Thirty-two-year GAL member Fred Carlson grew up in rural Vermont, living for twenty years on a commune of woodworkers and musicians; making instruments seemed like the thing to do. Thirty-five years later on the other side of the continent, it still does. He’s currently building 39-string Harp Sympitars, and grafting fruit trees in his copious free time.
▪ bio current as of 2009
2016
AL#127 p.71 read this article
Deb Olsen Chris Herrod Alan Carruth Fred Carlson
▪ Ouch. It’s tough to lose an old friend like good ol’ Don Bradley. Maker of frequency generators, keeper of llamas, attender of GAL Conventions, super great guy.
2009
AL#100 p.67 read this article
Fred Carlson
▪ Some obvious design choices before building a double neck (6 and 12-string) acoustic guitar: neck, space, body size, design, and bracing.
2008
AL#93 p.20 ALA6 p.64
Mike Doolin Kerry Char Gary Southwell Fred Carlson
▪ Harp guitars have undergone a renaissance of sorts, in construction alternatives as well as the music that is being invented for them. Players want banks of super treble strings as well as an extended bass range. Luthiers have responded with new designs and different string configurations that make newer harp guitars more user friendly, more graceful, and musically more pertinent. The four members of this panel discussion are among the leading small builders of these interesting mega-guitars. With 53 photos and 2 sketches.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2005
AL#82 p.6 BRB7 p.320
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson makes some of the world’s coolest, most graceful, and weirdest stringed instruments. Focusing on a harp guitar he calls the Flying Dream he discusses at length how he designs and builds his creations. There is lots of detailed info here that will help you build the instruments you see in your mind, as opposed to the ones for which you can already buy a blueprint. Truly inspirational. With 42 photos and 10 drawings.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#74 p.60 BRB7 p.523 read this article
Fred Carlson
▪ The reviewer likes this book a lot. It is more concerned with explaining how instrument amplification works and how one might build hisher own gear than in reviewing the many commercial units that are available.
2002
AL#71 p.69 BRB6 p.309
Bob Miller Fred Carlson
▪ A pore-filler and sealer that is compatible with a brush-on oil finish.
2002
AL#70 p.54 BRB6 p.470
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson ventures into Plasticland hoping to find a useful substitute for animal parts on his guitars. An aversion to both plastic guitar parts and animal slaughter leaves hardly any useful material for bridge saddles, and he sort of settles on a material called Tusq. Partly tongue-in-cheek and generally philosophical, the review concludes that beef bone saddles will be around for awhile yet.
2000
AL#63 p.56 BRB6 p.471 read this article
Fred Carlson
▪ Mr. Fred spins a tale about new finish products, then reviews the orange oil-based finish products from Livos.
2000
AL#62 p.54 BRB6 p.470
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson examines Frank Ford’s “Frets.Com, A Luthier’s Notebook”, an ongoing CD-ROM project taken from Ford’s website and finds that it offers more information than one reviewer can deal with. The reviewer also looks at the Fret Tang Expander and the Fret Tang Compressor, 2 tools invented by Ford, and finds them a good addition to his tool kit. With 4 photos.
1999
AL#60 p.6 BRB5 p.422
Fred Carlson Harry Fleishman William Eaton Saul Koll
▪ The market for flattop guitars probably isn’t evolving away from tried and true designs at all, but individual luthiers are working on instruments that would baffle (and hopefully intrigue) Orville and old C.F. These four groundbreaking guitarmakers got together to discuss their work in front of an audience at the 1998 GAL convention, and if their work and philosophies don’t show you anything you must be hopelessly lost in the nostalgic past. This article is a condensed version of that discussion. With 24 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#60 p.44 BRB5 p.436
Fred Carlson
▪ Hi-Tone instrument cases are reviewed and not found wanting, “a contender for the handsomest case out there, and very solidly built.”
1999
AL#59 p.56 BRB5 p.452
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson checks out Iboney, a specially treated cow bone used for nuts and saddles. Also in this column is an examination of 3 Stew-Mac tools, a fingerboard and bridge heating iron, a purfling cutter attachment for the Dremel MultiPro, and a binding cutter for the Stew-Mac version of the MultiPro router base. Fred likes the Iboney, and decides that both Stew-Mac Dremel attachments are better made than the Dremels themselves. The heating iron passes inspection, too, but the GAL Tool Guy feels a bit luke-warm about it.
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.
1999
AL#57 p.58 BRB5 p.436
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson takes over the GAL test pilot seat for new tools. This time he flies the Turbo-carver, an ultra-speed carving tool similar to (but not as elaborate as) a dentist drill. Carlson likes the tool but can’t seem to find a lot of use for it in lutherie. And though the tool is fairly inexpensive, he also questions its lifespan.
1998
AL#53 p.26 read this article
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson attended Charles Fox’s original guitar making school in 1975, and nearly a generation later reunited with Fox at his new facility, the American School of Lutherie. Basic to Fred’s story is the manner in which the times, two people, and guitar making have changed in 20-odd years. The times, indeed, are a’changin’.
1997
AL#52 p.10
Fred Carlson Charles Fox
▪ Fox has made an impact on the guitar community as an influential teacher and a designer of tools. Carlson attended Fox schools in the ’70s and ’90s, and in this interview he asks Fox to contrast his schools and predict the future of lutherie in America.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1997
AL#51 p.38 BRB5 p.100
Fred Carlson
▪ Inspired by his fiddle-building partner, Suzy Norris, Carlson has created a guitar that utilizes a large number of sympathetic strings. The obstacles that had to be overcome were significant, but “angel voices” never come easy to us Earth folks. With 10 photos and a pair of drawings of how things work.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1997
AL#49 p.28 BRB5 p.18
Tim Olsen Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson grew up on a New England commune and never outgrew the philosophy of sharing. He would rather let his uniqueness bloom than give in to commercial considerations. You’ll be glad you met him here. With 16 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1987
AL#11 p.14 BRB1 p.427
Fred Carlson
▪ Carlson makes a case for less conformity in lutherie. Only 1 photo of one of his dramatic, asymmetrical guitars, but it’s quite inspiring.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1985
AL#3 p.50 BRB1 p.490 read this article
Fred Carlson
▪ The reviewer finds the newsletter “thin”, but is enthusiastic about its future.
1984
GALQ Vol.12#2 p.28 BRB1p.410
Fred Carlson
▪ Beards may interfere with the filtering out of toxic stuff in the air by use of a standard respirator.
1984
DS#281
Fred Carlson
▪ Procedure for repairing a basic heel/neck crack with butterfly patches.
1977
GALQ Vol.5#2 p.18
Fred Carlson
▪ Even the simplest instruments must be built with love and care, and treated as magical things, or they are nothing.