2023
AL#150 p.66
Harry Fleishman
▪ Snip a drinking straw at an angle to make a great tool for clearing wet glue squeezeout. And theres a sharpee thats better than a Sharpee-brand sharpee. Plus more simple things. Like, get the good brand of pencils.
2023
AL#148 p.70
Michael Breid
▪ A slice of dowel, a rivet, a strip of sandpaper, and you’re in business.
2022
AL#146 p.2
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Gives updated info on guitar restoration materials that were mentioned by Elliott in AL#145.
2021
AL#144 p.52
Jon Sevy
▪ If you are cutting pearl inlays with a benchtop CNC router, then cutting the recesses for them with that same CNC, they ought to fit perfectly, right? Well yes, in the perfect world of math. And even out here in the messy real world of sawdust and bearing slop, you can get pretty close if you understand the forces at play and calculate their effects.
2021
AL#144 p.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#143 p.66
John Mello
▪ Although the Micro 299 was reviewed, the current model at the time of publication was the Micro 431.
2021
AL#143 p.48
Mark French
▪ Here’s how to quickly make a frequency-response curve of a guitar on your bench, using a handheld digital recorder and free software. Not cheap and easy enough for you? The author goes on to tell you how to do the whole thing on a smart phone. Mentions Spectroid, MATLAB, and Audacity.
2021
AL#142 p.28
Dan Erlewine
▪ Good ol’ Dan Erlewine is known for finding and spreading efficient new tools and techniques for guitar makers and repairers, as well as for mentoring and promoting young talent in the lutherie field. He’s at it again in this article, as he loosely wrangles a team to consult on the design of a specialized new shop vise.
2021
AL#142 p.4
Michael Cone
▪ Collecting frequency response data from completed guitars. In reply to a question in AL#141.
2020
AL#141 p.4
John Jordan
▪
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#139 p.56
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry has been a lot of places and made a lot of instruments in a lot of shops. Now, after fifty years as a luthier, a lutherie teacher, and a hired-gun designer, he’s right back where many folks started: in a spare bedroom. He encourages us (and himself) not to let a humble shop space be an excuse for inaction. Just do it (registered trademark)!
2019
AL#137 p.16
Mark French
▪ CNC Routers are kinda like computers. Once they were huge and cost more than a house. Therefore they were mostly in the domain of large corporations. Now they are far smaller, and the price tag is closer to a few months’ rent. Therefore they will be ubiquitous. This article lets you know what it would take to get on the bus. Mentions Easel; VCarve; BobCAD; Draftsight; AutoCAD; SketchUp; Fusion 360; Rhino3D.
2018
AL#133 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ Sources for specialty adhesive tapes.
2018
AL#133 p.54
Edmond Rampen
▪ OK, we are probably some distance yet from pushing a button and 3D-printing a functioning guitar. And if you think that something about that sounds kinda crepy and disappointing, you just might be a luthier. But what we are talking about in this article is entirely different: Using surprisingly inexpensive printers to make templates, tools, and parts for guitars. The future is here, people. Get into this while you wait for your hover car.
2016
AL#128 p.32
Andrew Mowry
▪ Andrew Mowry was a one-man mandolin-making shop known for precise high-quality work. When he made the jump and brought a small but capable CNC mill into the mix, he was not trying to flood the market, but rather to further improve his work. All the tools and methods he shows here are well within reach; you don’t need to be a factory to afford it, and it won’t turn you into a factory if you try it. Mowry still runs a one-man shop known for precise high-quality work. From his 2014 convention workshop.
2005
AL#81 p.62 BRB7 p.235
Byron Will
▪ Tips and directions in digital photography for workshop and instrument construction documentation.
2004
AL#78 p.54 BRB7 p.204
Robert-A. Edelstein Ben Edelstein
▪ How would you like an inspection tool that slides into any soundhole and gives you an electronic picture of what it sees? It’s here, it’s very cool, but it’s still pretty expensive. With 7 photos.
2003
AL#76 p.58 BRB7 p.510
John Calkin
▪ The reviewer tries out the Spot Check contact thermometer on his side-bending machine and makes some interesting discoveries. This tool is too cheap and useful to be without. With 3 photos.
2003
AL#73 p.61 BRB7 p.523
John Calkin
▪ This video is a collection of shop tips that the reviewer found to be valuable and entertaining, especially in view of the low price.
2002
AL#70 p.16 BRB6 p.328
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ Returning a historically important guitar to life is not only a painstaking project but also one that must be done with finesse and a respect for the instrument’s value as an historical document. This restoration took several months and much research and investigation, requiring the use of tools not normally associated with guitar repair. With 43 photos and a magazine-size version of GAL Plan #47 of the instrument under discussion.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2002
AL#70 p.34 BRB6 p.343
Jeffrey-R. Elliott
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
2001
AL#66 p.58 BRB6 p.480
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman spends an entire column talking about a particular brown masking tape, and darn if he doesn’t make it sound like a fine use of space.
1999
AL#58 p.52 BRB5 p.449
Fred Carlson
▪ How would you like a video camera that can snoop inside your guitar? Carlson examines the Chapin Insight guitar inspection camera and finds that it’s loads of fun and probably very useful to a repairman who has the $350 to improve his inspection capabilities.
1998
AL#55 p.60 BRB5 p.277
Peter Dyer Dennis Abbl
▪ Regarding stainless steel VS spring steel used for the universal (Charles Fox) side bender.
1998
AL#54 p.58 BRB5 p.444
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman tries out a tool for puncturing archtop plates to establish depth of cut, likes it, but finds that the standard size tool is for violin makers and guitar makers must special order; the nut files of a lifetime come into his shop; a good tool that Everyman can afford turns out to be nice fret slot cleaning tool.
1998
AL#54 p.62
Cyndy Burton
▪ Where to get the gear you need to do what you want to do as a luthier.
1996
AL#48 p.57 BRB4 p.505
Glenn Uhler
▪ Lutherie tools from a welding supply store, including an inspection light kit featuring an extension/mirror tool, and a nice pin vise.
1995
AL#44 p.60 BRB4 p.499
Rod Hannah
▪ Several methods of removing original Fender frets, which were slid in from the side.
1995
AL#44 p.38 BRB4 p.248
Fred Campbell
▪ Campbell finishes the guitars that other luthiers build. He has become an expert spray meister with the confidence to give away the tricks he has learned the hard way. This is perhaps the best piece on lacquering AL has ever printed. With 7 photos and a finishing schedule.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1995
AL#43 p.48 BRB4 p.432
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines and enjoys two tools from Stewart-MacDonald, the Bridge Saddle Routing Jig and the Adjustable Fret Slotting Saw.
1995
AL#43 p.57 BRB4 p.495
John Miles
▪ A homemade alternative to a commercial polishing product in which grains of abrasive are bonded onto a rubbery layer.
1994
AL#40 p.60 BRB4 p.488
Jonathon Peterson
▪ A fir 2X6 screwed to a bench vice to extend the moveable jaw width of the end of the workbench.
1994
AL#40 p.60 BRB4 p.490
Jonathon Peterson
▪ Small fluorescent lights used as inspection lights, small enough to fit through F holes.
1994
AL#38 p.56 BRB4 p.485
John Miles
▪ The use of abrasive tools for various instrument making tasks.
1994
AL#38 p.56 BRB4 p.485
Bishop Cochran
▪ The ‘hurricane blower’, a rubber bulb-type blower used by photographers to keep their equipment clean.
1994
AL#37 p.52 BRB4 p.422
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman spent a month doing all his repair work on The Apprentice, an instrument holder from WidgetWorks, and declares that he can’t give it up.
1993
AL#33 p.35 BRB3 p.308
David Freeman
▪ Micro-mesh is the latest word in sandpaper. In fact, it’s not even paper and it doesn’t feel sandy. Freeman and his students use it for all wet-sanding chores, including the final gloss finish. It’s that fine.
1992
AL#29 p.58 BRB3 p.467 read this article
Cyndy Burton
▪ Seldom does a new catalog cause so much excitement. The reviewer especially likes it for bedtime reading.
1992
AL#29 p.38 BRB3 p.174
Gayle Miller Ken Sribnick
▪ Visit a water-powered French sawmill that supplies tonewood to 350 luthiers. With 7 photos. Mentions George Miller.
1991
AL#27 p.58 BRB3 p.481
Gerhart Schmeltekopf
▪ A metric or letter bit is just the thing to make a hole just a tad larger or smaller.
1987
AL#11 p.55 BRB1 p.430
Michael Parsons
▪ With this stand-alone jig you can spray or brush an instrument without having to touch it.
1986
AL#7 p.59 BRB1 p.239
Steve Andersen
▪ Anderson built a gridded table that uses the vacuum created by a squirrel cage fan to capture sanding dust.
1985
AL#4 p.3 BRB1 p.147
Patrick-W. Coffey
▪ Coffey describes how to make a small electric glue pot for under $13.
1985
AL#2 p.49 BRB1 p.72
Ted Kellison
▪ Kellison presents a safe method for preheating lacquer before spraying, and recommends an anti-static gun.
1985
AL#1 p.50 BRB1 p.73
John Jordan
▪ Jordan describes two incandescent lights designed for use inside guitars. One uses a 7½-watt bulb on a standard power cord. The other uses tiny low-voltage bulbs and a step-down transformer.