After sixteen years of full-time guitar making, thirty-one-year Guild member Mike Doolin retired from professional lutherie to play music full time. This doesnt mean he has quit building guitars, it just means that now he gets to keep them all.
▪ bio current as of 2023
2024
AL#151 p.71
Mike Doolin
▪ Using CAD, Mike designs these guides to fit the spacing of the strings and the width of the files. Then he cuts them from plastic using a laser cutter.
2023
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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.60
Mike Doolin
▪ Doolin shows us how to make nice solid wood linings starting with veneer from the hardware store. They turn out great, and you have your choice of colors: light, or dark.
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.
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.63
Mike Doolin
▪ This book is published by the National Music Museum (NMM, formerly Shrine to Music Museum) as a companion to their permanent exhibit of guitars and tools of John D’Angelico, James L. D’Aquisto, and Paul Gudelsky.
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#139 p.69
Mike Doolin
▪ When you use a bolt-on neck for a flattop guitar, can you just not glue down the part of the fretboard that lies on the soundboard?
2016
AL#127 p.67
Mike Doolin
▪ How do you make and locate pinless bridges for steel string guitars?
2014
AL#117 p.54
Mike Doolin
▪ Mike Doolin on making his own tall plastic mounting rings for a 7-string humbucker.
2013
AL#114 p.10
Mike Doolin
▪ Greven’s simple and direct methods for controlling the sound of his guitars are intuitive and experimental despite his roots in the scientific field.
2012
AL#110 p.67
Mike Doolin
▪ A battery powered electronic magnetic thickness gauge with an LCD display.
2012
AL#109 p.29
Mike Doolin
▪ Building thickness gauges using elastic thread, magnets, and other innovations in place of the standard spring.
2010
AL#103 p.6 ALA1 p.20
Jonathon Peterson Mike Doolin
▪ Mike Doolin’s innovative and distinctive double-cutaway steel string guitars have made a real impression over the last sixteen years. Doolin discusses his guitar playing, building, background in software developing and other subjects of interest.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2010
AL#103 p.15
Mike Doolin
▪ Anodizing aluminum using battery acid, a plastic tank, and aluminum rod, and an automotive battery charger.
2008
AL#93 p.68
Mike Doolin
▪ Making kerfed linings out of 3’x9” Mahogany, jointed on one edge and thickness sanded to .250 using a radial arm saw.
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.
2007
AL#92 p.26 read this article
Mike Doolin
▪ The author begins with a lengthy introduction to explain why guitars can’t play exactly in tune in every key, all the way to the point where music theory clashes with physics. It’s pretty deep but it’s fun. The cure for wayward guitars is to find what music a guitarist plays the most, and then adjust the action and intonation at both the nut and the saddle to find the most satisfactory compromise for that player. This is the thinking luthier’s approach to intonation correction. With 4 charts and a drawing.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2007
AL#91 p.11 read this article
Mike Doolin
▪ The author found that a sideport (hole in the side, in addition to the front soundhole) in his guitar changed its voice in an undesirable way. Adding a bass reflex tube to the hole returned the guitar to a tonal range he liked. He remains luke warm to the benefits of side ports. With 5 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2006
AL#86 p.24 ALA1 p.28
Harry Fleishman Mike Doolin
▪ This neck joint should eliminate neck resets. Its pretty complex but within the grasp of any guitarmaker. With 23 photos and a drawing.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2006
AL#85 p.3
Mike Doolin
▪ Doolin was an early advocatre for waterborne finishes. But now he has switched to stinky and toxic catalyzed polyester. He explains why.
2005
AL#83 p.36
Harry Fleishman Mike Doolin
▪ Two experts in the field of acoustic amplification discuss available equipment as well as why few of them seem to work as well as we might wish. They do not dumb down the technical talk, so be prepared to expand your vocabulary and your mind. With 2 photos and 4 diagrams.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#76 p.16 BRB7 p.116
Mike Doolin John Greven
▪ This wonderful interview has the kind of depth that only happens when friends talk. It takes familiarity to know what to ask and how to answer. Humor permeates this discussion of alternative woods, business ploys, the Internet, and in general living the life of a successful luthier. Greven has been in the business as long as anyone and is generous with his advice and experience. With 22 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#76 p.41 BRB7 p.137
Mike Doolin
▪ Fanned-Fret fingerboards use those wacky, slanted frets you’ve probably seen on some “California” guitars. So how does one cut those slots accurately? Doolin has worked out a method—make the ‘board its own miter box. Pretty cool. With 5 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#75 p.39 BRB7 p.96
Mike Doolin
▪ Doolin enlists the aid of Jon Sevy to work out the math used in determining the side height of an instrument with a spherically-domed back. Knowing the side height will allow you to profile the sides to fit the guitar design before they are bent. With a photograph and three drawings.
2003
AL#75 p.66 BRB7 p.108
Mike Doolin
▪ The author always uses the same binding/purfling scheme on his guitars, so he jigged up permanently set routers to use on his Ribbecke jig. Pretty cool if you never change your decoration scheme. With 5 photos.
2003
AL#75 p.68
Mike Doolin
▪ A plan for a Gibson Firebird.
2003
AL#74 p.44 BRB7 p.70
Mike Doolin
▪ An evolution of the familiar Fox bender idea. Another example (two in one issue!) of Doolin’s genius for creating effective tools that any of us can build to fill a void in our shop routine. With 6 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#74 p.19 BRB7 p.31
Mike Doolin
▪ No, this isn’t a machine for sanding dishes. You’d find that in Good Housekeeping. This is a motorized, dished workboard for sanding the contours of arched plates into your assembled instrument sides. It beats doing it by hand by miles, and Doolin’s clever design looks easier to build than others.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#73 p.24 read this article
Mike Doolin John Greven
▪ Finding good water-based instrument finishes becomes more important as luthiers (and various state and federal government agencies) become more health conscious. The authors are both Portland people, and by trying different materials and application techniques and then combining their discoveries they have made big leaps toward finding the perfect alternative to lacquer. With 9 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
2003
AL#73 p.54 BRB7 p.28
Mike Doolin
▪ Perhaps you’d care to make all your necks look and feel the same, just as the big factories do. Perhaps you’d like to make them a lot faster while you’re at it. And do it all on a budget? Doolin’s machine may be just what you were looking for. With 8 photos and several diagrams.
2002
AL#69 p.64 BRB6 p.249
Mike Doolin
▪
1994
AL#38 p.44 BRB4 p.48
Mike Doolin
▪ Anyone willing to dismantle their first guitar deserves a lot of credit, especially if it came out cosmetically pristine the first time. Doolin replaced the top of his first guitar to bring the bass response up to spec. With 9 photos and a lot to think about.