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.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.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.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.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.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.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.
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.
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.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.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.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.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.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.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.
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.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
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#150 p.2
Michael Breid
▪
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.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.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.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#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#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.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.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.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.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.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.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#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.65
John Calkin
▪ Our reviewer has seen a ton of instructional lutherie videos. And he likes this one.
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.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.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.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.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.
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.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.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.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
Beau Hannam
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.
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.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.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.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.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#146 p.71
Geoff Needham
▪ Use a lumberyard laser level to align guitar parts during construction.
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.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#146 p.2
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Gives updated info on guitar restoration materials that were mentioned by Elliott in AL#145.
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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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#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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.
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.
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.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.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.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.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.5
Federico Sheppard
▪ Details about the timelime of Sheppard’s construction of the replica of Torres’ FE08 are clarified somewhat.
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.
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.
2021
AL#144 p.3
Anya Ezhevskaya
▪ A fancy prototype shred guitar built, then lost, then found. Mentions Russ Lintz, Eric Stadler.
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.
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.
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.
2021
AL#144 p.5
Clifford Wilkes
▪ Details about the timelime of Sheppard’s construction of the replica of Torres’ FE08 are clarified somewhat.
2021
AL#143 p.2
Gila Eban
▪ Gila replies to Howard Stephens writing in AL#142. Mentions Tom Higgins, Alan Carruth, and Tom Knatt.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
2021
AL#142 p.64
John Littel
▪ A positive review for this arty book about luthier Freeman Vines. Tintype photos are featured.
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.
2021
AL#142 p.5
John Calkin
▪ Two luthiers trade cigar-box guitar builds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2021
AL#142 p.62
Monica Esparza
▪ A positive review of this elaborate, gorgeous, thorough, and expensive book by Josep Melo. Mentions Pepe Romero.
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.
2020
AL#141 p.67
Carl-David Hardin
▪
2020
AL#141 p.70
Federico Sheppard
▪
2020
AL#141 p.70
Todd Cambio
▪
2021
AL#142 p.2
Steve Kennel
▪ A quick and dirty Dobro made partly from yard sale stuff.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2020
AL#140 p.2
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2019
AL#138 p.69
Fan Tao
▪ Can you avoid excessive string tension in a long-scale harp 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2020
AL#139 p.36
Kerry Char
▪ Reduced image of the full-scale plan.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2019
AL#136 p.69
Ken Warmoth
▪ What’s the deal with deep V-shaped necks on old guitars?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2019
AL#136 p.54
Mark French
▪ 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.
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.
2019
AL#136 p.69
Walter Carter
▪ What’s the deal with deep V-shaped necks on old guitars?
2019
AL#136 p.69
James Buckland
▪ What’s the deal with deep V-shaped necks on old guitars?
2018
AL#135 p.69
Mark Hatcher
▪ What’s the deal with hardwood tops on steel string guitars?
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 polising with hardware-store shellac. Mentions Richard Brune.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
2018
AL#133 p.70
Andy Powers
▪ Thoughts about short-scale guitars.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
2018
AL#133 p.3
Greg Nelson
▪ The writer seeks the guitar that was built by John Natelson for the book Guitarmaking:Tradition and Technology.
2018
AL#133 p.3
Philippe Refig
▪ The writer talks with first-hand knowledge about Robert Bouchet’s earliest guitars.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2017
AL#131 p.71
R.M. Mottola
▪ How do I find the best compensation angle compromise for a steel string guitar saddle slot?
2017
AL#132 p.5
Federico Sheppard
▪ Federico talks about the possibility of guitar building classes at his 1000-year-old church in Spain.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2017
AL#130 p.68
Sebastian Nunez Jan van-Cappelle
▪ How did the old boys make those multi-stave sides on Baroque guitars?
2017
AL#130 p.71
Thomas Bazzolo
▪ How did Thomas Humphrey brace his Millenium guitars?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2017
AL#130 p.2
James Condino
▪ James Condino remembers his friend and mentor Eugene Clark.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2016
AL#128 p.70
Alain Bieber James Buckland
▪ What can you tell me about this old French guitar?
2016
AL#128 p.70
James Buckland
▪ What can you tell me about this old French guitar?
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.
2017
AL#129 p.3
Ralf Grammel
▪ The author praises Elliott and the GAL.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
2016
AL#126 p.62
Bryan Johanson
▪ The second edition of this important book is a considerable advance over the original.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2015
AL#123 p.64
John Calkin
▪ This online course provides information that an endless and distracting internet search will not yield.
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.
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.
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.
2015
AL#121 p.67
Ed Smith
▪ Bending herringbone by taping it down and ironing.
2015
AL#121 p.68
Randy Holmes
▪ Information on restoring an old Sunburst Silvertone, in bad shape and missing the pickguard.
2015
AL#121 p.69
John Calkin
▪ Pursuing cheap guitar designs that sound good.
2015
AL#121 p.71
Walter Carter
▪ The reasons for guitar size increase during the first half of the 20th century.
2015
AL#122 p.8
Nick Kukich Cyndy Burton
▪ Nick takes our reporter through the process of making a Franklin OM guitar.
2015
AL#122 p.25
Jan-Van Cappelle
▪ An examination of the surviving guitars and guitar forms of Stradivari.
2014
AL#119 p.43
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.
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.
2014
AL#119 p.68
Leo Lospennato Mark French John Bogdanovich
▪ Extensive advice on conceiving, structuring, and publishing a book on guitar building.
2014
AL#120 p.5
Dion Costigan
▪ About a 1979 Ted Beringer guitar.
2014
AL#119 p.6
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.
2014
AL#119 p.18
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.
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
AL#118 p.64
Pierre Audinet
▪ Audinet gives the thumbs-up to the new book by Jose Romanillos, “Making a Spanish Guitar”.
2014
AL#118 p.66
Jack-E. Johnston
▪ Tools for working through the soundhole to attach a bolt-on neck.
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.
2014
AL#118 p.70
R.M. Mottola
▪ Mottola translates the arcane jargon of this article for us general readers.
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.
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.
2014
AL#118 p.6
Rick Whitaker
▪ An accidental decades-long experiment convices the maker that constant playing really does develop the sound of a guitar.
2013
AL#116 p.52
Nate Clark
▪ Making a tortoise pickguard from scratch, using a combo of hand and power tools and fresh celluloid.
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.
2013
AL#116 p.69
Stephen Sedgwick
▪ Creating a steel string version of an existing classical 10-string guitar.
2013
AL#116 p.71
Alain Bieber
▪ Inquiry on wood for binding to repair a damaged Jerome Thibouville-Lamy French guitar.
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.
2013
AL#115 p.68
Monica Esparza
▪ Creating a mosaic rosette from an original illustration.
2013
AL#116 p.51
Mark Berry
▪ The culturally rich history of the Flamenco guitar up to it’s current influences and building methods.
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.
2013
AL#115 p.36
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
2013
AL#114 p.58
John Jackson
▪ John Jackson describes building his first hand made guitar.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2013
AL#113 p.67
Jeffrey Yong
▪ A simple jig for the slotting of a guitar nut.
2013
AL#113 p.69
Paul Norman
▪ Finding the precious little documentation on building resonator guitars.
2013
AL#113 p.69
Gary Bray
▪ Making a herring bone purfling curve around the soundhole as a rosette without breaking it.
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.
2013
AL#114 p.6
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.
2013
AL#114 p.14
James Condino Stephen Marchione
▪ Stephen Marchione on his career in building solidbody electrics, acoustic guitars, mandolins, and violins.
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.
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.
2013
AL#113 p.5
Philippe Refig
▪ Repairing a small crack in a Bouchet guitar #13 from 1950, a period in which Bouchet’s style was not yet defined.
2013
AL#113 p.20
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.
2012
AL#112 p.28
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.
2012
AL#112 p.3
Larry Breslin
▪ Larry Breslin on his first exposure to the Flamenco guitar and building his first instrument.
2012
AL#112 p.3
Joe-D. Franklin
▪ Joe Franklin’s thoughts and investigations on the harmonic aesthetics of the classical guitar.
2012
AL#110 p.70
James Buckland
▪ Statistics on string tension for typical gut classical guitar strings.
2012
AL#111 p.32
R.M. Mottola
▪ A study of the geometric relationship between the fretboard of the flattop guitar and the top of the instrument.
2012
AL#109 p.71
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Reasons for using wound G classical strings.
2012
AL#110 p.3
Clifford Wilkes
▪ In reference to Salvador Ibanez guitar restoration article in AL#108.
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.
2011
AL#108 p.68
R.E. Brune
▪ Sources of information on the builder Luis Reig III.
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.
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.
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.