Harry Fleishman designed and built his first electric upright bass over fifty years ago. Hes a luthier, a lutherie teacher, and a designer to guitar factories. He has been a GAL member since 1985 and is a frequent author and past GAL Convention presenter. Harry passed away in 2024.
▪ bio current as of 2024
2024
AL#153 p.3
Harry Fleishman
▪ In his very last writing for the GAL, Harry praises the lutherie work of Todd Cambio and Todd’s lecture published in AL#151. Harry goes on to talk about his own early work renovating and hot-rodding old inexpensive American factory guitars. Mentions Abe Wechter, Harmony Soveriegn, and Ferretta’s vintage guitar shop.
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.
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.
2023
AL#149 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ Warm up that brown paper tape with a hair dryer before you pull it off. Softens it up and makes it less likely to tear out wood fibers. Thats a simple thing.
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.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ The very basics of using that brown paper binding tape. Because it is OK to be a beginner.
2022
AL#146 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ When you are pressing frets into an unmounted fretboard, it matters what order they go in, though that’s counter-intuitive.
2021
AL#143 p.2
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry praises Charles Fox for his decades of work as a lutherie teacher. He also encourages communal lutherie projects such as the cigar-box swap described by John Calkin in AL#142. Mentions Bryan Galloup.
2021
AL#143 p.54
Harry Fleishman
▪ Start with the cheap half of one of those little bench-top drill presses. Add a small piece of plywood with some holes drilled in it. Bolt on a vise. Now you have Vise on a Stick, which can clamp to any bench top and can swivel and tilt all over the place. It’s especially great for bringing a good solid vise up to eye level.
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#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.63
Harry Fleishman
▪ It’s easy to modify standard hardware-store spade bits for special purposes, like making a recess around a control knob.
2019
AL#136 p.52
Harry Fleishman
▪ Many years ago, innovative classical guitar maker Richard Schneider made instruments with frets made of rod stock set in wide saw kerfs. Fleishman updates the idea by having round-bottomed slots cut by CNC and laying in Delrin rod.
2018
AL#133 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ Sources for specialty adhesive tapes.
2018
AL#133 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ More about the Bridge Doctor device.
2018
AL#133 p.69
Harry Fleishman
▪ Source of plastic rulers.
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.
2017
AL#131 p.65
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry loves to learn, and then to teach. Although he has been leveling frets for half a century, he’s always rethinking it and keeping his eyes open for better ways to do it. Here he shows us his latest tools and tips for doing more by doing less.
2016
AL#128 p.67
Harry Fleishman
▪ Make an adjustably-magnetic screwdriver.
2014
AL#119 p.50
Harry Fleishman
▪ Multiscale fretboards have been around for centuries. Harry Fleishman has been around for decades. In that time he has built a lot of different permutations of the idea. Here he gives us some thoughts on how to do it accurately, elegantly, and efficiently.
2014
AL#118 p.60
Harry Fleishman
▪ So you are making a neck with a multiscale fretboard. The nut will be at an angle, not the normal perpendicular. How do you deal with that fact when grafting the peghead? Harry shows you a simple and elegant method of cutting a compound angle that matches the nut.
2014
AL#117 p.71 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Remembering Ken Goodwin, luthier and guitarist. 1948-2013.
2010
AL#101 p.64
Harry Fleishman
▪ A cheap solution for tangled guitar strings.
2009
AL#100 p.38 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Replacing the top on a complicated instrument with as little refinishing and other stress as possible.
2009
AL#100 p.64 ALA2 p.45
Harry Fleishman
▪ Keeping the saw dead straight and perfectly aligned when adding a slot to the fretboard.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2009
AL#99 p.38
Veronica Merryfield David Minnieweather Harry Fleishman
▪ As a panel discussion at the 2008 GAL convention this must have been the one not to miss. As an article it is engaging and intriguing. Why do electric bass makers get to have all this freedom and the rest of us have to make copies of stuff that appeared before we were born? Bass players seem to always have had more open minds than other musicians, and these three authors have certainly pushed the envelope. With 47 photos.
2009
AL#99 p.70 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Remembering Dennis Stevens (1944-2009) who was revered in the jazz community and made fabulous steel string and classical guitars.
2007
AL#92 p.62 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Can you think of uses for a small CD-quality, digital recorder that interfaces with your computer? If not, skip this review. If you’d like to demo your latest guitar on your website, or analyze its tonal spectrum, then maybe this machine is for you. It’s fairly inexpensive, very portable, and Harry likes it. With 1 photo.
2007
AL#92 p.48 ALA1 p.92
Harry Fleishman
▪ This is a transcript of Fleishman’s 2006 GAL Convention workshop.He demonstrated how he could tailor the sound of his guitar by adding, removing, and shaping braces. He also showed slide shows of a similar project by Mark Berry, and the process of cutting an access panel into a finished guitar by Darrel Adams. With 15 photos.
2007
AL#90 p.6 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry says his blindfolded binding cutter jig really does work.
2007
AL#90 p.62
Harry Fleishman
▪ The reviewer test drives the Shatten pickup winder as well as the Stewart-MacDonald pickup winding kits and finds the road a bit bumpy until the instructions are consulted, but in the end recommends all the equipment whole-heartedly. With 2 photos.
2007
AL#89 p.68
Harry Fleishman
▪ Variation on compensating not only the saddle, but the nut too.
2007
AL#89 p.68
Harry Fleishman
▪ A quick and dirty vacuum clamping setup using a plastic bag and a recycled pump from a disused refrigerator.
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.59
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman is at his humorous best here, hunting the past for how frets used to be laid out, why they were often wrong, and why the new Stew-Mac rules are tools worth having. Did you know there are at least three ways to calculate fret spacing? Did you know they vary in their results? Can musicians hear the difference? With 1 photo and a chart.
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.
2005
AL#81 p.7 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ The innovative and energetic luthier has a few thoughts on the nature of patents, original ideas, proper acknowledgement, and the damaging power of rumor.
2004
AL#80 p.52 BRB7 p.507
Harry Fleishman
▪ Toolman Harry examines three new measuring devices from Stew-Mac and finds them all to be accurately made and useful. The tools are the Fret Rocker (for finding high frets), the String Action Gauge (for measuring string height), and the String Spacing Tool (for laying out nuts and perhaps saddles). With 3 photos and a diagram.
2003
AL#74 p.58 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Long-time AL contributor Fleishman takes to task contributing editor John Calkin for being a closed minded so-and-so, referring to statements made in Calkin’s “A Heretic’s Guide to Alternative Lutherie Woods” in AL#69. Fleishman’s plea for tolerance is well made.
2003
AL#74 p.63 BRB7 p.75
Harry Fleishman
▪ Built in guitar effects customization without dealing with the complications of the circuit board.
2003
AL#74 p.64 BRB7 p.505
Harry Fleishman
▪ Mr. Harry examines fossil ivory as a material for bridge pins, nuts, and end pins, and finds it exquisite. He also checks out the Stew-Mac Bridgesaver tool and finds it useful on a variety of fronts.
2003
AL#74 p.65 BRB7 p.506
Harry Fleishman
▪
2003
AL#74 p.8 BRB7 p.36
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman’s perspective on guitar design and construction is all his own, so it’s no surprise that his brand of inlay should also be unique. He has a philosophy of inlay (and of working, and living in general) that guides his pursuit of guitar decoration that is just as important as how the work is accomplished. This lecture is Harry at his best, shedding light on a deep subject while flooring us with laughter. Great stuff, with 30 cool photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2002
AL#71 p.42 BRB6 p.398
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry can rout his guitars for binding with his eyes closed. Honestly! The system he explains uses a laminate trimmer suspended by a swinging arm and you can build it in your shop.With a photo and 2 diagrams.
2002
AL#69 p.56 BRB6 p.481
Harry Fleishman
▪ Guitar maker and teacher Fleishman compares two thickness sanders, the Performax 22-44 and the Delta 31-250, finding that both are useful, have different peculiarities, and that you are better off with either one than without a thickness sander at all. With 2 photos.
2001
AL#67 p.3 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry Fleishman leaps to the defense of Larry Sandberg. He feels that Ben Hoff was too harsh in his criticism of Larry’s book The Acoustic Guitar Guide.
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.
2001
AL#65 p.57 BRB6 p.215 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Amplifying a flattop bass built with GAL plan #13.
2001
AL#65 p.59 BRB6 p.478
Harry Fleishman
▪ AL’s Tool Meister reviews a bunch of circuit accessories from Stewart-MacDonald. He rejects the Black Ice crunch-adder but likes the Voltage Doubler, ConducTool, Megaswitch, and Yamaha 5-way switch.
2001
AL#66 p.6 BRB6 p.186
Ken Goodwin Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman has been a guitar and bass designer/builder, a teacher of lutherie and writing, a longtime member of the GAL, a frequent contributor to AL and its current product reviewer. Harry is as well-known for his outrageous sense of humor as for the outrageous instruments he creates. With 10 photos.
2000
AL#64 p.61 BRB6 p.476
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman returns to this column after a long absence, and finds that he has a strong admiration for Hipshot Ultralight Bass Tuners. He also examines the Earvana intonated nut intended for Fender electric guitars and finds that they do improve intonation, though the installation is not a piece of cake. With 3 photos.
2000
AL#61 p.40 BRB6 p.28
Harry Fleishman Fabio Ragghianti
▪ Ragghianti is an Italian luthier. It’s interesting that luthiers from around the world seem to think of their instruments in the same terms. This easily allows them to immediately find a common ground regardless of their cultural background or language. Ragghianti came to America, then Fleishman went to Italy. The terrain didn’t seem to make a lot of difference. With 3 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.
1998
AL#56 p.58
Harry Fleishman
▪ The Guild’s toolin’ fool bows out as a regular columnist by reviewing tools that could only exist in an Ideal World. Or Funnier World. Pure satire from a man who knows about purity. With 4 photos.
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#53 p.56 BRB5 p.442
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry ‘fesses up: many luthiers are just too darn serious to grok good humor. But he, himself, is serious about testing new gear. In this issue he sort of likes a Bench Guitar Cradle, isn’t very enthusiastic about the Ultimate Guitar Mirror, is ambiguous about a fret slotting miter box and saw, finds a good mini-mic to combine with piezo pickups for not a lot of money, hates a commercial go-bar deck, and raves about a neck removal jig for dovetail joints. Whew!
1998
AL#53 p.59
John Calkin Harry Fleishman
▪ A standard series of graduated projects that one can undertake to gain experience in instrument maker.
1998
AL#53 p.48 BRB5 p.192
Harry Fleishman
▪ Who but Harry could design frets that look like half a hot-dog sliced lengthwise? Seriously, though, Fleishman’s method of shaping and installing frets should mark the end of player discomfort and fret end hang-up.Not to mention that his frets look seriously cool. With 1 photo and 4 drawings.
1997
AL#51 p.58 BRB5 p.440
Harry Fleishman
▪ The Guild’s tool buster tames two new offerings and enjoys the ride. The first is a knife for opening cracks in guitar tops. The other is jig that thins and shapes the splints to be put into the slots cut by the knife. Along the way he examines the catalog of Luthiers Mercantile International.
1997
AL#52 p.58 BRB5 p.441
Harry Fleishman
▪ Ever thought to look in a fabric store for lutherie tools? I’ll bet’cha that Harry beat you to it. He found a deal on aprons, some good layout tools for design work, and bias tape for tying on bindings. Then he opened a Woodcraft catalog and discovered clamps and a carbide burr cutter he couldn’t live without. Just one more column demonstrating why the editorial staff has developed a fatherly concern for their toolman’s life on the edge of lutherie.
1997
AL#50 p.54 BRB5 p.438
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines two tools used for changing the width of fret tangs and a Dremel tool jig for routing bridge slots after the bridge is glued to the guitar. He likes them all. With 3 photos.
1997
AL#49 p.54 BRB5 p.436
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines two retrofit bases for the Dremel mini-router, and likes them both for different reasons. He also test drives a set of micro-chisels and JAWS, a hand-powered fretting press, and recommends them. With 5 photos.
1997
LW p.103
Harry Fleishman
▪ Perhaps Harry didn’t invent the guitar top made from two varieties of wood, but he has certainly made it a trademark of his instruments. The text explains the why of it, and the single photo offers a peek at one of Fleishman’s unique designs.
1996
AL#48 p.49 BRB4 p.440
Harry Fleishman
▪ The GAL’s Toolman/stand-up comic checks out a potpourri of rasps, a pair of small drawknives, and a specialized chisel, and suggests what you should do with your junky Model 3 or 4 Dremel tool.
1996
AL#47 p.50 BRB4 p.358
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman has worked with all the commercial piezo pickups and has made a bunch of his own. Shop-brewed pickups can be cheap, useful, and instructive, but finding the best use for any piezo can be complicated. Adding microphones or magnetic pickups to the mix can be more confusing than helpful. Fleishman takes a look at all the angles. From his 1995 convention lecture.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1996
AL#46 p.50 BRB4 p.437
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman attends Charles Fox’s American School of Lutherie and sends back a very enthusiastic report of what he found there.
1996
AL#45 p.54 BRB4 p.436
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman test drives the adjustable fretboard arching planes from Luthiers Mercantile International, and finds that they handle the curves nicely. Also, an update on Highlander pickups.
1995
AL#44 p.52 BRB4 p.434
Harry Fleishman
▪ This time the GAL’s Toolman tests a Stewart-MacDonald diamond coated fret file, and the Hacklinger gauge for measuring the thickness of instrument tops and backs. He likes the file enough to recommend it. He likes the gauge, too, but its high price puts him off.
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#42 p.54 BRB4 p.431
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines the Highlander acoustic guitar pickup and decides it’s pretty good, but not perfect. He has never met the perfect pickup, so far.
1995
AL#41 p.48 BRB4 p.429
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines the battery-powered Stealth guitar tuners from Sabine, which are meant to be mounted on the guitar. He finds them useful but aesthetically hard to hide on the instrument.
1994
AL#40 p.28 BRB4 p.102
Dan Erlewine Tom Ribbecke Fred Campbell David Howard Sheldon Dingwall Harry Fleishman David Colburn Kathy Currier Will Bremers Jack Langley John Jordan Dana Bourgeois Heidi Spurlin Ken Fallon Dave Schneider Cary Clemments Ron Chacey Bart Reiter Mike Jarvis Greg Hoffman Dave Lindahl Tom Costanza Chuck Erikson Ralph Novak
▪ Repair pricing workshop from 1992 GAL convention.
1994
AL#40 p.56 BRB4 p.427
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman tests the L.R. Baggs Micro Drive preamp and the MEQ-932 preamp available from Martin. Both units are for acoustic guitars, and the reviewer found them both to be a good value but not necessarily interchangeable.
1994
AL#39 p.54 BRB4 p.425
Harry Fleishman
▪ The GAL’s tool man examines Bob Smith Industries line of epoxies and CA glues and finds that they shoot down the competition.
1994
AL#38 p.55
Harry Fleishman
▪ An excellent price for a Ryobi oscillating drum sander.
1994
AL#38 p.52 BRB4 p.424
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman has made himself an expert in the field of amplifying the acoustic guitar. Here he examines the Transducer/Mic Combo, from Dana Bourgeois Guitars, and decides that it is a “real bargain.”
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.
1994
AL#37 p.60 BRB4 p.483
Harry Fleishman
▪ Cutting four small slots near the corners of a moveable bench to make it double as a collapsible go-bar deck for bracing.
1993
AL#36 p.60 BRB3 p.441
Harry Fleishman
▪ Toolman tries out the Hipshot Extender Key for guitars, and the Hipshot Trilogy bridge. He finds them to be useful products with specific uses.
1993
AL#35 p.54 BRB3 p.441
Harry Fleishman
▪ The Guild’s resident tool and hardware tester takes a look at Waverly vintage-style tuners, Sperzel locking machine heads, and the Trem-Setter stabilizing device. All are given the nod of approval.
1993
AL#34 p.56 BRB3 p.439 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman examines a rash of Stew-Mac fretting tools and their fretting video. He gives the green light to the entire package after extensive testing.
1993
AL#34 p.58 BRB3 p.494
Harry Fleishman
▪ Mixing dust with glue for a heavy paste to epoxy frets.
1993
AL#34 p.59 BRB3 p.492
Harry Fleishman
▪ A trick for bringing out the color of a rosette inlay or binding.
1993
AL#33 p.54 BRB3 p.437
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman tests the Dean Markley SST acoustic guitar pickup (saddle/transducer) and decides that it may fit certain needs but it doesn’t offer faithful reproduction of the guitar’s acoustic sound.
1992
AL#31 p.57 BRB3 p.487
Harry Fleishman
▪ Using clothespins for extra squeeze.
1992
AL#31 p.60 BRB3 p.437
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman reviews the Waverly Fret Tang Nipper and finds that for the full-time builder it is an indispensable tool.
1992
AL#30 p.52 BRB3 p.435
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman wrings out the line of Mini-flex guitar mikes and finds them wanting. He also tries out the Radio Shack electret condenser mike #33-1063 and likes it.
1992
AL#29 p.62 BRB3 p.434
Harry Fleishman
▪ Harry reviews the Acoustech Dynamic Field Pickup.
1991
AL#26 p.59 BRB3 p.464 read this article
Harry Fleishman
▪ The reviewer admires the beauty of the book’s photography, but seems hesitant to recommend it since so little of it is dedicated to musical instruments.
1988
AL#14 p.21 BRB2 p.60
Harry Fleishman
▪ Fleishman’s tools are a rubber band-powered jack clamp for regluing braces, and a homemade wrench for tightening output jack nuts inside an acoustic guitar.
1987
AL#12 p.54 BRB1 p.464
Harry Fleishman
▪ These three articles augment Tim Olsen’s initial bass offering in American Lutherie #9, and as a collection they still offer the largest fund of information on the creation of the acoustic bass guitar to reach print.