Category Archives: promotion

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.

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.

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.

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.

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: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.”

Meet the Dealer: Armin Kelly

2004
AL#80 p.28   BRB7 p.254            
Cyndy Burton   Armin Kelly                                                                                       

▪ Meet the dealer? Well, when a dealer has such a strong influence in the lives of the luthiers he represents, why not? If you build, and if you want to sell through a dealer, you need to read this interview. Besides, Kelly’s enthusiasm is so infectious it will send you right back to your workbench. Boutique guitar builders and shops are relatively new to the steel string, but it has always been the way among classical guitar people. This is why. With 3 photos.

Meet the Maker: Duane Heilman

2002
AL#71 p.24   BRB6 p.424            
John Calkin   Duane Heilman                                                                                       

▪ Heilman builds quirky, imaginative ukes that he auctions on-line. He’s also made hundreds of exotic picks that he sells the same way. With 17 photos.

Letter to the Editor: Oversize Bass

1998
AL#56 p.3               
Derrick McCandless                                                                                           

▪ McCandless built a functioning P/J bass that is 8′ long and otherwise to scale. With 1 photo of the finished instrument.

The 1997 Healdsburg Guitar Festival

1997
AL#52 p.6               
Jonathon Peterson                                                                                           

▪ Though only 2 years old, the Healdsburg show has become culturally and commercially important, as well as a luthiers’ information exchange. Peterson interviews organizers and luthiers who set up displays. The spread of 19 photos is an even split of personalities and close-ups of interesting guitars.

Meet the Maker: Bart Reiter

1993
AL#34 p.14   BRB3 p.324            read this article
Paul Hostetter   Bart Reiter                                                                                       

▪ Reiter is perhaps the best known current maker of open back banjos. He traces his beginnings and some specifics of the banjo market. With 3 photos.

Meet the Maker: Guy Rabut

1992
AL#32 p.52   BRB3 p.268            read this article
Tim Olsen   Guy Rabut                                                                                       

▪ A long-time Guild member makes it as a violinmaker in the Big Apple after a twenty-year run. Mentions Ed Campbell, Peter Prier, Rene Morel.

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

Looking at Lutherie Schools

1991
AL#25 p.6   BRB3 p.16            
Steve Banchero   David Freeman   Larry Kirmser   David Vincent   Donald Warnock                                                                           

▪ A panel of lutherie teachers talks it over at the 1990 GAL Convention.

Opinion

1988
AL#15 p.68               
Wayne Harris                                                                                           

▪ Harris has a poor opinion of musicians who expect luthiers to give them free instruments. He wishes that both sides could respect the luthier/musician symbiosis.

The Steel String Guitar Today

1987
AL#11 p.32   BRB1 p.474            
Max Krimmel   Jean Larrivee   Bruce Ross   Ervin Somogyi   Robert Steinegger                                                                           

▪ Such panel discussions are always interesting, but this one especially so, mostly because three of the five panelists run one-man shops. The questions (and even many answers) don’t seem to change much from year to year, but it’s good to hear from some smaller voices in the industry for a change.

The Business of Lutherie: 1984

1985
AL#2 p.8   BRB1 p.58            read this article
Ted Davis   Steve Grimes   Bob Meltz   Matt Umanov                                                                               

▪ This panel discussion from the 1984 GAL Convention features Bob Meltz, Matt Umanov, David Sheppard, Ted Davis, and Steve Grimes. Straight talk on the realities of being a one-man lutherie shop.

The Business of Lutherie

1981
GALQ Vol.9#4 p.10   BRB1 p.48            read this article
R.E. Brune   George Gruhn   Steve Klein   Max Krimmel   Robert Lundberg                                                                           

▪ The economic atmosphere surrounding lutherie has changed a lot since this 1980 panel discussion, but tapping into the lutherie boom is no easier than it ever was. Max Krimmel followed his genius out of guitarmaking many years ago, but the rest of these gentlemen are still active, and their longevity suggests that they knew what they were talking about so long ago. Panel discussions aren’t often as much fun as this one.

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