Review: The Luthiers Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers

Reviewed by Cyndy Burton

Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004



The Luthiers Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers
Luthiers Mercantile, 1990. 216 pp.

At our 1990 GAL Convention in Tacoma, the word was floating around that the much anticipated new Luthiers Mercantile Catalog would soon be out. A prototype version lay on the exhibit table along with some great wood bargains. I remember I was particularly interested in the cutaway modification for the Universal Wood-Bending Machine, having recently built mine from the kit and thinking how great it would be to be able to do cutaways with the ease of just “normal” bending. So I peeked at Mark Campellone’s description and drawings for modifying the machine to do cutaways. This expanded information on the Universal Wood-Bending Machine (along with several other tips/improvements for the machine) is typical of how the “new” catalog is different from the old one. It’s better. Most of the old photographs are still there and many new ones have been added. The old catalog is simply used as a core for updating and expanding based at least partly on feedback from the people who buy and use LM tools and woods. (It has the feel of a GAL publication in that regard.)