Thirty-three-year GAL member Charles Fox was present at the creation. His lutherie schools, beginning in Vermont in the early 1970s and continuing to California in the ’90s and Oregon today, have set scores of luthiers on the right track to creative and efficient guitar making.
▪ bio current as of 2021
2021
AL#143 p.22
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ In this article the fretboard is slotted, crowned, and glued to the neck. The neck is then shaped.
2021
AL#142 p.14
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ In this article the peg head is shaped and drilled, the neck shaft is slotted for the truss rod, the heel is formed, and the neck is fitted to the body.
2020
AL#141 p.7
Charles Fox Mark French
▪ In this episode of the landmark series, the back and top plates are braced and glued to the rim to form the body of the guitar. The body is then bound and purfled using Fox’ distinctive method of fitting everything dry, taping it in place, and running superglue into the seams.
2020
AL#140 p.20
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ Building a Charles Fox guitar reveals the beautifully developed interdependence between the design and the process. In this episode we rough out the neck, work with the unusual neck block and the distinctive two-part lining, and then brace the top and back plates.
2020
AL#139 p.26
Mark French Charles Fox
▪ If, some day, there is a Mt. Rushmore for the American Lutherie Boom, the ruggedly handsome face of Charles Fox will be boldly chisled in a place of honor. For over half a century he has led the way as developer and teacher of guitar-making methods and tooling. He is also a thoughtful and articulate philosopher of the craft, whose words will inspire luthiers yet unborn. Here’s the first in a series of four articles which will cover his process, and his thinking behind it, in detail.
2017
AL#129 p.68
Charles Fox
▪ List of guitar finishing services.
2013
AL#116 p.71
Charles Fox
▪ Procuring a Wagner Saf-T-Planer, an inexpensive rotary cutter mounted in a drill press.
2012
AL#110 p.5
Charles Fox
▪ America’s number one lutherie teacher discusses a series of processes to make guitar building relatively easy, efficient, accurate, and consistent in a production situation.
2009
AL#97 p.67 ALA2 p.34
Charles Fox
▪ A drill press is rebuilt to make the depth stop adjustment accurate to .001″.
2006
AL#88 p.24 ALA2 p.14
Charles Fox
▪ Vacuum clamping has come to the small shop in a big way, at least in Fox’s shop.Suddenly, all other ways of working seem backward. Vacuum has dozens of uses in the guitar shop and the universal vacuum island makes them compact and within the financial reach of all of us. Fox is still the guru. If you ain’t got vacuum you ain’t got nothin’! With 21 photos.
2004
AL#79 p.63 BRB7 p.252
Charles Fox
▪ Tiny scratches after using a power buffer to rub out finish.
2004
AL#77 p.68 BRB7 p.107
John Greven Eugene Clark Charles Fox Greg Byers Gernot Wagner
▪ A rationale, acoustic or structural, for single blocks VS solid linings VS kerfed linings between the sides and back and the sides and top when building a first guitar.
2001
AL#67 p.62 BRB6 p.81
Charles Fox
▪ Removing a few millimeters to compensate for the relaxation of the radii when the sides are removed on a Fox side bender.
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.