Posted on August 11, 2021May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Folding Banjo Stand Folding Banjo Stand by Dick Kenfield Originally published in American Lutherie #8, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Material: I used 1/8" masonite. Plywood, plastic or strong cardboard might work. Thicker material would require the egg-crate slots to be at an angle. Layout: Use 2" squares. You can make adjustments later to fit the banjo. Assemble: With egg-crate slots. Snug fits make the stand more ridgid. 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 17, 2020May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo by Harold Turner Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 My grandfather came down from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the year of 1907. He was a jack-of-all-trades like most of the original settlers in the area, but living was hard so he pursued a career in a textile plant south of the border in South Carolina, where he became locally famous for building fine furniture and musical instruments, especially violins. He died in 1927 from influenza. My father was only one year old when his father passed away, and this specter of a wonderful man always hung over him. Dad was a great carpenter and cabinet maker, and became a well-known woodcarver, but those musical instruments just wouldn’t go together right for him. 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 10, 2020May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Roy Smeck: Wizard of the Strings Roy Smeck: Wizard of the Strings by James Garber previously published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Roy Smeck is one of the treasures of American popular music. For nearly seventy years now he has entertained millions with his virtuosity on fretted instruments and his warm sense of humor. He has also been mentor, teacher, and friend to dozens of fretted instrument enthusiasts, and has been the inspiration for countless others through his numerous instruction books. Roy was born on February 6, 1900 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His musical development closely parallels that of the dawning 20th-century American popular culture. The birth and adolescence of the recording industry, radio, film, television, and the golden era of American instrument making all occurred during his rise to stardom. In the vaudeville circuit he made his name solely as an instrumentalist. He also achieved prominence as a recording artist under his own name and as a backup studio musician for a number of other well-known stars in the early days of recording. 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 January 6, 2020May 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Bart Reiter Meet the Maker: Bart Reiter by Paul Hostetter previously published in American Lutherie #34, 1993 and Big Red Book of American, Volume Three, 2004 As a card-carrying guitar nut, guitar player, and luthier, I’ve always felt a bit like a turncoat because of my jaundiced view that our current vibrant lutherie world is somewhat top heavy with guitar nuts. It’s one reason I like the GAL so much: there are all these wild cards who have a very nonflattop agenda. I love it! But it seems that every time I go to a Guild convention someone I really want to meet doesn’t show up for some reason. It happened again last summer, though I knew I’d find dozens of other surprises amongst the corn fields and bomb threats ‘way over there in Vermillion. Among them were two of the very top figures in the world of banjo, Bart Reiter and Ron Chacey. Dan Erlewine issued me a blank cassette and commanded: “Go forth and interview!” Dutifully, and happily, I did. I’d always wanted to meet these guys anyway. Here’s the first one I talked to. 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 January 11, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory, by Robert Lloyd Web Review: Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory by Robert Lloyd Web Reviewed by Woody Vernice Originally published in American Lutherie #58, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory Robert Lloyd Webb The MIT Museum, 1984 ISBN 0917027019 In 1984 the MIT Museum sponsored an exhibition of banjos that focused on the companies that existed in and around Boston. This book is a catalog of the instruments exhibited, and the essays sort of explain why such a prestigious organization spent so much energy on such a humble instrument. Contemporary luthiers think that they are leading the way for the factories. Webb maintains the reverse, that individual builders were basically hackers who kept the instrument alive until the large factories brought it to its zenith. The banjo began life as a stick and a gourd. It evolved rapidly into a recognizable configuration and the Victorian banjo craze that followed the Civil War made it a hot-ticket item, bringing a rush to make better and fancier models. Venues changed from parlors to large burlesque halls, and louder and gaudier banjos filled the need. The jazz age and the banjo were both put to death by the Great Depression, and Webb credits Pete Seeger and Earl Scruggs as the men who resurrected the latter. It’s a thumbnail sketch, but a good one. 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.
