Posted on June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Fretboard Slotting with a CNC Router Fretboard Slotting with a CNC Router by John Svizzero and R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009 Lutherie shops with CNC machines use them for a number of applications, some of which are discussed in the article “Desktop CNC Machines” in AL#77. We (authors Svizzero and Mottola) met at meetings of the New England Luthiers and began comparing notes on our shop-built CNCs. Svizzero’s full-sized machine uses Porter-Cable routers as spindles, and Mottola’s desktop machine uses the Proxxon grinder. We have each been using CNC routers in our own shops for slotting fretboards. By CNC routing standards, fretboard slotting is a slow operation due to the small diameter end mills used (typically .022" to .025"), but in our small shops we have found slotting in this manner to be both cost effective in terms of time and to offer some advantages that other slotting schemes do not. With a suitable CNC machine already in the shop, it is possible to experiment with CNC fretboard slotting with a small investment in tooling and time. Our experiences may help others get over some of the startup problems. 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 June 13, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Entrepreneurs In Spite Of Ourselves Entrepreneurs In Spite Of Ourselves by Ralph Novak Originally published in American Lutherie #28, 1991 I‘ve always had an affinity for the sciences, strong curiosity, and a penchant for experimenting. How something worked was more important to me than if it actually did. My dad, who has exceptional skills in woodworking, model building, and aircraft design, taught me about wood, tools, mechanics, and bringing a job to completion. He answered endless questions and helped me fix things that became the objects of my curiosity. To this day he is an inspiration. I got my first guitar, a Stella acoustic, for my 14th birthday in 1965. The next year I got an electric guitar and amp, and my dad helped revive it after my experiments. Soon, neighborhood musicians had me modifying and repairing their guitars and I even did some refrets and pickup installations for a very small local store. I built my first guitar in that basement, making pickups from old TV and radio parts. 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 June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips ‘Doc’ Watson ‘Doc’ Watson by Dennis Siler Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 10, #4, 1982 Arthel Watson (“Doc” to his friends) was born in Stoney Fork, North Carolina in 1923. At age 13 with two years of banjo experience already under his belt, Doc began to learn the guitar. He has since that time amassed an enormous and growing group of admirers around the world. Doc’s musical background is wide and varied. He began playing professionally in 1953 and played in both country-western and rock groups. In the early ’60s he began to travel around the country, performing folk and traditional music at festivals, folk clubs and colleges. In his present concert tours, Doc plays a wide variety of music; folk, traditional bluegrass, rock-a-billy, blues and almost anything else. He wows the crowd everywhere he goes — young and old alike. 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 June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Review of Indoor Air Quality Health Issues A Review of Indoor Air Quality Health Issues for the Home Woodworking Shop by Robert A. Edelstein Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 Indoor air quality is an important issue for the luthier and woodworker to consider. While certainly not a glamorous topic, the benefits of learning some of the important concepts, (and making appropriate changes to protect your health), are certainly worth the effort. I look forward to my time in the shop. The pleasure of woodworking is tempered with chores, though, and I spend some time cleaning up the place before and after each work session. When I first walk in, it looks fairly clean. Upon closer inspection, I find a thin layer of dust is actually covering a surprising number of the surfaces. This became more apparent to me recently when my son and I remodeled our basement shop, and the tremendous amount of dust hidden in the crevices became visible. In addition, my son began to wheeze within a few minutes of entering the shop, and only fresh air provided relief. 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 June 13, 2024May 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips Experimental Violin Acoustics Experimental Violin Acoustics by George Bissinger from his 1984 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 It was a pleasure to discuss the “secrets” of violins at the kind of meeting that would scarcely have seemed possible in the time of the legendary Cremonese luthiers. As a member of the Catgut Acoustical Society, which is devoted to all aspects of bowed string instruments from the raw materials (gut?) to the finished product (cat?) and its sound (meow?), I can only welcome this shared discussion. The Society has sponsored the construction of a family of eight violins covering the frequency range of 41Hz to 1318Hz (lowest to highest open string), and has a demonstrated interest in all violin matters whether they are purely practical, subjective, and aesthetic, or purely abstract, objective, and quantitative. The talk I gave at this GAL meeting covered a range of topics concerning violins in which I personally have been involved. These topics leaned rather more to the concrete aspects of violin making such as working with student instruments, testing plates of unassembled (or humidity disassembled) instruments, plate archings, bassbar tuning, and humidity effects, but also included discussion of coupling between enclosed air oscillations and plate vibrations in the assembled instrument. 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.
