Posted on September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 by Dale Phillips A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #136, 2019 See also, The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French Charles Fox started making guitars when I was four. Recently, at age fifty-four, I found myself a student in his acoustic guitar making class at the American School of Lutherie. I’ve been building guitars for a while, but am mostly self-taught, with no formal training before now. I eventually came to realize that I was stuck. I was building using skills I mostly acquired the hard way or from videos and books. My guitars were adequate, but to get better I needed to spend time building with an accomplished luthier. I talked with Charles to determine the class schedule and content which would fit my needs, and signed up for the two-week acoustic guitar class. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 by Dale Phillips The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #139, 2020 See also, A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French Charles Fox has been making guitars for about fifty years and, as a master luthier will, he has developed a personal approach to his craft. Building on a solid foundation of experimentation, he has developed a set of processes that let him complete tasks quickly, accurately, and repeatably, but with a deeper purpose. This is the first in a series of articles that describe Charles’ building method in detail. There are some good descriptions in print of how to make an acoustic guitar, so it may not be clear why we need another one. Books and extended articles are usually for beginning builders unfamiliar with making instruments, and describe basic processes for making good, traditional acoustic guitars. Some of these works are quite good and a few are iconic. However, this series of articles has a different purpose. It is intended for readers who have basic familiarity with acoustic guitars and guitar-making skills. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 by Dale Phillips The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #141, 2020 See also, A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French With the rim, the soundboard, and the back complete, our first three subassemblies are ready to become a body. The body assembly process takes place on two slightly concave benchtop vacuum fixtures (Photo 1). Their hollow surfaces match the guitar plates’ spherical contours, a 30´ soundboard radius and a 12´ back radius. Vacuum holds each plate in place and in its correct spherical shape during that plate’s final fitting and marriage to the rim. Charles notes that: Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on September 2, 2026September 2, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Danco Bend-O-Matic It Worked for Me: Danco Bend-O-Matic by Daniel Fobert Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Here are some pictures of my DANCO BEND-O-MATIC. I took on this project to advance my elementary machining skills and to get a laugh. My object was to be able to introduce a piece of fret wire into the BEND-O-MATIC, have a powered mechanism start automatically, bend the wire to a predetermined radius, and stop when the bend was complete — all without turning a crank. It was a great hit at last December’s LINT meeting (Luthier’s Interactive of North Texas) — at least as much as my one-handed 9v powered cam clamp. Everyone with a camera phone was maneuvering for a picture. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account. It Worked for Me: Danco Bend-O-Matic by Daniel Fobert Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Here are some pictures of my DANCO BEND-O-MATIC. I took on this project to advance my elementary machining skills and to get a laugh. My object was to be able to introduce a piece of fret wire into the BEND-O-MATIC, have a powered mechanism start automatically, bend the wire to a predetermined radius, and stop when the bend was complete — all without turning a crank. It was a great hit at last December’s LINT meeting (Luthier’s Interactive of North Texas) — at least as much as my one-handed 9v powered cam clamp. Everyone with a camera phone was maneuvering for a picture.
Posted on July 14, 2026July 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips Side Bender and Body Mold Cut from One Sheet of Plywood Side Bender and Body Mold Cut from One Sheet of Plywood by Terence Warbey Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 After reading Mark French’s article about his time in the shop of Charles Fox (“A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course,” AL#136 and Mark’s series, “The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method,” beginning in AL#139), one idea kept coming back into my mind: “a library of bending forms.” Wouldn’t that be delightful, to have the forms stacked like books rather than my jumble of assembled forms, precariously balanced upon each other on a shelf, collecting dust? I was able to make such a bending form and a matching body mold from a single piece of 24˝×48˝×18MM Baltic-birch plywood, cut into four pieces 12˝×24˝. The bending form uses three upright pieces. They are notched to receive two, also notched, cross pieces. These cross pieces are cut from the spare fourth piece and have a small horizontal piece attached to the bottom of them to easily clamp the assembly down to my Workmate. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
