Posted on July 26, 2023February 29, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Jeanette Fernández In Memoriam: Jeanette Fernández November 26, 1944 – August 14, 2022 by Ronald Louis Fernández Originally published in American Lutherie #147, 2022 Jeanette Fernández, a lovely lass born Jeanette T. Wilson in Glasgow, Scotland, died in Anacortes, Washington, last summer. While not a luthier, Jeanette was heavily involved in the international guitar trade for three decades. And she was a big fan of the Guild. Jeanette left school at age fifteen when her father died. She worked in banks in Glasgow and London for six years, then got a loan and immigrated by herself to Montreal for the 1967 World’s Fair, Expo 67. She was hired by the anthropology department at McGill University and ran the office for almost ten years under three different professors. I was a Ph.D. student there when we met, and we were married in 1973. In the early 1990s, Jeanette became an essential part of my Spanish-guitar import business, Fernández Music. Jeanette handled the accounting, packing, and a lot of customer relations. She accompanied me on visits to stores and suppliers in the U.S. and Europe. She got to know “all the usual suspects” in our industry. Jeanette Fernández at the 2011 GAL Convention in Tacoma. Photo by Cyndy Burton. At the 2011 GAL Convention in Tacoma (l to r): Ron Fernández, Jeanette Fernández, John Park. Photo by Mónica Esparza. Part of our business involved being the American representatives at the Anaheim National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show for Esteve Guitar and Juan Hernández Workshop from Valencia Spain. At NAMM, Jeanette got to know many of the international suppliers and customers located in Japan, Germany, Argentina, Mexico, France, Canada, Australia, Britain, Spain, and Portugal. She dealt with everyone in her Scottish-accented English, but also on occasion in French, Spanish, and Portuguese. We frequently traveled together to do business with guitar makers in Valencia, Madrid, and Portugal. She had a special relationship with Spanish guitar maker Felix Manzanero and his wife Soli in Madrid, and with Luis and Graça Penedo, who were involved in the Portuguese guitar world. While the giant NAMM Show in Anaheim with 90,000 attendees was a part of doing business, the Guild Convention, in contrast, was a great pleasure for Jeanette. She loved meeting old friends, attending the concerts, living in the old dorms, eating in the Commons, and the nights at the local bars, ice cream shop, and restaurants. She especially looked forward to the auction on the last night. When we would get a new issue of American Lutherie, she would go through it to see the people she knew. She felt very comfortable with all the characters of the luthier brotherhood. She was also the camera person on our French Polish for Guitarmakers DVD. She always refined my writings. She had an innate insight into the English language. Any success of our guitar business I fully share with Jeanette. And she always made me a better person. — (We always loved seeing sweet Jeanette at the Conventions, and will miss her kindness and gifts of chocolate this summer. — The GAL Staff)
Posted on July 25, 2023February 29, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Chris Herbert Chris Herbert Nov. 22, 1955 - May 30, 2022 by The Herbert Family Published online by Guild of American Luthiers, July, 2023 Chris Herbert was probably Denver’s premier guitar repairman. He moved to Denver in 1980 from Columbus, Ohio, with excellent woodworking skills and a love of music. He was mentored at the now defunct Feretta’s Guitar Store where he learned his craft and began his career. He took to it very quickly and became the go-to luthier for almost every guitarist who played vintage instruments in Colorado. He worked on guitars for countless Colorado musicians, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Hot Rize, The Nacho Men, The Mother Folkers and many, many others. When touring musicians came to town, he was always the one they called — Jewel, Mason Williams, Andy Gibb, Duke Robillard, the Subdudes. When Mason Williams asked how much he owed, Chris said, “Just play me Classical Gas!” That was Chris. All photos courtesy of the Herbert Family except as noted. He worked mainly on S. Broadway, but in his later years, preferred to work out of his home. He built a few custom instruments in the early days, and his second custom guitar is now owned by Nick Beier of San Diego. He also collected Golden Era Martin and Gibson guitars which are now worth a fortune; many of these went into his friends’ collections. His favorite guitar was the Blackguard Telecaster. Everyone who knew Chris commented on his love of old instruments and the care that went into fixing their myriad problems that developed over the years. He was a perfectionist and it showed. For years, he was a certified Martin repair person and had an excellent relationship with Martin and their longtime employee and historian David Musselwhite. Chris called himself a humanist and felt a strong sense of compassion for displaced and oppressed people. He cherished his abundant friendships with local and nationally recognized musicians, good buddies, and neighbors, and his close ties to his siblings. Chris was a fan of other builders, including Denny Stevens. Denny also lived in Colorado, but tragically developed ALS and passed away in 2009. Chris owned a 1973 Denny Stevens guitar, which was the last guitar in Chris’ estate. The Herbert Family kindly donated it to the Guild of American Luthiers, in memory of master luthier Chris Herbert. It was sold in the Guild’s Benefit Auction in July 2023, the proceeds of which go to further the Guild’s mission of information sharing among luthiers like Chris. — At the 2023 GAL Convention Benefit Auction. Photo by Steve McElrath.
Posted on April 21, 2023March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Battery-Powered Instrument Amplifiers Battery-Powered Instrument Amplifiers by Joseph Ennis Originally published in American Lutherie #69, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 After reading Francis Kosheleff’s description of building speaker enclosures which resemble instrument bodies, I thought I would offer my experience of what has worked for me. I have added battery-powered amplifiers and speakers inside instrument bodies to either augment the sound of a weak instrument like a harp or mandolin, or just to act as stage monitors. The thing left unspoken in Mr. Kosheleff’s article is that not just any speaker will work well. The speaker should be chosen to match the instrument body resonance. The first air resonance of a hollow body instrument is essentially the same as the Helmholtz resonance of a tuned speaker cabinet. The same math applies. The formula is given below. 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 April 21, 2023March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Two-Storey Dulcimer The Two-Storey Dulcimer by Roger Alan Skipper Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 I read John Calkin’s “Dulcimer 101” in AL#98 with interest, but with little expectation of practical application. I’ve never built a dulcimer; I’ve never wished to build one (sung to the “Purple Cow” jingle). Within a month, though, my best customer and great friend Dr. Gerry Snelson asked me to do exactly that. Perhaps anticipating my reluctance to regress to such a basic instrument, Gerry came armed with photos of high-end dulcimers, video clips of accomplished players, and with his normal bundle of challenging demands and fresh ideas. 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 April 21, 2023May 17, 2024 by Dale Phillips Calculating Soundbox Volume Calculating Soundbox Volume by Dave Raley Originally published in American Lutherie #70, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Want to design a new guitar shape and maintain an equal volume of enclosed air by adjusting the height of the sides? Here’s how to calculate volumes. Accuracy is a function of how long you want to spend measuring and calculating. Consider two bodies: Figs. 1a and 2a. The body in Fig. 1 is 18" on the X axis and 4" on the Z axis. Suppose that you wish to make the body in Fig. 2 have the same volume as the body in Fig. 1 while maintaining the same X axis. Fig. 3 defines the axes regardless of the way the figures are turned. 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.
