Posted on October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Finishing Techniques for Hiding Repair Work Finishing Techniques for Hiding Repair Work by Dan Erlewine from his 1992 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #36, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 I grew up looking at the record jackets of my parents’ folk music — Burl Ives, Marais & Miranda (Joseph Marais played a 00-28 herringbone), Josh White with his 00-45. When the Kingston Trio hit around ’59, and I saw those Martins, I just had to have one. I went down to a pawn shop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit and got a Domino, if anyone remembers those. Marc Silber can tell you who made them. I took it home and stripped off the paint so it looked like a Martin and the rest has been a lot of fun. Here are some tricks I learned after I applied for my first job as a luthier at Herb David’s Guitar Studio in 1962. (There’s more on Herb David in American Lutherie #26; more on Dan’s career in AL#25.) I was seventeen and out of high school. I had been hacking stuff in my dad’s workshop, but I wanted to learn more so I’d go over to Herb’s and hang around. I worked at McDonald’s, and I’d take him big bags of free cheeseburgers that I had made myself. They were triple-deckers, which they didn’t make then. One day Herb showed me a Gibson SJ with rosewood back and sides (now I realize just how rare that guitar was!). It had a big fist-sized hole punched through it. Herb said, “Fix this, kid.” Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Binding F-5 Mandolins Binding F-5 Mandolins by Andrew Mowry Originally published in American Lutherie #113, 2013 The scrolls and points on F-5 mandolins present a number of special challenges during all stages of construction. Binding in particular can be difficult. Fortunately celluloid, which is the most common binding material on F-5s, is a wonderfully forgiving material (with the exception of occasionally bursting into flame without warning). I haven’t seen a detailed tutorial in print, so I thought I would present here the techniques that I use. I’ve learned many of these from other builders over the past few decades, and to them I’m greatly indebted. I’m sure there are other, possibly better, methods as well, and I’d certainly love to hear about them. Perhaps this article can serve as an impetus for further discussion. There are several common problems that occur with celluloid binding (some with binding in general), and in the course of this article I touch upon techniques for preventing those. These problems are: miters that don’t meet properly; gaps between the binding and the wood; black purfling lines that bleed into the white binding; binding that ends up being sanded too thin; and kinks in the bends. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Savart-Style Upright Bass A Savart-Style Upright Bass Constructing a Simple 34" Scale Upright Bass Suitable for Bass Guitarists by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #80, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Regular experimentation on my part is directed toward the goal of producing the sound of the double bass from instruments that can be readily played by the bass guitarist. Many approaches are possible and the instrument described here is the result of one of these. The design process began with functional requirements for the bass. This list was pretty basic. The target group of musicians was bass guitarists, and this constrained the scale length and a number of the critical dimensions of the neck and fingerboard to be similar to those of bass guitars. The instrument had to be musically viable in all styles in which the double bass is played pizzicato. It had to be transportable too, an easy design goal given the standard for portability set by the unwieldy double bass. To that list I added one more requirement — that the prototype be relatively simple and cheap to build. The bass is just like any other instrument, only more so. Material cost is higher because there is more material. Construction time is greater because there is simply more to construct. The upshot is that a bass design experiment can consume a lot of time, effort, and money before the success or failure of the experiment is known. I wanted to keep both cost and effort down for the prototype. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Derivation of Formula for High Point of Back Derivation of Formula for High Point of Back by Jon Sevy Originally published in American Lutherie #75, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Quantities: S = height of guitar sides at neck block B = height of guitar sides at end block E = B - S (difference in height at shoulders and butt) L = length of guitar body A = length of body measured at angle (see diagram) D = deflection in arched back (see diagram) R = radius of back arch Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on October 9, 2025October 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Calculating Guitar Side Height Calculating Guitar Side Height by Mike Doolin Originally published in American Lutherie #75, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Back in American Lutherie #58 (Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five), Jon Sevy published the article “Calculating Arc Parameters” which described how to calculate the radius, length, or depth of a curve. I’ve used these formulae extensively ever since for radiusing fretboards, making dished workboards, calculating neck angles, and even nonlutherie shop tasks. Recently it occurred to me that one could use them to calculate the height of a guitar’s side at any point. If the guitar has a spherically domed back, the back falls off from its highest point in an arc in every direction, as in the photo. This “high point” is effectively the North Pole of the sphere from which the back arch is taken. If we assume a top whose perimeter is all in the same plane, as in Fig. 1, that plane intersects a line of latitude on that sphere. The high point is therefore the point on the back which is farthest from the plane of the top perimeter. All measurements of side height are then distances between that plane and the surface of the sphere of the back arch. I adapted Jon’s formula to calculate the falloff from the high point on the back to any point on the side: Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
