Posted on July 15, 2025July 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips An American in Mirecourt, Part Two An American in Mirecourt, Part Two Violin Construction as Learned by an Apprentice to René Morizot by Paul Schuback from his 1995 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #65, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 See also, An American in Mirecourt by Paul Schuback Roughing Out the Insides of Plates and Cutting f-holes After the outsides of the plates have been carved and scraped to their finished shapes and the purfling has been installed, the next step is to trace the f-holes onto the top. The f-holes will be cut out after the inside of the plate has been roughed out and the plate is thinner, but this is the time when you establish their positions. Measure 19.3MM from the edge of the plate at the neck end to find the bridge position on the centerline, and locate your f-hole template by referencing off of the bridge position and the centerline of the top. You can play with how they are angled to suit your own tastes. Trace the f-holes onto the top, and check to make sure that they end up an equal distance from the edges by measuring with a divider. The French always carve little hollows where the lower wings of the f-holes will go so that those areas will be recessed on the finished top. So after you have traced the f-holes, you gouge, plane, and scrape the wing areas out a little bit. In the process, you will cut away parts of your lines, so you will need to retrace them. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on April 23, 2025June 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Robert Ruck Meet the Maker: Robert Ruck by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 Robert Ruck was one of the very first members of the Guild, and one of a handful of luthiers who attended our first convention in 1974. His passion for the music and culture of the guitar, his respect for its history, his hard work and dedication, and his prolific output have put him at the very top of his craft. I met him at our 1992 convention in South Dakota, where he spoke in detail about his building methods at that time (see AL#42 and BRBAL4). Fourteen years later, during the 2006 GAL Convention, we sat down over dinner and had this talk. Before we get to guitar making, I want to find out what influences first turned you to the light side, the creative side. As far as being exposed to anything artistic, my dad had a major influence in my life for sure. 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 April 23, 2025July 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Jim Norris’ Lattice Bracing Jim Norris’ Lattice Bracing by Brent Benfield Originally published in American Lutherie #89, 2007 The last time I saw my friend Jim Norris was on March 4, 2000. He had called to tell me to come get some more of his wood if I wanted, because the doctors had told him that his cancer was definitely terminal. I got more than I could afford that day, so he told me to send the remainder when I could. When I sent a letter soon after that, Mary called to say that Jim had passed away two weeks after I’d been there. Mary and I talked a while. She told me a great story that I think is appropriate to share. Jim was a longtime friend of the classical guitarist John Williams. Soon after John Williams began using a Smallman guitar, Jim and Mary attended a concert, and afterward they all went out to eat. Jim asked John about the new guitar. John hauled this high-dollar instrument out of the case and handed it to Jim. He began telling all about it, how it had a very thin top reinforced with this space-age fiber... he thought it was Kevlar. Well, John called up a few weeks later saying he’d been wrong. It wasn’t Kevlar, but carbon fiber. In the meantime, Jim had found and bought several spools of Kevlar. Mary said he joked that if anyone wanted to build a bulletproof guitar, he knew where they could buy some Kevlar. 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 January 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Castles in Spain Castles in Spain Making a Classical Guitar with José Romanillos by Stephen Frith Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 José and Liam Romanillos, with the help of Gerhard Oldiges, Tobias Braun, and Big Pep Milos, have shared their methods and ideas openly at a two-week guitar making master class each of the past two summers. I was lucky to be able to attend both sessions, held in the monastery of the Hermanos Maristas in Sigüenza, a medieval town in Spanish Castile. I couldn’t write down all that is available for the student at Sigüenza, but I will try to describe particularly the top-arching system. I used it in my own workshop for a year, then went back to find a few more pieces of the puzzle. Imagine a flat top of European spruce about 2.5MM thick cut exactly with the long-grain fibers, and exactly quartered all across. This guitar top is cut so that it fits within the ribs, and is then adjusted to the flexibility required. The edges of the lower bout are thinned further again to a flexibility all of which reflects the description of the work of Torres in José’s book Antonio de Torres Guitar Maker — His Life & Work. 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 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? by Steve Klein from his 2001 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Webster’s defines “oxymoron” as “a figure of speech in which opposites or contradictory ideas or terms are combined, e.g., sweet sorrow” and my personal favorite, “thunderous silence.” The second definition of “design” is “being able to make original plans.” When Todd Brotherton called to ask if I would speak here today, he mentioned that I’ve been doing my design thing for near on thirty years. And almost in the same breath, he called my ideas new and innovative. What’s wrong with this picture? Palm pilots are new. Downloading MP3s is new. Viagra is new. My ideas are no longer new. So why are the things that I’m trying to do still thought of as new? Or we might ask, why is the musical world so slow to change, when everything else in our culture seems to be on the fast track? Why might it take so long for acoustic guitars to evolve? This begs some questions, such as: 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.
