Posted on January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Chalk-fitting Guitar Braces Chalk-fitting Guitar Braces by Stephen Marchione from his 2017 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #140, 2020 First, have a plan. Know what you’re making. It seems like an obvious thing, but sometimes people start a guitar without a good idea of what the brace layout will be. When I design a new model, I’ll often get a piece of aluminum flashing and lay out a bracing template. If you’re building an historical model, you can transfer the blueprint to a template of aluminum or plexiglas. This gives you a clear idea of what your braces are supposed to be doing, and it lets you be sure that the braces end up where they were designed to go. Photo 1 is a closeup of one of my bracing templates. I use the little holes to make pencil marks on the soundboard. On a classical guitar, a lot of builders push the big harmonic bars down into the solera, or dished workboard. But that can cause distortion of the top. Even on a Spanish guitar, I take the time to chalk-fit the brace. That gives a better structure with less stress. I highly recommend it. 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 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Evolving the Dished Workboard Evolving the Dished Workboard by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #65, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Six, 2013 For my money, the dished workboard is one of the most important lutherie inventions ever, making it possible for even rookies to build guitars that are precisely and tightly put together. I’d like to suggest ways to make them more useful. First, though, let’s make it clear what the heck we’re talking about. Guitars were initially built with flat tops. Classical guitars (and not a few steel strings) were built on a flat workboard that more resembled a tabletop than a piece of movable gear, since it was the size of the entire instrument, neck included. The construction method using the Spanish foot required this size, since the neck became a structural part of the body. Mechanical joints such as the dovetail or bolts freed the luthier to build the body and neck as separate units, and the workboard was reduced to a laminated rectangle the size of the body, and was often dispensed with altogether when the body was built inside a mold. In 1975 David Russell Young published The Steel String Guitar, the first guitar construction book recommending domed tops. Young, however, made no mention of the dished workboard, but used more primitive methods to achieve the domed top. It wasn’t until the late ’80s that the spherically domed guitar top began to catch on. (Forgive me if I simply call them SDTs.) The easiest way to build SDTs was on top of a spherically dished workboard, which came on the market about that time. (Let’s not call them SDWs; I’ll explain why in a bit.) The merits of SDTs are not at all obvious to musicians, nor are all luthiers convinced that they are the way to go, but an important thing happened here. Guitar backs have always been arched, and fitting an arched back to a set of bent sides equipped with lining and end blocks has always been one of the bugaboos of lutherie. It’s not easy to do in a professional manner. But with one simple step, it became possible to fit perfectly arched braces to a perfectly arched back, and then to fit the entire assembly to perfectly shaped ribs. 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 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips A Flattop Mandolin Resurrection A Flattop Mandolin Resurrection by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 I don't see a lot of mandolins in my repair shop. There aren’t nearly as many out there as there are guitars, and they don’t seem to suffer the same affects of time and abuse as guitars, perhaps just because it is easier to put them up and out of the way. Archtop mandolins are especially strong and seem to live forever despite cracked plates and loose joinery. Flattop mandolins are a different matter. The combination of a flat top and a lot of down tension on the bridge is a recipe for failure. This particular mandolin, an Alrite Army-Navy style by Gibson, came to the Huss & Dalton shop. H&D only repairs H&Ds, but they kindly shuffle other repairs to me. The Alrite, a WWI-era instrument, had a cracked and caved top and some separation of the back. A rectangle of thin plywood about the size of a business card had been wedged between the top and the back just behind the soundhole to help support the top. The action was playable and the instrument tuned to pitch. It sounded OK but was quiet. Other than the mentioned defects, it was in pretty fair shape. A nice mosaic purfling ran around the top, and the rosette matched the purfling. I felt that the mandolin was a candidate for restoration. The only problem was that I didn’t want to do it. I put a quick repair estimate on it of $400–$450, which probably matched the value of the instrument. I sent it back downstairs with the recommendation that it be left alone. I never met the owner. 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 October 9, 2025October 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips An Authentic Hurdy-Gurdy An Authentic Hurdy-Gurdy by Wilfried Ulrich Originally published in American Lutherie #77, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 The dispute between guitarists and hurdy-gurdists is an old one. In the early 1700s, when French aristocrats became interested in playing the hurdy-gurdy and pretty good composers such as Baton, Chedeville, and others began to compose for it, prominent guitarists contended that the hurdy-gurdy was only good enough for cat music! However, the queen was an eminent player of the instrument, and the two daughters of King Louis XV were trained by Charles Baton. A hurdy-gurdy teacher of the time is said to have wanted to change the outstanding and worthy guitar of a marquis into a hurdy-gurdy. In his opinion, this was the only fit use for such an instrument. The hurdy-gurdy and the musette (a small bagpipe) were the beloved instruments of the leading society. To dignify the instrument, its origin was attributed — without proof — to ancient Greece. 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 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.
