Here we present some of the earliest letters we received, mostly published in the GAL Newsletter. Letters from our members were a large part of our early issues and helped us build a feeling of community. The following give some insights into the formation of the Guild’s ideals, as well as a look at how things have changed (or not) since those early days.

 

(A letter in GAL files to J.R. Beall, dated Sept. 1, 1972)

Dear Mr. Beall:

Thank you for sending me the Guild outline. You have made an interesting proposal for a guild which several of us have considered for quite a while. At first, I was struck by a considerable amount of enthusiasm when the idea was first conceived here. However, after some thought, I have come to the conclusion that this is somewhat of a nostalgic dream, and cannot succeed, for the following reasons:
1) This is a trade in which 90% of the craftsmen make very little money. Forming a strong organization would require a great deal of money; fairs, conventions, and trade shows would, in my opinion, be poorly attended simply because of the tremendously long distances involved, and the lack of money for transportation.
2) This is such a secretive business in regard to suppliers and techniques that few people would end up giving a lot, and many people would just end up taking a lot.
3) There are a number of people like myself who have their names on instruments that are only responsible for their final product quality. Should I then be given a Master Luthier’s title for being a good inspector, when there are a number of other men who do different stages of work?

In addition to the above negativism, we have already tried to form a buying cooperative with two close friends of ours in Colorado and Tennessee who are excellent craftsmen. Our three companies make approximately 700 guitars a year, combined. Yet we never have the right amount of money at the right time to make large purchases together, even though we are in envious positions because of the amount of capital and equipment we own. I feel that if this cannot work among friends, a crafts guild cannot succeed, either.

My attitude is not generally this negative, but I do believe, from my own experience, that a crafts guild simply could not work. I will, however, be glad to help, and would be interested in trying. We have always been very open here in regard to techniques we have found that work. I would be glad to write articles for your newsletter on the technical end of our production and compile a list of suppliers that we do not use, but that have been helpful to us at one time or another.

If I can be of further help, please let me know.

Sincerely yours,
S.L. Mossman
Winfield, KS

(Stu Mossman was a pioneer in quality guitar manufacturing on a small scale. He lectured at our 1977 convention in Tacoma and our 1978 convention in Winfield, Kansas, where he also gave members a tour of his shop.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 1, #2, October 1973)

Dear Jerrold,

On reading your proposal, everything went alright until I came to heading #2, “to set standards and goals of professionalism.” The things that guitar makers in this country need are an apprentice system, a good source of supplies, and acknowledgment. The thing they don’t need is someone telling them they are better, worse, just a little better, or maybe just a little, little better, or maybe you’ll never make it, kid.

The Guild systems of the past came to be organizations to protect certain individuals within these same organizations and kept them closed to outsiders. It has been my experience that this is the kind of thing that stifles any creative feeling from the type of animal that makes a good craftsman.

When you meet a good craftsman, you will usually find him to be a fairly humble type that wouldn’t be bothered with any such grading system. When you come upon a really great craftsman, you don’t need to grade him; just look at his work and enjoy. No words need to be said or little pieces of paper with gold seals need to be hung on the wall or stored in little boxes. They serve no purpose except to build the ego. And in order to be a really good craftsman, you must learn to control your ego.

Yours truly,
James C. Boyce
North Falmouth, MA

(James was an early member and eventually racked up twenty-six year of GAL membership.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 1, #2, October 1973)

Dear Mr. Olsen,

Luthiers are creative people. The making of musical instruments is as much an art as it is a craft. Here is where the Guild can accomplish something really worthwhile: to teach younger people, who may have a natural aptitude for this sort of thing, that it can be an extremely rewarding occupation. For some reason, many younger people think that it is degrading to work with one’s hands. Too often they are too far along in another career to quit by the time they discover that making things with one’s own hands is the most rewarding work of all.

Many people seem to have the idea that only Europe can produce master craftsmen, and especially luthiers. This is simply not so. There is just as much talent scattered all over this country as any European country can produce. In Europe they are perhaps better organized because they started a lot sooner. But too much organization can also become a handicap. It leads to a hardening of the arteries: too much attention to tradition and not enough to the advances of modern technology. We have an advantage over our European brothers: the heritage of generations of Yankee ingenuity developed by our pioneer ancestors who had to make practically everything they owned with their own two hands.

There has never been as much demand for high-quality handcrafted musical instruments as there is today. There will always be enough demand for such instruments to make the profession of luthier financially rewarding as well as personally satisfying. If the Guild can get this point across to enough younger people, it will do a great service to them as well as to many music lovers.

Again, wishing you the greatest success,
David A. Sturgill
Piney Creek, NC

(David Sturgill wrote in 1973 that he had already been making instruments for forty-five years. He was an early supporter of the Guild, wrote several articles in our early newsletters, and spoke at our 1977 convention in Tacoma.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 2, #2, March 1974)

Dear Mr. Olsen,

James Boyce’s letter in your October 1973 issue reflects my own feelings about the foolishness of attempting to formulate or define professional standards for luthiers.

This is an old dodge among trade organizations who hope to profit from the prestige that a code of “professional ethics” may bring. Nothing is more appealing to a businessman than the idea of doing business from the lofty pinnacle of membership in a professional organization with hallowed ethical rules. It is easier and a lot less risky than selling yourself on your own individual merit. Even Stradivarius might be excluded from a professional luthiers’ organization with strict standards since he was fond of joining the neck to the top block with nails because he distrusted glue alone.

Finally, I know a well-known luthier whose output is uniformly mediocre. I also know one or two novices who have built guitars of astonishing quality. I would not want the job of passing official judgement on these men, and I know of no one to whom I would entrust this task.

Let us all concentrate on making the best instruments we can and let the musical public decide where quality lies.

For some time I have been gathering material for a book about craft work as a vocation. Part of this book will deal with the history and practice of apprenticeship, and I would enjoy reading in your columns a discussion about this subject.

Good luck with your newsletter, a useful and welcome enterprise.

Sincerely,
Irving Sloane
New York, NY

(Good advice from another American lutherie pioneer, and the author of the first lutherie book on many shelves, Classic Guitar Construction. We were thrilled to receive his encouraging letter.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 2, #3, May 1974)

Dear Tim,

Your newsletter is one of the most informative and valuable magazines in the guitar business. I find lots of good humor in it and many times have a belly laugh right out loud. One that got me was in Leo Bidne’s review of Guitar Repair by Irving Sloane. I ordered this book just to see how you take the top off a guitar without damaging the edges. I was horrified when I saw a saber saw cutting the top out.

Maybe your readers would like to hear about the electric guitar I built for myself. It has 1/2" lead slugs under each fret, one on each side of the truss rod down to about the 14th fret. This gives noticeable sustained tone. I also installed a solid 4 lb. bridge, and now I can give the steel players a little competition with my volume pedal and original Vib-Rola.

I know many luthiers will think I’m nuts, but if the classic guitar had lead slugs under each fret, you would have a real harp-sustained tone, which to me would be an advantage in playing any type music on the classic. Don’t alter the bridge.

Later maybe you would like to hear about my experiments with a cheap mass-produced door skin guitar. Turned out good, glued the top and back on at same time, one model arched top, other flat, used a press.

Best wishes,
C.O. “Doc” Kaufmann
Santa Ana, CA

(You may remember “Doc” Kaufmann, the electric guitar pioneer and early partner of Leo Fender. He was a big supporter of the Guild, and his letters appeared frequently in the newsletter.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 2, #4, July 1974)

Subject: The projected shortage of iridescent pine cones used in the manufacture of polarized kaleidoscopes.

Dear Jerry and M.K.,

Just a note to thank you for the (belch, erp) good time Susie and I had at the convention. I’d have to say it was a complete success in spite of the collapse of the main tent. We enjoyed Karl Wallenda and the Dancing Bears. Be sure and get them back next year. Enclosed is my membership fee for the Guild. You may notice a small drop of blood on the check; I’m very particular about how I spend my wife’s money. I assume that membership in the Guild entitles me to free access to the sauna on Easter morning, paid medical insurance, and a 20% discount on ebony barrel staves.

God Bless you,
R. Englehart

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 2, #4, July 1974 and Volume 2, #5, November 1974)

Dear Tim,

I saw Stewart Cassidy’s plea for information on soundhole rosette making in Volume 2, #3 and immediately invited him to visit and go through the process of making rosettes in my shop. I have made a little write-up on the way the old-time Spanish makers did it. In this method, the mosaics are made like little bricks and glued in their slot first. Then the adjoining slots are dug out and the concentric colored strips added last. I know many makers made the rosettes in lengths like sausage and others make them complete outside the soundhole recess and put them in as a complete assembly. The method I describe is the oldest and needs the fewest tools.

Just had a visit from Hans Hermann Kuhl, an exporter of Hamburg, Germany. He and his daughter, Angie, were on the way back from the NAMM show in Houston. We expect Bobri just as soon as Guitar Review #39 is complete. Look for my article on Aguado’s Tripodison. I had a great visit with Manuel de Jesus Davila, an extraordinary luthier in Guatemala City. I’ll try to find time to write about his works. Looking forward to a serious juerga.

Very truly yours,
H.E. Huttig II
Miami, FL

(As mentioned earlier, H.E. Huttig was one of the Guild’s earliest and most enthusiastic supporters. His method for rosette making was published as GAL Data Sheet #1 and reprinted in BRBAL2.)

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 3, #1, February 1975)

You’re doing a nice job in your efforts to bring kindred souls together. Stress honesty and old-fashioned pride-of-accomplishment policies and demand a fair price for top quality work, and no one will be out of work in this field. Do not speak negatively of the luthier’s trade facing anything but prosperity in a time of inflation and/or bad times. Music as a hobby always thrives during bad times — there is more time for recreation — and music is a genuine essential to survival. We are busier every week; the more people out of work, the more old instruments we get in for restoration. There is a silver lining to every dark cloud. Right on!

C.C. Richelieu
Banjos by Richelieu
Oregon, WI

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 3, #2, March 1975)

I am expanding my business to offer a complete line of supplies for guitar builders, wholesale and retail. Because of this, I am not interested in participating in group buying, which I think is an endless morass of trouble anyway.

I have mixed feelings about spreading the word about lutherie. People with a natural ability to build instruments will find out what they need to know, and books will never help those without it. I would not like to see an organization seeking to interest newcomers, but rather one which quietly serves to communicate among serious members. I know the ideal situation is to have a strong, flourishing, and fairly large profession going, for normally this creates market pressures and consumer interest, which breeds customers and supporting industries like tool makers and wood suppliers. At this time, however, the world’s wood resources are dwindling, and the economic pressures to cut veneer out of rosewood, etc., are overwhelming. The best I can foresee is that there will not be enough good wood left for the giant manufacturers to bother with, and they’ll switch to plywood and plastic, leaving the little remaining quality wood to individual craftsmen. If that happens, a few luthiers can go a long way on those crumbs.

I think that as petroleum prices and pollution increase, Americans will be forced to give up their internal combustion hobbies and will stay home and turn to other things — TV, sex, and music perhaps. So the future for music may be brighter than you think.

Walter Lipton
Orford, NH

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(From GAL Newsletter Volume 3, #5&6, December 1975)

Dear Mr. Olsen,

Good soundboard material is becoming more difficult to obtain, especially spruce imported from Europe. I’ve begun experimenting with our local Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) which grows between 8,000´ and 10,000´ in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains near Salt Lake City. Some violin makers have had success with it, but I haven’t come to any conclusions for its use in guitars. If you know of guitar makers who have had experience with Engelmann spruce, I would appreciate any information.

Sincerely,
Jan E. Callister
Draper, UT