Posted on March 3, 2024May 8, 2025 by Dale Phillips Where Are They Now? Where Are They Now? by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 See also, The Business of Lutherie, 1980 by Richard Bruné, George Gruhn, Steve Klein, Max Krimmel, and Robert Lundberg The Business of Lutherie, 1984 by Ted Davis, Steve Grimes, Bob Meltz, and Matt Umanov Five years ago, the Guild presented its first Business of Lutherie seminar at our 1980 Convention/Exhibition in San Francisco. I recently contacted the five panelists to see how lutherie has treated them in the interim. I found that times have changed, and that the panelists have changed as well. Vintage and fine guitar dealer George Gruhn told of a wildly fluctuating and vastly changed market, and pinpoints late 1981 as the sudden end of the relatively good market conditions which prevailed throughout the seventies. At that time, the rise in value of the U.S. dollar shut off the lucrative export market, which had previously accounted for 40% of American-made guitars. The dismal conditions of 1982 and 1983 brought Gruhn Guitars to the brink of bankruptcy, and only in 1984 was George able to “climb out of the ooze onto dry land.” 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 2, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips High School Dreams High School Dreams by Dave Schneider Originally published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Years ago, I wanted to do something different, something no one else was doing. I wanted to own my own business as a guitar maker. I’m living out my high school dreams. My father showed me the art of fine craftsmanship when I was a boy. My high school woodworking teacher was a luthier. As I was one of the more advanced students he asked me if I was interested in making a guitar. I looked at Irving Sloane’s Classical Guitar Construction and told him I thought it looked too difficult, but later I said I would try. I needed a good challenge because I wasn’t really interested in academic subjects. 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 2, 2024May 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips This is My Life This is My Life by Phil Boulding Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly 6, #2, 1978 I have been building instruments for nearly seven years now, starting in the basement of my parents house in Boulder, Colorado, fresh out of high school, building guitars. I had only the aid of Sloane’s book, a spare-time guitar maker friend, and the experience of working with a cabinet maker for a while. Things were very slow for the first 2 years, until I got introduced to dulcimers — especially the hammered dulcimer. As soon as I started building and playing these, (it didn’t take me long to learn, as I have been playing most of my life) what appeared to be a hobby turned into a livelihood, which took another year to get on its own feet. That’s when I moved to Seattle (November ‘74) and as far as I know, I was the first hammered dulcimer builder here. Since then this heart-warming little instrument has blossomed and flourished in this city, mostly thanks to street players in the Market and Pioneer Square. Then about 1 1/2 years ago, a secret and long submerged inspiration began to surface — my love for the harp. I began taking lessons then, and shortly thereafter began building small 3-octave harps of various designs and styles. Only just last week did I finally graduate to my first large Irish Minstrel Harp, nearly 5 octaves worth, with an exquisite sound. I used my imagination to figure out how to extend the soundboard like they do in some of the larger concert harps. The rest of it is pretty much patterned after the minstrel harp in Gilds Jaffrenou’s book, Folk Harps. Pictured in my first attempt as a Romanian Cymbalom (a successful one at that!) which I designed and build in collaboration with Ian Mihai, a master of the concert cymbalom from Romania who came with 2 others to teach their music at the University of Washington here. Since I have very little connection with the University, I was very fortunate to be introduced by a student-friend. The concert cymbalom is what I would consider to be the ultimate hammered dulcimer — nearly 5 octaves in range, fully chromatic, with a very unusual arrangement of half-steps. It also features a damper mechanism, a necessity for the Romanian style music, on such a loud and ringing instrument. My instrument was scaled down approximately 3/4 size, ranging 3 1/2 octaves; patterned after the concert cymbalom temporarily in use at the university. A magical-majestic sound, the music of which I am still a novice. I am more in command of the traditional Irish music on the diatonic hammered dulcimer (along with some contemporary arrangements). 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 2, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Guilds of the Middle Ages Guilds of the Middle Ages by Gregory Smith Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 9, #4, 1981 The Guilds of the Middle Ages in western Europe were the outgrowth of religious, economic, political, social and legal needs of the working class people of the period. The collective power and influence of a large group of craftsmen or businessmen could wield enough force to effectively combat the oppression of the feudal lords. The guilds influenced them in various ways ranging from petitioning their grievances, leading revolts against the nobles in the case of the Flemish weaving guilds, or the wealthier guilds simply paid the lords to issue ordinances that were advantageous to their trade. Guilds were established so the workers could gain control of the different trades and professions by setting standards of workmanship and prices of goods and through prohibiting poorly trained workmen from carrying on a trade, and by setting up a hierarchy of status within the system. They even had pension funds and gave money to journeymen and masters that were ill. In London, a guild came into existence by an ordinance of the mayor and aldermen of the city which granted them the power to control their trade. This was usually followed by a Royal Charter of Incorporation granted by the king.1 Throughout most of Europe, guilds were chartered and named either according to the materials used by the craftsman or by the item produced. The Joiners, who were incorporated in England in 1307, joined wood together and this group included cabinetmakers, makers of virginals, harpsichords and other wooden instruments such as lutes and viols. The Brasiers and Stringers were granted a charter in 1416. The Brasiers of brass workers made various items including trumpets and other brass instruments. The Stringers made strings for archery bows and it seems likely that they also made gut strings required by the many types of stringed instruments of the Renaissance. In 1603, the king granted a charter to the Musicians and also to the Turners, who turned wooden articles, including recorders and other wind instruments on their lathes. The instrument makers, or luthiers, of France were united into one guild in 1599 by a statute issued by Henry IV. Before that time they were ordinarily grouped by the materials with which they worked. The trumpet makers around 1300, for example, were members of the iron and copper pot makers.2 As early as 1270 a small guild of wire drawers existed in Paris.3 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 1, 2024March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Trimming Violin Bridges Trimming Violin Bridges by George Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #6, 1986 Few will argue the statement that there are no two violins the same, even if the arching, graduation, position of the bass bar and soundpost, and even the preparation of the wood may seem to be exactly the same. All violins do share some of the same properties, but each instrument has a single property of its own that distinguishes it from another. You’d be surprised what 0.1MM, either in thickness or thinness, can do to the sound of an instrument. An adjustment that minute can change the tone tremendously. Does the same hold true for a violin bridge? Yes and no. The following is my personal expansion upon the information given in Data Sheet #224 by Alan Carruth. As Mr. Carruth states, violin bridge tuning is a trial and error situation which is challenging when searching for an instrument’s highest potential. 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.
