Posted on July 1, 2024May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Spraying Lacquer in Garage Questions: Spraying Lacquer in Garage by Jeff Jewitt Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 MR in Portland, Oregon asks: Anyone have suggestions for spraying lacquer in a small one-car garage? Do you really need an explosion-proof fan? I do have an unfinished bathroom in my basement, and it has a cheap exhaust fan. Jeff Jewitt from Homestead Finishing Products in Cleveland, Ohio responds: I definitely suggest a garage over a basement for spraying solvent lacquer. A basement is very hard to exhaust properly and most basements don’t have a large enough window for the fan necessary for flammable products. In addition, the residual odor from lacquer will be more noticeable in a basement than a garage. 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 July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Fabio Lutherie Class Letter: Fabio Lutherie Class by Steve Spodaryk Originally published in American Lutherie #69, 2001 Dear GAL, While traveling in Italy this fall, I was fortunate to study with Fabio Ragghianti. Over a two-week period, I was able to see the construction of a flamenco guitar. These beautiful instruments are built one at a time, so seeing this skilled handwork was very educational for a beginner like myself. I also learned to French polish, and saw many useful tools that Fabio has designed. Fabio and his wife Luciana were wonderful hosts. We enjoyed great meals, conversation, and side trips to the surrounding towns and countryside. I am looking forward to returning later this year and building a classical guitar under Fabio’s tutelage. Thank you GAL for fostering these experiences and furthering the art of lutherie. I came home completely inspired, and I am busily working on a new guitar. ◆
Posted on July 1, 2024May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Passing of Carleen Hutchins Letter: Passing of Carleen Hutchins by Aaron Green Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Hi Tim, I received an e-mail from Al Carruth with the sad news that Carleen Hutchins has passed on. It happened that Al was down in my neck of the woods the other day giving us an increasingly rare opportunity to catch up in real time. As it was, we talked a lot about Carleen. I can count on one hand the number of times I spent any appreciable time in her company and all of them were inspiring. As significant as those times were for me, the first time I met Carleen stands out the most in my memory. In June of 1992 I came along with Al on a road trip to Vermillion, South Dakota, for the GAL Convention. The four days it took us to get out there were an incredible adventure for me. I had just graduated high school (I turned eighteen halfway through the trip) and I was not entirely sure what I was going to do next. By the end of the convention I knew (thanks for that!) and have tried hard since to keep on keeping on. 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 July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Violin Q&A, Part Three Violin Q & A, Part Three by Michael Darnton Originally published in American Lutherie #25–#33, 1991–1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 What can you tell me about the violin in these pictures? When I look at these pictures I see several things: ▶ The outline of the back has high shoulders and is pointed under the button. ▶ The upper corner blocks are missing; the lower ones are fakes. ▶ The grain of the top converges strongly towards the ends of the top and the upper block does not fit against the top. ▶ The insides of the ribs are marked with tracks from a circular saw used to resaw them out of solid wood. ▶ The neck has been held on with a screw through the top block. ▶ There is an idiosyncratic bass bar. 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 July 1, 2024May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Walnut Log Questions: Walnut Log by Bruce Harvie Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 Lee Pendergrast from Etowah, Tennessee asks: I know where a hundred-plus-year-old 20"×12' walnut log is in the river near me. How would it need to be sawn for best use in lutherie? This log has been in a place where the river rises and falls often, leaching out the tannins. I’ve read that the very best wood for instruments has been soaked in water; microbial action and leaching produce hollow cells which are more resonant. Bruce Harvie from Olga, Washington replies: Walnut can be a fine wood for instruments, but unless it’s highly figured (which it probably isn’t), not all that valuable. It has been used historically by many companies, most notably Epiphone for its archtop guitars. An article in Reader’s Digest many years ago contributed to the public’s perception that walnut logs are extremely valuable, but in the world of tonewoods, this is not all that true unless the tree is highly figured, in which case it can be highly sought after. But these figured trees are rare indeed, and usually found in orchards in California, not in the indigenous black walnut forests in the Midwestern USA. Another tonewood myth created by the press (mostly by a few publicity-hungry companies on Lake Superior) is the high value placed on logs soaked in water and the quality of the wood produced. It may or may not be true, but to use it as a ploy to place exorbitant prices on logs hauled from the bottom of lakes is disingenuous, in my opinion. A log soaked in water or floating in a river for a hundred years is just as likely to suffer defects from this sort of treatment.
