Tag Archives: Dresdner¸ Michael

The Trade Secret, a true story

1985
AL#3 p.16   BRB1 p.83            read this article
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ Dresdner relates a story from his early days which illustrates the fact that only the ill informed believe in trade secrets.

Mario Maccaferri: Feisty as Ever

1985
AL#2 p.32               
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ A brief life history of Mario Maccaferri, including his career as a musician, his work with the Selmer Company and the Django Reinhardt guitars, his plastics manufacturing, his association with John Monteleone, and his projects as he nears retirement.

Removing Dovetails-Three

1984
DS#285   LW p.120            
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ Steam out the neck with a cappuccino machine. See also the previous 2 articles. This variation involves sawing off the fretboard at the body joint.

Blackboard Eraser Polisher

1984
DS#288   LW p.111            read this article
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ Dresdner steals yet another tool from another discipline, this time for polishing frets after they’ve been shaped with a file.

Splining Soundboard Cracks

1984
DS#285   LW p.97            
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ Dresdner studs the crack, then compresses the edges of the top crack into a wedge shape into which a tapered spline is glued. This technique has become routine, but this is one of the first times it reached print. He also offers a recipe for touching up the new wood to a “vintage” color.

Nut Slotting Files

1984
DS#285   LW p.106            
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ In the “old days” you couldn’t buy a set of nut slotting files. They didn’t exist. The author used pattern makers files with parallel safety sides. He recommends learning about and adapting the tools from every trade that crosses your path.

Calculating Neck Angle Changes

1984
DS#285   LW p.107            
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

▪ All right, so you got the neck off of your flattop and you’re about to reset it. How much wood do you have to remove from the heel to achieve the proper correction? It turns out that you can calculate that figure, and here’s how to do it. With 1 sketch.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.