Tag Archives: Kennel¸ Steve

Steve Kennel

Twelve-year GAL member Steve Kennel is a sculptor and printmaker who once worked in a newspaper pressroom and an autobody shop. He’s been a cabinetmaker, a dishwasher, a shelver of books in a library, a furniture maker, a caregiver, a foundry worker, and a welder.

▪ bio current as of 2024

It Worked for Me: Soapstone is Better Than White Pencil

2024
AL#151 p.71               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Welders use soapstone slips to mark on metal. They also work great on dark colored wood. Get them at welding supply places.

Make a Fret Press or Two

2024
AL#152 p.56               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ The do-it-yourself mentality is at the root of the whole American Lutherie Boom. Kennel helps you mimic recent advances in commercially available tooling, but DIY it with that stuff they use for competition-level skateboard ramps.

It Worked for Me: Fretwire Roller and Guitar Hanger

2023
AL#149 p.71               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Kennel is a sculptor. He sees a pile of scraps and misc hardware and builds a swanky-lookin’ fretwire roller. He’s on a roll. (Get it? Roll?) So he makes a guitar hanger that plugs into a workbench dog hole.

It Worked for Me: Special-Purpose Files

2022
AL#147 p.70               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Specialty files intended for sharpening steel tools are unexpectedly perfect for specific lutherie tasks. In this case we are talking about files made for sharpening brace-and-bit augers, and files made for sharpening Japanese pull saws.

It Worked for Me: Flattening a Plank

2021
AL#144 p.71               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ How to take the warp, cup, and twist out of a plank. You attach scrap-wood rails that carry it through a planer in the proper orientation.

It Worked for Me: Modified Zyliss Vise

2021
AL#143 p.70               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Kennel modifies the often-seen but seldom-used Zyliss vise into a configuration that is specifically engineered for safely and securely holding guitar necks.

GAL Instrument Plan #79: 1964 Harmony/Regal Guitar

2020
AL#141 p.36               
Steve Kennel                                                                                           

▪ Here’s a detailed drawing of a straightforward and ubiquitous mid-century, solid-wood, American-made guitar. This inexpensive model was the first instrument of a generation of would-be folkies and rockers. Not a classical, but certainly a classic.