Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Wet Inlay Wet Inlay by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 In my infancy as a luthier I didn’t have a lot of skills, but I still wanted my instruments to be different from any others. And I wanted them to be fancy. That might have been a combination headed for disaster, but I discovered a few tricks that let me achieve my goals while I simultaneously learned to build instruments worth owning and playing. One of those tricks was wet inlay. I loved the look of guitars draped in abalone trim, but I was sure the work was beyond me. Shell was also way too expensive for a project that might be botched and tossed in the dumpster. Tonewood was nearly out of my reach; there was no way I could invest in cut shell, too. The road to settling on turquoise trim was roundabout. I went to college in Colorado, where silver-and-turquoise Indian jewelry was everywhere. Most American turquoise is mined in Arizona, and the surrounding states have a strong turquoise culture. From a jewelry-making class, I learned that the blue stone is pretty hard, requiring lapidary equipment to cut and polish it. And not only is the good stuff fairly expensive, it’s pretty boring. Quality turquoise is a one-dimensional shade of blue with no grain or color intrusions. Eventually I realized that the jewelry I admired the most was the cheap stuff, chips of turquoise mixed in a clear matrix of some sort, ground flat, and polished. I was pretty sure I could do that to instruments. I could see into a future when turquoise-trimmed instruments would be my famous trademark. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips First Impression of America First Impression of America by George Gorodnitski Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 You can’t understand if I don’t tell you my last impression in USSR. My country was on the edge of civil war; bitter people, interruptions in food, nationality problems, economic chaos. Imagine — early morning, 6am, I leave to go to the airport. In my pocket a ticket to Chicago. At the subway station I see my train approaching. Doors open, the crowd falls out, and two men from this train began to smash each other’s faces. From the silence of the platform, to frenzy, to blood, and nobody paid attention! Soon they scatter, and I stand there and think, ‘‘My Lord! What have they done to these good Russian people, to this land that was once one of the richest countries on earth?! I hate this Power who spoils my people and my country. I think it is irreversible. Seventy-three years of blood and hunger, a whole country intimidated, like a big jail. How long can people bear it?” I can never forget this episode. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Adirondack Spruce Growth Rates and Accessibility Adirondack Spruce Growth Rates and Accessibility by Ralph S. Charles III Originally published in American Lutherie #81, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 With a day job in the forestry and logging industry, I know a little something about wood. After thirty years of selling saw logs and pulpwood for a living, I thought that a move into the tonewood business would be a natural transition into retirement. Membership in the GAL, however, has uncovered a realization that some luthiers may appreciate my perspective on tree growth rates in general, and Adirondack spruce in particular. The grading of wood for instrument tops takes into account at least the following considerations: evenness of grain, straightness of grain, tightness of grain, color or discoloration, location or lack of knots, figure, heavy grain lines, pitch pockets, foreign objects (bullets and barbed wire), closeness to quarter and runout, and stiffness. The following discussion is directed at the evenness and tightness of grain which are a direct result of the laying down of the annual growth ring. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips They Eat Linseed Oil, Don’t They? They Eat Linseed Oil, Don’t They? An Adventure in Austrian Lutherie and Gastronomy by Stephen Frith Originally published in American Lutherie #77, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Last year my wife Sherrie and I took a working holiday in Austria. We met up with a small group of guitar makers to harvest some of the best European spruce available. The excursion to the sawmill of Christoph Kolbl in Aigen was organized by Tobias Braun. The picturesque town of Neufelden (Photo 1) could inspire many peghead designs. We began by gathering at the Hotel Mühltalhof for dinner, a nightly experience lasting two or three hours. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Early and the “Modern” Viol The Early and the “Modern” Viol by Theron McClure Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 6, #1, 1978 The study of paintings, drawings, and woodcuts of early viols shows us that all the viols made and played today are copied from those made and used during the final seventy-five years of the three century span of viol playing. In those last years, instruments had been modified to cope with the tonal and advanced technical demands made upon viol players: trio-sonatas required performances of the same degree of virtuosity and lushness of tone possessed by the skilled flautist and violinist of the day, the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
