfling and marquetry material Michael Gurian ponders retirement and invites contact regarding the future of his business.

Meet the Maker: Olivier Fanton d’Andon

2014
AL#118 p.8               
Woodley White   Olivier-Fanton d’Andon                                                                                       

▪ Early in his career, French luthier Olivier Fanton d’Andon was asked to restore a Romantic-era guitar for a museum. He was impressed with the guitar’s highly arched plates, and adapted the idea to a classical guitar. He has made a successful career with the resulting design.

Reviews: Technology of the Guitar by Richard Mark French

2013
AL#116 p.63               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ The second book on guitar technology from Mark French, Purdue mechanical engineering technology professor, presented in a more generally accessible, less math intensive manner than the previous volume.

Letter to the Editor: passing of Raymond Elwood Tunquist

2014
AL#117 p.5               
Tom Bednark                                                                                           

▪ Raymond Tunquist, sawyer of Brazilian, Indian, Rosewood, Mahogany, and Ebony for many noted guitar makers, passed away on November 7th 2010 at age 93 in New York.

How I build Forty Eight Guitars a Year- With Almost No Tooling- Part 1

2014
AL#117 p.6      ALA4 p.66         
John Greven                                                                                           

▪ John Greven discusses the application of his 3 tiered system (rough assembly, finesse, finish) throughout his 50 year career, which involves building 6 to 8 guitars at a time. From his 2011 convention workshop. The second and final part of this series is in AL#118.

Meet the Maker: Antonio Marin

2014
AL#117 p.16               
Federico Sheppard   Antonio Marin                                                                                       

▪ One of the masters of Spanish guitar, Antonio Marin answers questions from his humble shop in Granada, Spain, where he has lived and worked since 1979.

Finding Waldo: The First Family of American F-Hole Mandolins, Mandolas, and Mandocellos

2014
AL#117 p.24               
Paul Ruppa                                                                                           

▪ Paul Ruppa traces the largely unknown history of the American F-hole Mandolin, Mandola, and Mandocello to their roots in the Waldo brand; originating with the Barrows Music Company in Saginaw, Michigan.

Meet the Maker: Robbie O’Brien

2014
AL#117 p.40               
Brian Yarosh   Robbie O’Brien                                                                                       

▪ Luthier and teacher Robbie O’Brien on his career, from his stints as a chiropractor, jeweler, and acupuncturist, to his initial exposure to the guitar during his extended stay in Brazil, to his instruction from Antonio Tessarin and his teaching work in Colorado.

Meet the Maker: Roger Alan Skipper

2013
AL#115 p.38               
John Calkin   Roger-Alan Skipper                                                                                       

▪ Roger Alan Skipper has spent his entire career in Western Maryland where he was first introduced to lutherie through encountering a Mandolin maker at a bluegrass gathering. He is a one man lutherie shop and a writer of novels.

What To Do When Your Head Falls Off: Instrument Repair Tips and Techniques

2013
AL#115 p.48               
Brian Michael   Alex Glasser                                                                                       

▪ Brian and Alex discuss details of various repair jobs, including split pegheads, a severed uke head, and guitar soundboard cracks. From their 2011 GAL convention lecture.

Product Reviews: Liogier 10 inch Cabinetmaker’s Rasp

2013
AL#115 p.62               
Todd Brotherton                                                                                           

▪ Todd Brotherton favorably reviews this delux handmade rasp and provides additional background and information on the tool.

Letter to the Editor: Waldhelm School 2011

2013
AL#116 p.3               
Glen Friesen                                                                                           

▪ Another successful year at the Waldheim School in Saskatchewan and a description of the guitars constructed since the GAL 2011 convention.

Letter to the Editor: Wood Files

2013
AL#116 p.4               
Earl Bushey                                                                                           

▪ Praise for Todd Brotherton’s product review: 10″ Cabinetmaker’s rasp in AL#115 and exposure to similar tools in a Tokyo repair shop and other scenarios.

Beyond the Rule of 18: Intonation For the 21st Century

2013
AL#116 p.6               
Gary Magliari   Don MacRostie                                                                                       

▪ Compensating fretted instruments to play equally tempered scales using orthodox and unorthodox methods. From GAL 2011 convention lecture.

Lions and Tigers and Math, Oh My!

2013
AL#116 p.9               
Tom Harper                                                                                           

▪ Mathematical equations describing vibrating string activity to compliment Gary Magliari and Don MacRostie’s convention lecture, ‘Beyond the Rule of 18’.

Meet the Maker: William Eaton

2013
AL#116 p.16               
Tom Harper   William Eaton                                                                                       

▪ William Eaton (composer, performer, luthier, outdoorsman) on his life and career which has spanned many fields and subject, with particular attention to his work at The Roberto-Venn School.

Carl Samuels: Lutherie Before the Information Age Or The Pilot, the Brain Surgeon, and the Pole-Vaulting Banker

2013
AL#116 p.19               
Tom Harper                                                                                           

▪ An appreciation of Carl Samuels and the inception of The Roberto-Venn School of Lutherie in Phoenix, Arizona.

Battling Shop Dust

2013
AL#116 p.28               
Robbie O’Brien                                                                                           

▪ Creative Solutions to an overlooked, yet pervasive danger in the lutherie shop: wood dust. Four fundamentals for dust collection in the shop setting.

Dust Masks and More

2013
AL#116 p.31               
Linda Stuckey                                                                                           

▪ Shopping for an effective dust mask which meets safety, health, and quality standards.

The New England Luthiers OM Collaborative Build

2013
AL#116 p.34               
Don-P. Boivin                                                                                           

▪ New England Luthiers, an association of professionals and amateurs united by the common love of stringed instrument building, collaborate in a yearlong build project and public luthier showcase in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Let’s Catch Up With Fabio Ragghianti

2013
AL#114 p.38               
Brian Yarosh   Fabio Ragghianti                                                                                       

▪ An update on Fabio Ragghianti’s activities since his Meet the Maker article in AL#61; most notably his travels in Vietnam.

Hunting the Elusive Guitar Wolf

2013
AL#114 p.42               
Alan Carruth                                                                                           

▪ Carruth examines the guitar wolf, (a ‘bad’ note linked to some feature of the resonant structure of the instrument or strings) where it lurks, and how to deal with it in an organized fashion.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2013
AL#114 p.62               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Short, not too technical summaries of selected research on violin arching curves, comparing violins to the human voice, and the initial behavior of nylon guitar strings.

Product Reviews: Kahler 2415-CX Tremolo Bass Bridge

2013
AL#114 p.64               
Eron Harding                                                                                           

▪ Eron Harding reviews one of Kahler’s latest bass bridge models, a 5 string trem for P-bass bodies; a solid and well made bridge.

Reviews: The Caldwell Collection of Violas: A Life Together in the Pursuit of Beauty by Catharina Meints Caldwell

2013
AL#114 p.66               
Don Overstreet                                                                                           

▪ The first E-book review in American Lutherie: a comprehensive volume displaying collections of viols. Each instrument is given a thorough description and numerous photos.

Questions: Poplar Species

2013
AL#114 p.68               
Don Overstreet                                                                                           

▪ Poplar, a vague term in the lumber industry, generally referring to species in the two genera Liriodendron and Populus, is discussed in depth.

Letter to the Editor: Advice on Damaged Instruments

2013
AL#115 p.3               
Steven Pine                                                                                           

▪ Advice regarding water damaged instruments and steps to handle, stabilize, dry, reduce warping, dealing with varnish, and maintaining historical evidence.

Archtop Guitars With Italian Flare

2013
AL#115 p.6               
Stephen Marchione                                                                                           

▪ Stephen Marchione takes us on a voyage through Lutherie history with an emphasis on the Italian experience and heritage. From his 2011 GAL convention lecture.

1930 Santos Hernandez Guitar With Segovia’s Autograph

2013
AL#115 p.30               
Jeffrey-R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ Jeff Elliott corrects a botched repair job of a 1930 Hernandez guitar, signed in ballpoint pen by Andres Segovia.

D’Aquisto’s Wedge Bridge

2013
AL#113 p.45               
John Monteleone                                                                                           

▪ D’Aquisto’s changes to his traditional New Yorker and Excel models in the late 1970s included the adjustable sliding wedge bridge design concept.

Thoughts on 12-String Guitars

2013
AL#113 p.50               read this article
Roger-Alan Skipper   Dana Bourgeois   Frank Ford   Charles Freeborn   David Freeman   Evan Gluck   John Greven   George Gruhn   Arnold M.J. Hennig   Bruce Petros   Andy Powers   Tim Shaw   Marc Silber   Robert Steinegger                                       

▪ 13 builders discuss various aspects of 12-string guitars.

Three Flattop Acoustic Basses

2013
AL#113 p.54               read this article
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Gerard Gilet, Jim Williams, and Graham McDonald each built acoustic basses simultaneously in Sydney, Australia using the limited information that was readily available in the late 1980s.

Design Analysis of Torres Guitars: Based on the Catalog by Romanillos

2013
AL#113 p.56               
John Saucier                                                                                           

▪ Antonio De Torres, Guitar Maker: His Life and Work’ catalogs 88 Torres instruments and provides extensive dimensional and frequency data. Saugier attempts to interpret this data.

Making a Truly Flat Sanding Bar

2013
AL#113 p.62               
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Precisely flat sanding bars are critical to the development of both science and manufacturing; thus the process of ‘lapping’ in necessary, as described by French.

Questions: Rift-Sawn Wood

2013
AL#113 p.68               
Tom Thiel                                                                                           

▪ Conflicting information around the term ‘rift-sawn’ and why grain orientation matters to luthiers.

In Memoriam: Frederick C. Lyman

2013
AL#113 p.71               read this article
Ken McKay   Tim Olsen                                                                                       

▪ Remembering Frederick C. Lyman (1925-2011) WWII veteran, art painter, bass builder, and free jazz musician.

Letter to the Editor: Clarifying Details of D’Aquisto Wedge Bridge Article in AL#113

2013
AL#114 p.3               
John Monteleone                                                                                           

▪ John Monteleone clarifies the details of his D’Aquisto wedge bridge article in AL#113 by giving additional credit where credit is due.

Hearing Voices: A Recipe for Voicing the Steel String Guitar

2013
AL#114 p.6               read this article
John Greven                                                                                           

▪ John Greven on voicing steel string guitars based on the criteria: power, responsiveness, projection, articulation, depth of tone, and sustain. From his 2011 GAL convention workshop.

A Summary of John Greven’s Voicing Method

2013
AL#114 p.10               read this article
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Greven’s simple and direct methods for controlling the sound of his guitars are intuitive and experimental despite his roots in the scientific field.

Meet the Maker: Stephen Marchione

2013
AL#114 p.14               
James Condino   Stephen Marchione                                                                                       

▪ Stephen Marchione on his career in building solidbody electrics, acoustic guitars, mandolins, and violins.

The Mandolin Family: Traditional and Contemporary Perspectives

2013
AL#114 p.20               
David Cohen   Don MacRostie   Lawrence Smart   Jeffrey R. Elliott                                                                               

▪ Panelists discuss the mandolin family’s history and building practices. From 2011 GAL convention panel discussion moderated by Jeffrey R. Elliott.

Mackintosh Inspired Inlay

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.

American Mandobass History 101

2012
AL#112 p.54               
Paul Ruppa                                                                                           

▪ A basic history of the modern fretted 4-string bass, tuned like the last 4 strings of the guitar, which was developed in the early 1900s for use in American mandolin orchestras.

Reviews: Stauffer and Co. The Viennese Guitar of the 19th Century by Erik Pierre Hoffman, Pascal Mougin, and Stefan Hackl

2012
AL#112 p.60               
Pierre Audinet                                                                                           

▪ This book emphasizes those few decades of the 19th century in the city of Vienna which laid much of the foundations for contemporary guitar building standards.

Reviews: Building an Electric Archtop Guitar: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your Own Electric Archtop Guitar by J.p.Laplante

2012
AL#112 p.61               
Michael DeLuca                                                                                           

▪ This extensively illustrated guide to building an electric archtop guitar lays out the process in a sequential progression over 15 chapters.

It Worked for Me: Breathing Air Systems

2012
AL#112 p.64               
Gary Hopkins                                                                                           

▪ Gary Hopkins sets up an inexpensive shop air system without air filters using knowledge gleaned from his time working as an engineer with the space shuttle program.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2012
AL#112 p.67               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin defines ‘juice’ as interest, enthusiasm, dedication, and drive and how it applies to lutherie.

Binding F-5 Mandolins

2013
AL#113 p.6               read this article
Andrew Mowry                                                                                           

▪ A number of special challenges during construction of F-5 mandolins is discussed; miters, binding gaps, black purfling lines, and kinks in the bends.

Bog’s Way: An In-Depth, Hands-On Review of John Bogdanovich’s ‘Making a Concert Classical Guitar DVD Set’

2013
AL#113 p.20               read this article
Tom Harper                                                                                           

▪ Harper reviews this DVD set in which Bogdanovich uses a broad repertoire of skills, high end power tools, and a mixture of tightly controlled and freeform processes. DVD set also reviewed in AL#108.

Meet the Maker: David Wren

2013
AL#113 p.38               
Steve Denvir   David Wren                                                                                       

▪ David Wren: guitarmaker, photographer, and historian, describes his career starting as Jean Larrivee’s assistant and becoming a builder in his own right.

In Memoriam: Joseph R. Johnson: Oct 24, 1954 – May 21, 2012

2012
AL#111 p.71               read this article
Deb Olsen                                                                                           

▪ Deb Olsen remembers Joe Johnson, (1954-2012) the first curator of the Shrine of Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota and the founding curator at Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Georgia.

Ultralight Cello and Other Heresies

2012
AL#112 p.6               
James Ham                                                                                           

▪ Using a variety of unusual instruments, Ham attempts to debunk the myth in traditional violin making that the classical solution is the only good solution. From his 2011 GAL convention lecture.

Meet the Makers: Bruand School Class of 2011

2012
AL#112 p.20               
R.M. Mottola   Antoine Coupal-Dalgleish   Gabriel Marcotte   Colin Prevost-Lemire   Pascal Scott   Vincent Cleroux                                                                       

▪ A profile of the entire Bruand School graduating class of 2011, a private lutherie school affiliated with L’Institut des Metiers d’Art of the college Du Vieux-Montreal, based in Montreal. All six graduates attended the 2011 convention exhibition.

Stahl Style 6 Guitar Built by Carl and August Larson, Serial # 81225 ‘Lisa’

2012
AL#112 p.28               read this article
January Williams                                                                                           

▪ An extensive profile and appraisal of this Stahl style 6 guitar, an authentic instrument built by the Larson brothers Carl and August in Chicago.

Meet the Maker: Alan Carruth

2012
AL#112 p.40               
Tom Harper   Alan Carruth                                                                                       

▪ The curious and driven mind of Alan Carruth and the application of this curiosity to all aspects of the musical instrument world for over 30 years.

Meet the Maker: Robert Spear

2012
AL#111 p.20               
Roger-Alan Skipper   Robert-J. Spear                                                                                       

▪ Robert (Bob) Spear has been in lutherie more than 35 years and has been instrumental in the development and promotion of the new violin family of instruments.

Meet the Maker: Don Bradley

2012
AL#111 p.42               
Tom Harper   Don Bradley                                                                                       

▪ Don Bradely, an active Guild member since the late 70s, is fascinated by the eclectic music and instrument makers of various world cultures, electrical engineering, and various other fields.

On the G.A.L.’s 40th Anniversary: How it All Began

2012
AL#111 p.48               
Deb Olsen                                                                                           

▪ Deb Olsen reflects on the humble beginnings of the Guild of American Luthiers, the non-profit group dedicated to sharing information in the field of string instrument building, featuring artifacts and reflections from the early days.

Production Techniques For the Custom Luthier

2012
AL#110 p.5               read this article
Charles Fox                                                                                           

▪ America’s number one lutherie teacher discusses a series of processes to make guitar building relatively easy, efficient, accurate, and consistent in a production situation.

Refining Factory Setups on Electric Guitars: Going the Extra Mile

2012
AL#110 p.22               
Erick Coleman   Evan Gluck                                                                                       

▪ Erik and Evan talk about fine-tuning brand new electric guitars; addressing typical problems. From their 2011 GAL convention workshop.

The Happy Luthier

2012
AL#110 p.61               
Don-P. Boivin                                                                                           

▪ The joys of starting a first guitar and the opportunities for experimentation this affords.

Beginner Vs. The Fiddle Kit

2012
AL#110 p.62               
Dave Raley                                                                                           

▪ A beginner with limited tools builds the Stew-Mac fiddle kit and describes some typical errors.

Reviews: How To Build a Vihuela De Mano (45 Minute DVD With Jose Luis Romanillos and Jaume Bossier)

2012
AL#110 p.65               
Federico Sheppard   Monica Esparza                                                                                       

▪ A 45 minute DVD of a 2010 workshop with early music specialist Jaume Bosser on constructing an authentic period Vihuela de Mano.

In Memoriam: Joseph Wallo (1921-2009)

2011
AL#108 p.70               read this article
Mike Ashley   Robert England   R.E. Brune   David Laplante   Charles Vega                                                                           

▪ Remembering Joseph Wallo (1921-2009) Internationally known maker of the finest in concert guitars.

Steaming Hide Glue and Laminating Ribs

2012
AL#109 p.6               
James Ham                                                                                           

▪ Ham demonstrates his technique of activating hot hide glue with steam to glue top and back plates to ribs. From his 2011 GAL convention workshop.

Meet the Makers: David and Rob Rodgers

2012
AL#109 p.16               
Cyndy Burton   Jeffrey-R. Elliott   David Rodgers   Rob Rodgers                                                                               

▪ English father-son business partners David and Rob Rodgers on their precision tuning machines and family history in the field.

Meet the Maker: R.M. Mottola

2012
AL#109 p.44               
John Calkin   R.M. Mottola                                                                                       

▪ Mottola is involved in various lutherie activities including electrical engineering, experimental instrument building, and technical writing and reporting for American Lutherie magazine.

Reviews: Contemporary Acoustic Guitar Design and Build by Trevor Gore with Gerard Gilet

2012
AL#109 p.58               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ A milestone in ‘how to’ lutherie publications on the construction of flattop guitars, packaged in two large volumes: one on design and one on construction.

Reviews: Electric Guitar and Electric Bass Design by Leo Lospennato

2012
AL#109 p.61               
Veronica Merryfield                                                                                           

▪ A book aimed at the musician, the hobbyist, and luthier who is open to new ideas; divided into 6 sections on beauty, playability, sound, parts, materials, finishes, and completion.

Reviews: Electric Guitar and Electric Bass Design by Leo Lospennato

2012
AL#109 p.62               
Melanie Heizer                                                                                           

▪ A book aimed at the musician, the hobbyist, and luthier who is open to new ideas; divided into 6 sections on beauty, playability, sound, parts, materials, finishes, and completion.

Recent Research: Short Summaries of Recent Scientific Research Articles from Savart Journal

2012
AL#109 p.64               
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ Short, not too technical summaries of topics including violin bowing direction, violin arching profiles, optimizing guitar vibration mode, and damping in wound guitar strings.

Meet the Maker: Stan Werbin

2011
AL#108 p.24               read this article
Roger-Alan Skipper   Stan Werbin                                                                                       

▪ Stan Werbin, owner of Elderly Instruments in Lansing Michigan, on his career in business, the store’s extensive instrument inventory, and his relationship with luthiers in the repair shop.

Inside the Elderly Repair Shop

2011
AL#108 p.30               read this article
Roger-Alan Skipper   Joe Konkoly                                                                                       

▪ Konkoly describes his job as repair shop manager, supervising 8 repairmen and 3 on setup inside the Elderly repair shop.

Salvador Ibanez Guitar Restoration

2011
AL#108 p.48               
Sue Johnson                                                                                           

▪ Repairing this damaged instrument with previously botched repairs including color touch-up, outlandish replacement linings, thick varnish, and nail attached bindings.

Bridge Mask

2011
AL#108 p.56      ALA2 p.76         
R.M. Mottola                                                                                           

▪ A production technique using a bridge mask applied to the guitar top before finishing, which decreases screw-up potential.

Product Reviews: Klumpar Neck Angle Jig and JSimpson Self Adjusting Neck Jig

2011
AL#108 p.58      ALA2 p.72         
Roger-Alan Skipper                                                                                           

▪ The plywood Simpson neck angle jig: simple, versatile and inexpensive, and the aluminum Klumper self adjusting neck jig: accurate, more complex, costly, and allowing for centerline adjustment. Both result in perfectly matched joints.

Reviews: Making Concert Classical Guitar with John S. Bogdanovich by John S. Bogdanovich (10 DVD set)

2011
AL#108 p.62               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Bogdonavich’s ultra specific guitar building method is professionally chronicled in this handsomely packaged 10-dvd set.

Reviews: The Conservation, Restoration, and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows- edited by Tom Wilder

2011
AL#108 p.63               
Michael Darnton                                                                                           

▪ This 3-book set covers a wide range of topics beyond what the title specifies, in over 142 articles.