Category Archives: guitar

Mario Maccaferri: Feisty as Ever

1985
AL#2 p.32               
Michael Dresdner                                                                                           

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

String Tension and Gauges

1985
AL#2 p.42   BRB1 p.78            
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ McDonald gives formulae and graphs to determine appropriate steel string gauges for nonstandard scale lengths.

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

Letter to the Editor: Critique of Article in Vol. 12 #4

1985
AL#1 p.5               
Paul Wyszkowski                                                                                           

▪ Wyszkowski defends assertions he made in a previous article (Vol. 12, #4, GAL Quarterly) concerning sound radiation of the (1,0) mode in the classic guitar. His assertion is based on the work of William Strong and Graham Caldersmith. Criticism was made by Gila Eban.

GAL Instrument Plan #8: 1918 Martin 1-18, #13336

1985
AL#1 p.27   BRB1 p.38   ALA4 p.7         
Ted Davis                                                                                           

▪ The article contains 4 photos, a short text, and a reduced image of our full-scale instrument Plan #8. Both pages of the very thorough drawing are presented. A chance to get an accurate preview of the plan before you buy. This is a very small flattop guitar, less than 13″ at the lower bout.

Lutherie: Art or Science?

1985
AL#1 p.38               read this article
R.E. Brune                                                                                           

▪ Brune criticizes the theoretical design work of Dr. Michael Kasha, concluding that it is in fact less scientific than the empirical work of luthiers untrained in physics.

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

Guitar Back Fitting Jig

1985
AL#1 p.42   BRB1 p.13            
Ted Davis                                                                                           

▪ Davis presents a drawing of a jig for properly forming the sides and lining of a guitar to accept a domed back. The sides are held in a mold while a sanding stick, held by a central post, is passed over them.

To Make a Good Guitar

1984
GALQ Vol.12#2 p.25               
Paul Wyszkowski                                                                                           

▪ Some inklings garnered over the years of reading, listening, thinking, and building, to make a good guitar.

Bob Mattingly’s Building Process

1984
DS#289   BRB2 p.456            
Duane Waterman   William Tapia                                                                                       

▪ Mattingly was one of the most respected classical builders in America before his death. This article examines some of the unusual construction techniques he used.

Classic Guitar Soundboard Part 2

1984
DS#294   BRB2 p.340            
Ted Davis                                                                                           

▪ Various theories and attempts to involve more of the top of classical guitar in sound production, including the methods of Robert Bouchet.

Restoring a Martin Harp Guitar

1984
DS#279   LW p.62   ALA6 p.2         
Ted Davis                                                                                           

▪ This rare Martin required the creation of a new harp neck as well as the repair of many top and side cracks. The plans included are also available as GAL full-scale blueprint #7. Includes 5 photos.

Remembering Hermann Hauser II

1983
GALQ Vol.11#3 p.10   BRB2 p.154            
H.E. Huttig                                                                                           

▪ The author visited Hauser in Germany in 1966. This short biography and remembrance adds a bit of humanity to a man who is usually only thought of in terms of the guitars he left behind when he died. With 2 photos.

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

Aesthetics of Restoration

1983
GALQ Vol.11#3 p.30   BRB2 p.176            
Don Alfieri                                                                                           

▪ The goal and duties of the instrument restorationist are not always clear cut since the philosophy of restoration is not universally agreed upon. The author makes a good case for a conservative approach to the subject and the work.

An Interview with H.E. Huttig

1983
GALQ Vol.11#1 p.12   BRB2 p.109            
David Fisher   H.E. Huttig                                                                                       

▪ H.E. Huttig, wood merchant, writer, world traveler, experimenter, practical musicologist, lover of life, guitar maker.

GAL Instrument Plan #5: Kasha Guitar Soundboard

1983
DS#243   BRB1 p.214            
Gila Eban                                                                                           

▪ Eban offers an eloquent argument for trying the Kasha system in your own shop, as well as many details of her own guitars. A page-sized blueprint is included. She maintains that there is a philosophy and an aesthetic behind the Kasha design that is self-revealing and pleasing to work with, and that the design will always be under-realized until a larger number of builders have come to understand and absorb it.

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

Evolving the Classic Guitar Soundboard

1983
DS#238   BRB2 p.340            
Ted Davis                                                                                           

▪ The author began building classical guitars before there was much written help out there, and he evolved his design specs by making a lot of guitars. Some of these have been absorbed into the general body of classical guitar literature, other remain unique. With 14 drawings and 2 photos.

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

Klein Design

1982
GALQ Vol.10#2 p.12   LW p.74            
Steve Klein                                                                                           

▪ This is a history of Klein’s unusual steel string guitars, as well as a window into the mind of one of lutherie’s most creative thinkers. Includes 5 photos as well as a plan of the top of the guitar Klein built for Joe Walsh.

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

Dissolving the Mysteries

1982
GALQ Vol.10#4 p.8   BRB1p.346            read this article
Graham Caldersmith                                                                                           

▪ Caldersmith loves the scientific aspects of instrument design, and offers this primer to help explain what’s going on in an excited classical or steel string guitar without going off the scientific deep end. The most interesting part is that in his update (17 years later) he has reversed is position on how to use this information. Information doesn’t change as much as how we use it, and we can’t use it if we don’t understand it. That, in a nutshell, is the acoustician’s tenant.

Structural Considerations

1983
DS#235   BRB2 p.452            
Paul Wyszkowski                                                                                           

▪ It’s well known that designing a guitar for longevity and designing a guitar for best performance may drag the designer in opposite directions. Guitar construction is a compromise (like life itself). The author takes a closer look at the situation. With 1 drawing.

Making Florentine Cutaways

1982
DS#202   LW p.90            
Eric Berry                                                                                           

▪ Florentine cutaways are the pointy kind. This instruction is for adding the cutaway to your basic design as construction progresses, not for adding a cutaway to an already completed guitar. With 3 drawings.

Humbucking Pickup Wiring

1982
DS#203               read this article
Daniel-P. Coyle                                                                                           

▪ The use of dual-coil or ‘humbucking’ pickups enables a wide range of samples of string sounds, along with a heightened complexity of switching problems.

Making Bridges Using Power Tools

1982
DS#204   BRB2 p.289            
Kent Rayman                                                                                           

▪ The author uses a table saw and no jigs to help speed up the creation of classical guitar bridges. With 5 drawings.

Factory Life

1981
GALQ Vol.9#1 p.8   LT p.106            
John Judge                                                                                           

▪ This depiction of life in the Guild guitar factory in the ’60s may open some eyes.

Life After the Dead

1981
GALQ Vol.9#2 p.10   LW p.70            
Rick Turner                                                                                           

▪ Turner started his lutherie life as part of the Grateful Dead’s clan of artists, engineers, and craftsmen, but ended up with his own company which built distinctive electric guitars. This shop tour includes 11 photos.

Head V-Joint

1981
DS#183   BRB2 p.282            
Duane Waterman                                                                                           

▪ The author uses a series of drawings to help explain the creation of a unique but tradition method of attaching the headstock to a guitar neck.

Archtop Routing Jig

1981
DS#186   LT p.65            
Rion Dudley                                                                                           

▪ This guide registers on the sides of the guitar rather than the plates. It is intended for the Dremel tool, but will work with a larger router.

Soundboard Bracing Considerations

1981
DS#171   BRB2 p.201            
Paul Wyszkowski                                                                                           

▪ The author uses a light approach to science to explain the function of the classical guitar top and attempts to translate the functions of physics into a form the luthier can use at the bench.

Pearls Before Junk Dealers

1980
GALQ Vol.8#2 p.10   LW p.66            
Richard Irwin                                                                                           

▪ Irwin found a small gold-painted guitar in a junk shop that turned out to be an 1850 2-24 Martin. Removing the gold paint revealed a nearly pristine guitar marred only by some pick wear. With 3 photos and a diagram of the pyramid bridge.

Routing Neck Dovetails

1980
DS#138   LW p.118            
Larry Stevens                                                                                           

▪ The author borrowed this dovetail system from Max Krimmel. The routing jigs are fully described, and it is recommended that the head block be routed before the body is assembled, Martin-style.

An Overview of Pickup Design

1979
GALQ Vol.7#4 p.20   BRB2 p.62            
Tim Shaw                                                                                           

▪ This is just about as good a description of how pickups work as you are going to find. Shaw was a main man at Gibson, and relates several of the design considerations to specific guitars. If pickups are really this easy to understand why do they seem so mysterious? Includes 4 diagrams of how pickups are built.

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

Variables in Archtop Design

1979
DS#131   LW p.50            
Jimmy D’Aquisto                                                                                           

▪ D’Aquisto pioneered the maturation of the archtop guitar into a versatile instrument. Here he runs down a list of design factors and what they do for the sound.

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

Guitar Evaluation at Carmel

1978
GALQ Vol.6#2 p.19               read this article
David-Russell Young                                                                                           

▪ Many instruments, when compared together in a forum such as Carmel, provide a good basis for determining the strong and weak points of each individual instrument.

Guitar Outline Formula

1978
DS#79               read this article
Leo Bidne                                                                                           

▪ The determining factors besides the obvious ones for making a guitar the shape that it is and a possible formula that produces an ideal outline.

Two Ancient Guitars

1978
DS#82               
Don Alfieri                                                                                           

▪ Two photographs by Schuab photo: a German guitar from the early 1800s and an American guitar signed and dated Schmidt and Maul, 1844, New York.

Evolution of the Classic Guitar- A Tentative Outline

1977
GALQ Vol.5#4 p.12               
Wilfrid-M. Appleby                                                                                           

▪ Parts 4, 5, and 6 of this series from the old Guitar News magazine of England. You can find it at www.digitalguitararchive.com/2019/11/guitar-news

Evolution of the Classic Guitar- A Tentative Outline

1977
GALQ Vol.5#3 p.6               
Wilfrid-M. Appleby                                                                                           

▪ This lengthy article originally appeared in a six part version in Guitar News, which has long since ceased publication. But you can find it at www.digitalguitararchive.com/2019/11/guitar-news.

Guitar Sound Criteria

1977
DS#44   BRB2 p.200            
Thomas Knatt                                                                                           

▪ Knatt discusses the elements of classical guitar construction that help create the sound he is after, such as thinning the top, the characteristics of the action and saddle, accuracy of fret placement, and the effects of brace shaving. Mentions Carleen Hutchins.

Tuning the Guitar

1977
DS#45   BRB1 p.288            
Ian Noyce                                                                                           

▪ ‘Bet you thought you knew how to tune a guitar. Some are fussier than others, right? Noyce explains that fussiness, and by examining the fussiness it can in part be designed out of the guitar. On the other hand, part of the problem is psycho-fussiness, meaning that you have to tune to suit the peculiarities of human hearing. They say that horses have perfect pitch, so tuning up must be much less of a chore for them.

Flamenco Capo

1977
DS#46   BRB2 p.25            
Don Alfieri                                                                                           

▪ Flamenco guitars are very light in weight, and a conventional capo could unbalance them and even change their sustain. This all-wood capo should correct the problem.

Bridge Plate Repair

1976
DS#34               
John Thierman                                                                                           

▪ The tops of many older flat-top steel string guitars will bulge up at the bridge due to the high tension of the steel strings.

Resophonic Guitars

1975
DS#20               
Robert-F. Gear                                                                                           

▪ Since the late 60s the national metal-bodied guitars and Dobros have become one of the hottest items among collectors, blues players, and bluegrass enthusiasts alike.

Manuel Davila: Renaissance Man

1975
GALNL Vol.3#2 p.1   BRB2 p.61            
H.E. Huttig                                                                                           

▪ Hutting happens across Manuel Davila in Guatemala City, who builds guitars that are completely original and do not follow tradition in construction and decoration.

Epitaph for a Luthier: Miguel Company

1975
GALNL Vol.3#5,6 p.25   BRB2 p.23            
H.E. Huttig                                                                                           

▪ A number of builders impacted the lutherie scene simply by keeping the craft alive during the dark days of the ’50s and early ’60s, even though they are all but forgotten today. Company fled Castro’s Cuba to Florida, where he made all manner of guitars and Latin instruments.

Basic Guitar Electronics

1975
DS#15               
Bob Petrulis                                                                                           

▪ The first of a series of articles on basic instrument electronics, this time covering magnetic pickups, transducer pickups, contact mics, volume and tone controls, and soldering.