Posted on June 23, 2021May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Pre-bending Herringbone Purfling Pre-bending Herringbone Purfling by John Calkin Published online by Guild of American Luthiers, June 2021 Herringbone purfling s a lot easier to work with if it is prebent before it is glued onto the guitar. This is best done after wetting it first. I always use a brush to spread glue on guitars. I keep a coffee cup of water handy at all times, along with an acid brush with the bristles properly trimmed back to the stiffness I like. I dip the brush, then hold it stationary as the strip of purfling is pulled across the cup underneath it. Soak the purfling well on both sides. This should take only seconds. Then the strip is pulled through a dry cloth. Soaking it for too long will encourage it to come apart as it is bent. Give the purfling a minute to absorb the water, then tape the butt end into the channel it will be glued in later. Wrap it carefully around the lower bout using a couple pieces of masking tape to hold it tight. More tape, as well as care, will be necessary to make it conform to the waist area. The wrap around the upper bout should be as easy as the lower bout. In the photo, you can see how much tape was used as well as the small fan used to dry the purfling before gluing it in place. All photos by John Calkin Herringbone will wrap around a moderate Venetian cutaway but do it gently and by stages. To be safe, the purfling can be wet and then sliced lengthwise on one of the glue joints using a single-edge razor blade. On a tight Venetian cutaway, the purfling must be sliced. On this tight-waisted jumbo guitar, the purfling was sliced from the top end to below the waist area to help coax this half-herringbone purfling to conform to the shape of the guitar. Sliced purfling doesn't need to be prebent but you might wish to wet it as you reach that portion of the install. Slicing the purfling can go awry and destroy it. Buy extra. ◆
Posted on June 22, 2020May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Brazilian Guitar Makers Brazilian Guitarmakers by Roberto Gomes Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The guitar has been the main musical instrument in Brazil since it was brought by the Portuguese colonizers centuries ago. In those times, Baroque guitars were the most common string instruments. They had five courses of gut or wire strings. Since then it hasn’t changed much, as we can see in the “Brazilian viola” which is used for a kind of Brazilian country music called musica sertaneja (countryside music). The shape of the soundbox of this viola today resembles more a small classic guitar. Unfortunately there are very few records of those times, making it difficult to make a better study of those guitars and their makers. It’s known that most of the instruments were made in Portugal, Italy, and France. The first decade of this century brought three immigrant families from Italy: the Gianninis, the DiGiorgios, and the DelVecchios. These families were luthiers in their country of origin and later they founded the main Brazilian guitar factories which became the backbone of Brazilian-made guitars for nearly eighty years. They made mostly classic guitars and some violins, along with Brazilian violas. They also made mandolins, first with vaulted backs like lutes and later with flat backs, which are used to play choro music. 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 19, 2010September 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Shoptalk 6 Review: Shoptalk 6 Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #73, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Shoptalk 6 Stewart-MacDonald Video, 90 minutes, 2002 www.stewmac.com I look forward to each new edition of the Shoptalk videos. They show off the new Stew-Mac tools in the best soft-sell manner by simply demonstrating how they work in a real guitar shop; and on top of that there is always plenty of good randomly gathered information that has nothing to do with selling stuff. The camera work has become excellent, Stew-Mac has developed a fine team of on-camera luthiers, and the cost of the videos is always too low to pass up. You couldn’t beat that combination with a stick. Dan Erlewine leads off with an exhibition of nifty new tools. The BridgeSaver is a set of small hand tools used to repair worn bridge plates and to restore the bridge-pin area of guitar tops. Removing a shot bridge plate has become a last-ditch effort that is frowned upon by vintage folks who wish to maintain instrument originality as much as possible, and by luthiers because it is time consuming and sometimes dangerous to the guitar top. The BridgeSaver removes wood around wallowed-out or misplaced bridge-plate material and/or top material and cuts a mating disk of new wood (not included) to precisely mate with the newly formed hole. The exact procedure is better seen than described. The catalog pictures are good enough to give you the idea, but the video ought to light you up if you’ve done any old-style bridge-plate work in the past. 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.
