Don Boivin is a member of the GAL and of the New England Luthiers. A carpenter by trade, a musician by tenacity, and a stringed-instrument repairman by default, his lifelong love of wood has finally brought him to the onerous, yet thoroughly rewarding, pursuit of lutherie.
▪ bio current as of 2013
Five-year GAL member John Bogdanovich is a luthier, author, guitarist, lutherie supplier, and teacher. He authored Classical Guitar Making: A Modern Approach to a Traditional Design and produced the 10-DVD set, Making a Concert Classical Guitar. He has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, worked at AT&T Bell Labs designing hardware, and completed the two-year fine woodworking program with James Krenov.
▪ bio current as of 2014
Musical Instrument Repair & Construction
Five-year GAL member Brian Boedigheimer teaches guitar repair at Minnesota State College – Southeast Technical in Red Wing, MN. Unusual among guitar makers, he loves instrument finishing — all kinds. He also plays terrible golf, but loves it, too.
▪ bio current as of 2006
First time author Roberto Blinder is a twenty-seven-year Guild member and a master watchmaker.
▪ bio current as of 1990
Twenty-one-year GAL member James Blilie builds steel string and classical guitars, plus a few violins, resonator guitars, ukuleles, and Weissenborn-style lap steel guitars. He enjoys playing fingerstyle guitar and playing/singing folk and rock music. He has been a structural/mechanical engineer for over thirty-one years, working for Boeing, the FAA, Northwest Airlines, and Boston Scientific Corporation. He also enjoys muscle-powered fun in the outdoors with his family, and good food, wine, and beer.
▪ bio current as of 2018
Formerly employed as a colonial Williamsburg gunsmith, Nicholas Blanton has been building and playing hammered dulcimers since 1977, full time since ’81. he founded the short-lived Trapezoid Instruments in ’83 with Sam Rizzetta and Paul Reisler.
▪ bio current as of 1992
Mark Blanchard has been a full-time luthier since 1998. He currently builds custom flattop, archtop, and nylon string instruments.
▪ bio current as of 2015
Tom Blackshear started his lutherie career along with playing the flamenco guitar, and he has never lost his love for the romantic charms of Spain. He takes a leadership role in Internet chat groups, and shares his knowledge freely. Tom has been a GAL member for twenty-one of the last twenty-six years.
▪ bio current as of 2005
Welcome first-time author Åke Björnstad!
▪ bio current as of 1992
Eight-year GAL member Andy Birko started making instruments as a hobby back in the mid-’90s, but when neither electrical engineering for the auto industry nor medical equipment sales really panned out, he turned his high-tech CNC hobby into a full-time business. Now Andy is the owner/operator of Birkonium LLC which manufactures many items for luthiers such as necks, inlay, and tools.
▪ bio current as of 2019
Fourteen-year GAL member Alain Bieber was born in Paris and worked on large transportation projects in Europe as a civil engineer for forty years. He worked on a PhD in Berkeley, California for three years in spite of musical (and other) distractions. A lifelong committed and ungifted guitar player, he started lutherie in 1996 at his retirement, as a consolation. He says that it works.
▪ bio current as of 2013
We welcome firt time author Ed Beylerian!
▪ bio current as of 1990
Seven-year member and first-time author Manny Bettencourt is a full-time electric guitar and amplifier repairman with degrees in music an delectronics.
▪ bio current as of 1991
Ten-year GAL member Mark Berry has been making furniture for over thirty years, and guitars for twelve. Mark has trained with Harry Fleishman as well as a number of other fine luthiers.
▪ bio current as of 2013
Twenty-five-year member and retired electrician Ted Beringer saw a Fender being played in 1950, decided he could build that, and kept doing it. In 1982 Johnny Smith came to Billings, and his music inspired Ted to build archtops. He also builds flattops, nylon strings, and mandolins, all with an unconventional flair.
▪ bio current as of 2003
▪ bio current as of 2021
-20230718
Twelve-year Guild member Tobias Berg built his first guitar in the same year that he joined the GAL. A year later he left his native country of Sweden to study classical guitar making in Canada, England, and the USA, finally settling in Germany. When he is not building guitars, he enjoys a walk in the woods with his wife and tending his Bonsai trees outside the workshop.
▪ bio current as of 2006
Dulcimer maker Doug Berch is a ten-year GAL member and a first-time AL author.
▪ bio current as of 2017
Thirty-one-year GAL member Brent Benfield has been making wooden boxes to play music since 1972, if you count loudspeakers. Too much school and highly educated parents are part of the recipe. Millwright, cabinet builder, painter, solder tech, model builder, audiophile, orchardist, luthier. Built a rifle, a canoe, a bicycle, golf clubs, his shop, a car. Youd think he could find a real job.
▪ bio current as of 2023
Thirty-eight year GAL member Bob Benedetto has been making archtop guitars since 1968 and violins since ’83. In 1994 he wrote Making an Archtop Guitar. He’s a past GAL author and convention lecturer.
▪ bio current as of 2014
Alexandre Belevich is a retired aeronautical engineer and one of the early balalaika luthiers. He also makes precision stainless steel wire models of cars and aircraft.
▪ bio current as of 1989
Thomas Bednark was one of the Guild’s earliest members. Today he focuses on making baseball bats.
▪ bio current as of 2017
Five-year member Richard Beck has been luthing for thirty years.
▪ bio current as of 2008
Ed Beaver attended Guitar Research and Design in 1980, learning from George Morris and Charles Fox. He recently attended a refresher course with George Morris at Vermont Instruments in Post Mills, Vermont. He has since opened Ed Beaver Guitars where he is developing a line of instruments designed for the working musician. He has been a Guild member on and off since 1980.
▪ bio current as of 2003
After training in Mittenwald and New York, Charles Beare returned to London to work for, and later run the family violin business, J&A Beare Ltd. Charles has become one of the world’s foremost violin experts. He recently attended the Violin Society of America’s 32nd Annual Convention in Portland, Oregon to lecture and to serve as a judge at their 16th International Competition. It was his fourth time serving as a VSA competition judge.
▪ bio current as of 2005
Reg Beardsley took degrees in English and geology and then spent his career as a geophysicist in the oil industry. Devoid of any musical talent, it has taken him 45 years to reach the point of being able to improvise freely on guitar over a limited range of styles. He still has not built one, but has repaired a few and has several awaiting attention. In part the delays are caused by having far too many interests, a 5000 volume technical library, and a vast array of tools for working wood, metal, and electronics. His MS thesis was written on the nepheline syenite in Pulaski county Arkansas called pulaskite.
▪ bio current as of 2017
Ten-year GAL member Allan Beardsell is a former student of Sergei DeJonge. He wasted his teens and twenties as a musician, and turned to guitar making as a way to get guitars cheap. Realizing his mistake, he started selling them to support the habit. He’s the provincial fencing champ in men’s épée, and plays in a kick-ass rock band, the DeadBeatles.
▪ bio current as of 2007
Four-year GAL member Bill Beadie spends most of his days figuring out how to make it safe to breathe the air in industrial settings. On the side, he studies guitar making with John Greven, “the best guitar maker ever.”
▪ bio current as of 2005
Thomas Bazzolo began building classical guitars in 1983. Tom’s teacher the late Frank Haselbacher who is known for his “Augustine” guitars. After Haselbacher’s death, Tom inherited many of his clients. Tom built and repaired classical guitars in Connecticut for many years until relocating to Sullivan, Maine. He has retired from guitarmaking and now is a casual bladesmith.
▪ bio current as of 2017
Scott Baxendale has been there, done that, picked himself up and done it again. He currently builds and repairs guitars with his son John.
▪ bio current as of 2007
Fred Battershell makes a great variety of instruments including dulcimers, viols, psalteries, hurdy gurdies, and crwths. He has been a member for twenty-five of the last twenty-eight years, and has written a number of reviews for our pages.
▪ bio current as of 1987
Alexander Batov is an established maker and restorer of early plucked and bowed instruments.
▪ bio current as of 2006
Mark Bass is a freelance writer living in Atlanta whose forty-hour-a-week hobby is building Bouchet-braced classic guitars.
▪ bio current as of 1998
Before becoming a full-time luthier, twenty-two-year Guild member Michael Bashkin was a soil scientist for the U.S. Forest Service. Before that he hiked the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada, for no apparent reason.
▪ bio current as of 2022
John Bartlett retired from the U.S. Navy in 1984, then retired from public accounting in 2010. He started playing guitar back in the Jurassic Period (1960 or thereabout) but didn’t become interested in guitar construction until around 1989. A luthier friend suggested he try building one. Since then, he’s built around forty guitars, an F-style mandolin, and four banjos. “I’ll keep doing it until I get it right,” he says.
▪ bio current as of 2013
Seven-year GAL member Pete Barthell trained as a mechanical engineer at Michigan State, Northwestern, and University of Michigan, then spent forty-one years in electrical manufacturing. He built his first guitar in 1976. It flew apart. He’s now working on classical #140 in the rural wilds of the Olympic Peninsula.
▪ bio current as of 2003
When 19-year GAL member Sean Barry was 12 he was offered the choice of learning to play bluegrass banjo and guitar or becoming a herpetologist to study snakes and lizards. Since both involved scales, he saw little difference between them and he pursued them both with equal fervor. He spent ten of the next fifty-four years as a professional road musician and much of the rest as a professional herpetologist, not to mention as a bus driver and diesel mechanic for his traveling band. Along the way he developed an interest in the way wooden instruments were made and repaired and he has pursued lutherie tenaciously since the late 1960s. His lutherie focus is the F-5 mandolin but he also builds flat top guitars and even the occasional solid body electric. He hopes to write more for American Lutherie, especially during the winter when the snakes are hibernating.
▪ bio current as of 2016
New Guild member Sam Barnes is a husband, father, and teacher who enjoys refactoring complex concepts into tangible analogies and actionable tasks. When not herding cats in the professional world or training budding project managers in academia, Sam enjoys football (soccer for the Yanks), cycling with his wife, and playing music with his kids. He has designed a bass guitar for his eldest son, and maintains lofty luthieristic aspirations, but has never actually constructed a guitar. He secretly hopes that his writings will inspire donations to his burgeoning workshop.
▪ bio current as of 2022
Sam is a husband, father, and teacher who enjoys refactoring complex concepts into tangible analogies and actionable tasks. When not herding cats in the professional world or training budding project managers in academia, Sam enjoys football (soccer for the Yanks), cycling with his wife, and playing music with his kids. He has played guitar for over 30 years and while he has designed a bass guitar for his eldest son, and maintains lofty luthieristic aspirations, he has never actually constructed a guitar (he secretly hopes that his writings will inspire donations to his burgeoning workshop).
▪ bio current as of 2022
Roman Barnas is the Head Instructor of the Violin Department at the North Bennet Street School, Boston. He was born in Zakopane, Poland and entered the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zakopane at the age of 14, when he first began making violins. He went on to the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland, where he studied music and violinmaking for five more years. Roman came to the U.S. in 1996 to work at Psariano’s Violins in Troy, Michigan. He studied violin making in with Boyd Poulsen and violin restoration with Hans Nebel. He plays violin, accordian and double bass.
▪ bio current as of 2007
I don’t know much about Phill Banks other than what he says in his article; he’s an engineer who move from Australia to England.
▪ bio current as of 1989
Bob Banghart is a twenty-four-year Guild member.
▪ bio current as of 1990
Steven Banchero runs a violin making shop along with hsi wife, Patty Powloski.
▪ bio current as of 1991
Geary Baese is a violinmaker, and author of the book Classic Italian Violin Varnish.
▪ bio current as of 1993
Larry Baeder has been a studio musician and recording artist for almost three decades. He has played guitar for artists as diverse as Carly Simon, Bo Diddley, The Temptations, Chuck Jackson, Ben E. King, Isaac Hayes, Jay McShann, Henry Butler, Jane Sibery, and The Staple Singers. Larry resides in New York City.
▪ bio current as of 2003
Besides being a painter and sculptor, Joseph Bacon is a guitarist and lutenist with three albums to his credit. He lives in San Francisco.
▪ bio current as of 1987
Dutch-born Rene Baarslag now lives and works in Granada.
▪ bio current as of 1997
Twenty-one-year GAL member Juan Oscar Azaret is a native of Cuba who immigrated to the USA in the early ’60s. He holds degrees in electrical engineering and worked for over three decades for Bell Labs (and subsequent spin-offs and acquisitions). He has built and played classical guitars and is now a professional luthier and part-time teacher of electrical engineering. He serves on the board of the Boston Classical Guitar Society.
▪ bio current as of 2019
Filippo Avignonesi has been making, repairing and restoring guitars professionally since 1992. Studied with David Freeman, Mike Jarvis, Rossco Wright, Tom Ribbecke and Jose Romanillos.
▪ bio current as of 2008
After almost thirty years of making music, Andy Avera has developed a deep appreciation for the fine art of lutherie. A technical systems engineer by day, most of Andy’s nights and weekends are filled raising kids and playing music with his wife Audrey, a florist by trade.
▪ bio current as of 2008
Sixteen-year GAL member Pierre Audinet believes his love for wood is hereditary, passed down from centuries of woodworking ancestors. In his day job he travels to places as varied as Vietnam, Brazil, Yemen, and Djibouti to convince governments that investing in renewable energy is probably a good idea. He has been steadily building less than one classical guitar a year in Washington, DC, practicing lutherie skills acquired with masters in Sigüenza, Paris, Granada, and Firenze. He now pretends to be an enlightened amateur.
▪ bio current as of 2014
First-time American Lutherie author Andrew Atkinson is doing postgraduate work at London Guildhall University to recreate an authentic Elizabethan luthier’s workshop. This gives him a legitimate reason to poke around in old breweries.
▪ bio current as of 2002
Twelve-year GAL member Mike Ashley, exercising his Purdue pharmacy degree, “dealt drugs” to work his way through seminary, whereupon he awoke to find himself commissioned an Air Force chaplain for a twenty-six-year stint. Very early on, a Mississippi luthier evangelized him. Since the 1969 first instrument baptism, he’s balanced lutherie and other callings, recently retiring as Episcopal-Lutheran campus minister at Ball State University.
▪ bio current as of 2011
John Armstrong is a guitarist, a model maker, a math teacher, and an IT professional. He made his first guitar in school, way back when woodshop was an actual subject.
▪ bio current as of 2018
Nineteen-year GAL member, GAL Convention lecturer, and AL contributor Kevin Aram lives and works with his wife Alison in lovely rural North Devon. His fine traditional classical guitars find homes all over the globe. For fun he enjoys building cigar-box guitars, putting Telecaster necks on old tins, and making music with his friends.
▪ bio current as of 2024
Robert Anderson had to wait until he was retired before he could take on banjo work as a profession, an all too common story among luthiers. His skills at wood carving and inlay are known around the world. He lives in the glorious hills of North Carolina.
▪ bio current as of 2021
Fifteen-year GAL member Jay Anderson met his mentor Jim Olson in 2003 and subsequently built ten instruments that closely followed tradition in form, finish, and wood choice. He then made a conscious hard-left turn and began building instruments that are distinctly nontraditional, especially in their visual aspect. He hopes they will inspire the music of players and the imagination of collectors.
▪ bio current as of 2018
Steve Andersen began his guitar building under the tutelage of steel string builder Nick Kukich, but moved on to specialize in archtop guitars and mandolins. He has been a GAL member twenty-seven of the last thirty-two years.
▪ bio current as of 2007
Andrea Andalò is a guitarist, clarinetist, and surgeon who made a plywood balalaika at age eight with, as he says, “disgusting results.” After years of making furniture for family and friends, he “realized that a table did not sound well” and so returned to lutherie. He has made classic and steel string guitars and a true balalaika, and current projects include two lutes.
▪ bio current as of 1999
Simon Ambridge, an intermittent GAL member, started making guitars in the mid-’70s and is still a full-time student of the subject. Other interests include playing guitar and ukulele, photography, canoeing, and trekking on Dartmoor.
▪ bio current as of
Twelve-year GAL member Ken Altman began his lutherie career in 1975, working in a violin shop in Berkeley, California. He began making bows in 1993, and has been a full time bow maker for eighteen years.
▪ bio current as of 2015
Bill Allen is an engineer in his other life. He’s a past Guild author and a fourteen-year member, too. Bill has since passed away
▪ bio current as of 1988
Allen Guitars & Lutherie Supplies
Randy Allen is a supplier of cast mandolin tail pieces, inlay materials, and tonewoods, and provides a fret-slotting service to the luthier community. He is also the new owner of the ClimateCase company. Allen currently builds resophonic guitars, mandolins, and acoustic guitars in several models.
▪ bio current as of 1999
Three-year GAL member Dan Alexander has spent the last three years learning to build guitars in his bathroom. In his spare time, hes a dealer in professional recording gear and musical instruments, a published author, and has written songs for Eddie Money, Greg Kihn, and others. He spends an inordinate amount of time reading old issues of American Lutherie.
▪ bio current as of 2023
Nicolò Alessi is a guitarist, lutenist, and retired industrial designer who lives along beautiful Lago Maggiore in Northern Italy. Nicolo’s innovative tuning machines, which he makes in both historical copies and modern designs, are known for their precise workmanship and hand engraving. He is very proud of his region, his work, and his family.
▪ bio current as of 2010
2024
AL#152 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ Kennel reminds us to respect the simple beauty of a limp cloth measuring tape.
2024
AL#152 p.71
Robert-W. Taylor
▪ Use industrial-strength hand cleaner to cut the finger schmutz that builds up on a guitar.
2024
AL#152 p.69
Ralf Grammel
▪ Grammel shows us how to replace the rings in a rosette after the instrument is completed.
2024
AL#152 p.66
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Kent Rayman was a kind-hearted giant of a man who was helpful and influential in the Guilds earliest phase. Kents lutherie mentor remembers him here with fondness and respect.
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 worlds great classical and flamenco guitar collections and gives us the deets. Mentions Shel Urlik.
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.
2024
AL#152 p.58
John Huffman
▪ If you are a guitar maker, Ill 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 dont have more fun. Thats 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.
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.
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.
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.
2024
AL#152 p.4
Mark Connelly
▪ Longtime member Marc Connelly pens an appreciation of R.E. Brune, who encouraged his early efforts.
2024
AL#152 p.3
J.R. Beall
▪ J.R. Beall had the original idea for the Guild of American Luthiers. Now nearing ninety, he takes a look back on the whole project.
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.
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.
2024
AL#151 p.70
Spiros Mamais
▪ This is a double-sided jig made of square steel tubing.
2024
AL#151 p.67
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.
2024
AL#151 p.67
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.
2024
AL#151 p.67
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.
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 youve got a sweet tool like the cool kids use. Mentions Chris Alsop.
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.
2024
AL#151 p.58
Mark French
▪ Its 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. Theres an app for that. Mentions Fine Chromatic Tuner.
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 shes VP of Global Sales. And if you go to their sawmill, you can pick up pelletized fuel of the finest rosewood. Mentions Bob Taylor.
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.
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. Its 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.
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.
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.
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; its 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.
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.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Danl Brazinski
▪ K&K pickup positioning and gluing tool.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Terence Warbey
▪ No-slip scarf joint clamping.
2023
AL#150 p.70
Steve Kennel
▪ Easy alignment for guitar mold halves.
2023
AL#150 p.69
Steve Kennel
▪ Make try squares and bevel squares with clear-plastic blades.
2023
AL#150 p.68
Paul Dzatko
▪ Apply superglue with a quill pen that you made from a Q-tip.
2023
AL#150 p.68
Dan Alexander
▪ Make your sanding dish even more useful.
2023
AL#150 p.67
John Calkin
▪ After decades in the wood shop, the burning energy of ones young self can seem remote. Our reviewer says that this little book about a remarkable life in lutherie helped him to remember.
2023
AL#150 p.66
Harry Fleishman
▪ Snip a drinking straw at an angle to make a great tool for clearing wet glue squeezeout. And theres a sharpee thats better than a Sharpee-brand sharpee. Plus more simple things. Like, get the good brand of pencils.
2023
AL#150 p.65
David Franzen
▪ George Smith was one of that rare breed: A self-starter guitar maker before the American Lutherie Boom. Heres three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.
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. Heres three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.
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. Heres three fond remembrances by people who were glad to have known him well.
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.
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.
2023
AL#150 p.56
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Whatever the task may be, million-year GAL member Jeff Elliott does it right. Here he turns his attention to a jig for accurately placing and cleanly cutting a side sound port in a classical guitar.
2023
AL#150 p.54
John Kruse
▪ Like you might have heard, it is possible to locate a buzzing fret on a guitar that uses metal strings by exploiting the fact that an electical connection would be made when the string briefly touched the fret. It can be hard to see a flickering light or see a response on a VOM. This little project is optimized to make that contact visible and audible.
2023
AL#150 p.50
Carl Hallman
▪ Author Carl Hallman likes to develop methods and jigs that let the various operations involved in making a fine guitar repeatable and accurate. This one is an evolution of an idea used for making bolt-on necks for solidbodies, adapted for an acoustic guitar neck with a full heel and angled peghead.
2023
AL#150 p.44
William-T. Crocca
▪ A group of mature woodworkers set themselves the challenge of designing and presenting a two-day class in which kids and families can build a StewMac uke kit. It involved setting up twenty workstations. The class was a success, and everyone went home with a strung uke in the white.
2023
AL#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.
2023
AL#150 p.32
January Williams
▪ Author Williams bought the lutherie estate of the late Denny Stevens several years ago. He has taken an archeological approach to it, pondering over the nicely crafted gizmos he has discovered, and reporting them to us as he figures out the function of the various treasures.
2023
AL#150 p.24
Lee Herron
▪ A Dobro is good clean fun. And then maybe youll want to expand your lap-steel playing to include an acoustic Hawaiian guitar. Wouldnt 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!
2023
AL#150 p.16
Mark French
▪ Richard R.E. Bruné was in the GALs very first cohort and was an author and convention presenter from the very beginning. Weve visited him a couple of times over the decades. His son Marshall was born into the business, and into the Guild. Together they run a large workshop and epicenter of classical guitar making, scholarship restoration, appreciation, and dealing.
2023
AL#150 p.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. Its 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.
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.
2023
AL#150 p.5
Martin Moen
▪ An Australian retiree has made a cello, and intends to make more.
2023
AL#150 p.5
Rad Brashaw
▪
2023
AL#150 p.4
January Williams
▪ The Hammond Glider saw is a rare and wonderful thing. It was intended to cut type metal, but we get guidance on using it to cut wood. Mentions Ken Parker.
2023
AL#150 p.2
Michael Breid
▪
2023
AL#150 p.2
Margaret Mlamba
▪
2023
read this article
Herbert Family
▪ Chris Herbert was a guitar repairman in Colroado. Mentions Denny Stevens.
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.
2023
AL#149 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ Kennel is a sculptor. He sees a pile of scraps and misc hardware and builds a swanky-lookin’ fretwire roller. He’s on a roll. (Get it? Roll?) So he makes a guitar hanger that plugs into a workbench dog hole.
2023
AL#149 p.71
Danl 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.
2023
AL#149 p.69
Dan Alexander
▪ Those big eraser-like logs of rubber that you may use to clean a sanding belt can yield sweet little sanding blocks.
2023
AL#149 p.69
Dan Alexander
▪ Gravity: Friend or enemy? Friend, if you flip the rim after gluing in the lining.
2023
AL#149 p.69
Brent Benfield
▪ Ever snip out a piece from a plan drawing to use as a template? It will work so much better if you put clear tape on both faces of the edge.
2023
AL#149 p.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.
2023
AL#149 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ Warm up that brown paper tape with a hair dryer before you pull it off. Softens it up and makes it less likely to tear out wood fibers. Thats a simple thing.
2023
AL#149 p.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 hes back with an update. Look up the earlier article in our Premium Online Content.
2023
AL#149 p.62
Mark French
▪ This super-simple table saw jig is a strip of plywood with two alignment pins in drilled holes. Easy to make and to use.
2023
AL#149 p.60
Bob Gleason
▪ Sure, you can fit the sole of a bridge to its soundboard by putting sandpaper on the tender spruce or cedar and rubbing the bridge on it. But this jig is easier and safer.
2023
AL#149 p.58
Jon Sevy
▪ A couple of cheap gizmos from Harbor Freight can be cobbled together to let you measure the thickness of the sides or plates of an assembled guitar.
2023
AL#149 p.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.
2023
AL#149 p.54
Robert Hamm
▪ Sometimes you need a bicycle. That is, something between a skateboard and an automobile. This slick little shop-built unit lives in the space between a full-sized auto-feed belt sander and a Robo-sander drum chucked up in a drill press.
2023
AL#149 p.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.
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.
2023
AL#149 p.42
John Calkin
▪ One operation at a time, Calkin is showing us how to make ukes in a direct and effective way. Its all done by one worker with simple tools in a small space. Here he shows us how to get the back onto the ribs quickly and accurately, with no cleanup needed.
2023
AL#149 p.36
Rebecca Urlacher Paul Woolson
▪ A conversation is kinda like two interviews happening at the same time. Thats 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.
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.
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. Its way too short to make sides, but well figure something out.
2023
AL#149 p.4
Mike Doolin Ken Parker
▪ Can you believe we have never met this guy? Hes a giant of the American Lutherie Boom, he was at the Guilds 1979 Convention, and he has been a GAL member for over twenty years. The world knows him as the maker of the Fly solidbody guitar, but now he has returned to his first love: the archtop guitar. Mentions Larry Fishman, John D’Angelico, Jimmy D’Aquisto, Scott Chinery, Orville Gibson, Lloyd Loar, Raphael Ciani, Nick Lucas, Michael Greenfield, Sam Zygmuntowicz.
2023
AL#148 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ Kennel builds an electric aluminum bending iron. It’s sturdy. Like, you could plow a field with it.
2023
AL#148 p.70
Michael Breid
▪ A slice of dowel, a rivet, a strip of sandpaper, and you’re in business.
2023
AL#148 p.70
Federico Sheppard
▪ For guitar back braces: Arch them first, then taper them with this simple jig.
2023
AL#148 p.69
Peggy Stuart
▪ This gentle setup does not suck up the chips with a screaming vacuum, but lets them fall through a grating with a calming pitter-pat.
2023
AL#148 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ The very basics of using that brown paper binding tape. Because it is OK to be a beginner.
2023
AL#148 p.65
John Calkin
▪ Our reviewer has seen a ton of instructional lutherie videos. And he likes this one.
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 Caldersmiths position in the lutherie literature.
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.
2023
AL#148 p.60
Bob Gleason
▪ It looks like one of those fancy powered rolling-pin sanders, but it does not spin. It just works.
2023
AL#148 p.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.
2023
AL#148 p.54
John Calkin
▪ Get serious about building ukes in spherically-radiused workboards. These dishes are easily built from lumberyard material and use a drill press for power.
2023
AL#148 p.44
James Buckland
▪ Beautiful books about the pre-classical guitar, with lush and informative photography, are being published in Europe. Dont worry; they include English text for the benefit of us new-worlders. Mentions Mauro Giuliani, Gennaro Fabricatore, Joseph Pons, Johann Stauffer, Rene Lacote, Wappengitarre.
2023
AL#148 p.39
January Williams
▪ Williams purchased the lutherie estate of Denny Stevens. In a sort of archeological exercise, he digs through a pile of jigs and considers their possible functions.
2023
AL#148 p.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.
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.
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.
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 hes 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.
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? Hes 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.
2023
AL#148 p.9
Kelly Reynolds
▪ Reader solicits opionions about the use of Lyptus, a typle of eucalyptus wood.
2023
AL#148 p.9
Roger Haggstrom
▪ Haggstrom was intrigued by Harry Fleishmans 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2022
AL#147 p.70
Steve Gonwa
▪ Simple jig made of MDF helps you make accurate wooden binding strips with a thickness sander.
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.
2022
AL#147 p.69
Michael Breid
▪ Make a handle for skinny nut files from a standard hinge.
2022
AL#147 p.69
Mark French
▪ Thumb too fat for a plastic thumbpick? Fix it with hot water. The pick, not the thumb.
2022
AL#147 p.69
John Jordan
▪ Your bottle of expensive shielding paint is getting old and gloppy. Save it with simple material available at the art supply store.
2022
AL#147 p.68
Beau Hannam
2022
AL#147 p.68
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.
2022
AL#147 p.68
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.
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.
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.
2022
AL#147 p.65
James Condino
▪ Condino loves this lavish book about the history and construction of the Neapolitan (or tater bug) mandolin, which runs from classic to contemporary.
2022
AL#147 p.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.
2022
AL#147 p.62
Brent Benfield
▪ There are several ways to make a nice tightly-closing seam for a back or top guitar plate. Heres a low stress method that uses a granite slab, some sticky-back sandpaper, two little C clamps, and a plywood scrap.
2022
AL#147 p.60
Roger Haggstrom
▪ They say you can improve the sound of a new guitar by attaching a machine that will provide direct vibration to the instrument for a few days, simulating the breaking-in that might occur from months of playing. Not surprisingly, “they” will also sell you such a machine. But what else might work? Ask a luthier who also publishes a magazine for exotic fish fanciers, and he might suggest belting an aquarium air pump to the face of the guitar.
2022
AL#147 p.58
F.A. Jaen
▪ Heres 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.
2022
AL#147 p.56
John Calkin
▪ In lutherie work, you often need to make something accurately perpendicular to the instruments centerline. Squares designed for carpenters and machinists dont do the job as well as these simple and inexpensive clear-plastic tools.
2022
AL#147 p.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.
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 “Sloanes 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.
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 its also understandable that this work gets done with a minimum of tooling. Heres a nice example of a new bone nut being made and installed on an old Gibson flattop.
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.
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 its 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.
2022
AL#147 p.24
Robbie O’Brien
▪ Lutherie uber-pedagog Robbie OBrien 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.
2022
AL#147 p.18
Beau Hannam
▪ In a former lutherie life, Hannam cut saddle slots with a big honkin milling machine. A change of situation led him to design this practical and straightforward router jig to do the job. He gives clear and detailed instructions for building and using it.
2022
AL#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. Hes all over the Interwebs with his generous lutherie advice and his gorgeous instruments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2022
read this article
John Calkin
▪
2022
read this article
John Calkin
▪
2022
read this article
John Calkin
▪ When you are making guitars, are you making money or making your dreams come true? Both are worthy goals, but this article is about making money.
2022
AL#146 p.71
Geoff Needham
▪ Use a lumberyard laser level to align guitar parts during construction.
2022
AL#146 p.70
Graham McDonald
▪ Make a simple jig to get double duty from a strip of ivoroid binding material.
2022
AL#146 p.70
Mark French
▪ Make a quick and dirty guitar humidifier out of materials you may actually have in your pocket, like a ball point pen and some lint. Kidding about the lint.
2022
AL#146 p.69
Steve Kennel
▪ Post-It material comes in other forms besides notes, and they can be particularly useful for lutherie.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
2022
AL#146 p.58
Beau Hannam
▪ These simple plywood squares with dowel halves glued to them can replace all the carefully shaped side cauls that thousands of luthiers have been using for decades. Sometimes one size really does fit all.
2022
AL#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.
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.
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!
2022
AL#146 p.36
Tim Olsen
▪ A double-soundhole guitar in koa and red cedar.
2022
AL#146 p.34
January Williams
▪ Here’s a quick review of how the slack-key guitar got to be a thing. See GAL Plan #81
2022
AL#146 p.26
John Calkin
▪ David Thormahlen started making many kinds of string instruments in the woodshop in college, and then made a strategic decision to focus his lutherie career on lever harps. It all worked out well, and he still makes guitars, mandolins, and bouzoukis in addition to the harps. He shows us some of his gluing fixtures which involve bicycle inner tubes; some stretched, some inflated.
2022
AL#146 p.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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
2022
AL#146 p.2
Rich Jaouen
▪ The zinc in galvanized sheet steel can be safely used for bending guitar sides, contrary to widly distributed opinions.
2022
AL#146 p.2
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Gives updated info on guitar restoration materials that were mentioned by Elliott in AL#145.
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.
2022
AL#145 p.68
Joe Browne
▪ make a sort of vertical solera for working on the sides and ends of guitars.
2022
AL#145 p.68
Dan Alexander
▪ A simple and non-toxic recipe for glue remover. You probably have the ingredients in your kitchen right now.
2022
AL#145 p.68
Steve Kennel
▪ Use the parts from pipe clamps to make super-powered bench hold-downs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2022
AL#145 p.38
Roger Haggstrom
▪ Haggstromm uses a commercially-available radiused sanding block, a few scraps of wood, and a handful of parts from the hardware store to make this simple jig. It that lets him quickly and quietly produce a fretboard with the radius and the relief accurately sanded in.
2022
AL#145 p.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.
2022
AL#145 p.25
Evan Gluck
▪ Imagine you were a guitar repair guy, and there was another guitar repair guy in your same town. What would you do about it? If you were Evan Gluck, or any other enlightened, right-thinking luthier, you would march right over there and make him your best friend. These guys have a blast “competing” in the same market, sharing stories, customers, tools, and techniques. And yes, it does help if your hometown has over eight million people in it. Mentions Brian Moore, Dan Erlewine, Michael Bashkin, Ian Davlin, Jimmy Carbonetti.
2022
AL#145 p.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.
2022
AL#145 p.4
Michael Bashkin
▪ Bashkin ornaments his pegheads and end grafts with marquetry combined with thin, free-flowing veneer lines. He shows us in detail how he accomplishes some of these effects, including scorching decorative pieces in hot sand.
2022
AL#145 p.3
Rob Zwally
▪ More input and questions about how a luthier should deal with the challenge of winding down a lutherie career.
2022
AL#145 p.3
Rick Rubin
▪ More input and questions about how a luthier should deal with the challenge of winding down a lutherie career.
2022
AL#145 p.3
Raven Ravary
▪ Raven likes the Dragonplate company as a supplier of graphite epoxy material. Awesom customer service, he says.
2021
AL#144 p.71
Steve Kennel
▪ How to take the warp, cup, and twist out of a plank. You attach scrap-wood rails that carry it through a planer in the proper orientation.
2021
AL#144 p.71
Michael Breid
▪ Make tiny C clamps from hardware-store parts.
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.
2021
AL#144 p.70
Jason Hull
▪ Fret erasers are easier to use if you attach them to a handle, especially if you have carpal tunnel syndrome.
2021
AL#144 p.70
Dan Alexander
▪ Prebend rosette rings the cheap and easy way, with a hair dryer.
2021
AL#144 p.70
Steve Kennel
▪ Make a dead-blow hammer out of stuff you might find around the shop.
2021
AL#144 p.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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2021
AL#144 p.56
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?
2021
AL#144 p.52
Jon Sevy
▪ If you are cutting pearl inlays with a benchtop CNC router, then cutting the recesses for them with that same CNC, they ought to fit perfectly, right? Well yes, in the perfect world of math. And even out here in the messy real world of sawdust and bearing slop, you can get pretty close if you understand the forces at play and calculate their effects.
2021
AL#144 p.44
Mark French
▪ 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.
2021
AL#144 p.36
John Calkin Robert Anderson
▪ Robert Anderson made banjos part-time for decades while he worked a respectable day job. But since he has “retired” into a full-time lutherie career, he is in demand for his beautifully carved, inlaid, and engraved instruments. We take a look into his converted tobacco barn and talk shop. Mentions Doug Unger, Stan Werbin, Kathy Anderson, Grateful Dead.
2021
AL#144 p.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.
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.