Longtime GAL member Tim Shaw designed and marketed the Sunrise pickup in the 1970s, built artist instruments and prototypes for Gibson in the ’80s, and is now Director of Project Management/Guitar Design for Fender. He lectured at GAL Conventions in 1977, 1979, 1986, and 2006.
▪ bio current as of 2013
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?
2013
AL#113 p.50
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.
2010
AL#101 p.69
Tim Shaw
▪ Can you get every scale length you need by using sections of a single fret rule?
2007
AL#89 p.6 ALA1 p.10
Tim Shaw
▪ Shaw has worked for large guitar companies for decades. Currently with Fender, he runs an independent shop that makes prototype instruments for all the factories that fall under the Fender banner. He also does repairs on discontinued models where the factory equipment has been dismantled. Accomplishing one-off projects or small runs of parts is no different for a big company than for an independent luthier, they just have the luxury of big-budget equipment. Shaw’s methods of jigging up for parts manufacture incorporating speed and safety can be used by many one-off shops to hustle production and instrument development. Good stuff from one of the aces in the business. With 34 photos.
2006
AL#85 p.56 ALA1 p.44
Dan Erlewine Tim Shaw Don MacRostie
▪ Every repair person who’s seen generations of Gibson guitars knows that the 24 3/4 inch scale ain’t necessarily so. If you measure from the nut to the 12th fret you get several magic numbers, and you deal with it. But here’s the low-down on why they may have changed and why the number has stayed the same. With 4 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1998
AL#54 p.65 BRB5 p.193
Tim Shaw
▪ Clay used in the position marker cavities of old fretboards.
1988
AL#13 p.46 BRB2 p.26
Tim Shaw
▪ In his convention lecture Shaw compares the life of an independent luthier with life inside the Gibson custom shop, and finds that the rewards of one are different than the rewards of the other, but that either can offer an attractive way of living.
1979
GALQ Vol.7#4 p.20 BRB2 p.62
Tim Shaw
▪ This is just about as good a description of how pickups work as you are going to find. Shaw was a main man at Gibson, and relates several of the design considerations to specific guitars. If pickups are really this easy to understand why do they seem so mysterious? Includes 4 diagrams of how pickups are built.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1979
DS#129 LW p.86 read this article
Tim Shaw
▪ Sometimes a little finesse in the way we work can be as important as the basic job. In fact, lutherie is all about finesse. If you glue your pearl pieces in place before tracing them Shaw’s bit of finesse may save you some broken shell.