Posted on October 1, 2026October 27, 2026 by Dale Phillips Rib Depth of Guitars with Spherically Domed Plates Rib Depth of Guitars with Spherically Domed Plates A Survey of Some Published Methods for Shaping the Ribs of Flattop Guitars, with Some Elaboration and Some Additional Information by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Modern flattop guitars generally do not have flat tops (or backs) at all. Instead, the plates of these instruments are generally forced into spherically domed shapes. The doming is accomplished using arched braces glued to the plate while it is pressed into a dished assembly board. Once the glue hardens, the plate permanently assumes the domed shape. The radius of the dome is generally quite large, typically ranging from 12´–30´, so the doming effect is slight. Still, this doming means the edges of the plate are not constrained to a single horizontal plane, and this means that the ribs of an instrument using this style of plate must vary in depth in order to uniformly contact the plate edges. For those unfamiliar with this style of construction, the issue can be imagined by considering a round, spherically domed plate sitting on a table. The edge all the way around the plate will contact the table top. If the round plate is now cut into the shape of a guitar plate and that plate is set on the table, the edge will not contact the table top all the way around, as shown in Fig. 1. While points at the neck and tail block positions will touch the table, the rest of the edge will vary in distance above the table top. Again, the ribs of a guitar with such a plate would have to vary in depth if they were to continuously contact the plate edge, without gaps. 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 3, 2026September 10, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Frank Ford Meet the Maker: Frank Ford by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #80, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 See also, Rebuilding a Rebuilt Headstock by Frank Ford Hi, Frank. I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Just about everyone who is involved with guitar repair already knows something about you, either from magazine articles, appearances at conventions and schools, or from your web page, so I will dispense with the intro. Let’s start with where you grew up and how you first became interested in fretted instruments. I was born and raised in the Bay Area. When I arrived at U.C. Santa Barbara to start college in ’62, I had not played any music at all. I got into listening to folk music and then bluegrass as part of that first rebirth of bluegrass that went through the college community in the early ’60s. My college roommate decided he was going to play banjo. Everybody laughed at him, but a year later he was a competent Scruggs-style banjo player. Some of my friends said, “Gee, you listen to so much music, you ought to play, too.” I was rather taken by The Country Gentlemen at the time, and Bill Monroe, and a few others, so I bought a mandolin and started to play. 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 August 12, 2026August 13, 2026 by Dale Phillips A Modern Venezuelan Cuatro A Modern Venezuelan Cuatro by Luis Colmenares Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 I am one of the millions of Venezuelans that have left that country in the last ten years amid the terrible crisis that is going on there. Many of my fellow nationals and I have ended up in the USA, where we have been given the chance of starting a new life. But when you emigrate, you don’t really start a new life; you bring with you your experiences, your memories, and your culture. Then you try to use that as a foundation for what will be the rest of your life. In our case, this means that we are now integrating into a society that is pretty similar to ours, but naturally doesn’t have some of our deeply rooted customs. Some have seen this situation as an opportunity. Nowadays one can find restaurants selling our food in many cities, and Venezuelan goods are sold both online and in brick-and-mortar places. These are palpable signs of a community that is putting down roots. 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 August 7, 2026August 7, 2026 by Dale Phillips “Restomodding” Wall-Hanger Guitars “Restomodding” Wall-Hanger Guitars by Roger Häggström Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Cheap guitars were made in great numbers all over the world at the beginning of the last century. In Sweden, the driving force behind a burgeoning interest in guitars was the independent church movement. The prevailing sentiment was that every able-bodied parishioner should be able to play three chords on a guitar at prayer meetings and fundraisers (Photo 1). Many of these instruments still exist, mostly in unplayable condition. I have found ways to restore these wonderful old guitars and make them play and sound better than ever. I love the bass-balanced sound of old-style ladder bracing in a small steel-strung parlor guitar. The complex sounds keep me wanting to play another chord. Modern X bracing gives more bass but also less varied tone, in my opinion. 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 28, 2026July 28, 2026 by Dale Phillips Review: Logistimatics Micro 299 Mini GPS Tracker Review: Logistimatics Micro 299 Mini GPS Tracker by John Mello Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 Logistimatics Micro 299 Mini GPS Tracker logistimatics.com/shipping In the midst of the pandemic I shipped one of my guitars Next Day Air to a client in Chicago from my shop in the San Francisco Bay Area, by a carrier that will remain unnamed. Not only did it not get there the next day, but they lost track of it, finally delivering it a stomach-churning week later. Not wanting to feel quite so helpless when I needed to ship a second guitar to the same client via the same outfit, I, with the help of my more tech-savvy son, located and purchased the Logistimatics Micro 299 Mini GPS Tracker. At a mere 2 1/2˝×1˝×5/8˝, it slipped easily into the storage compartment of a guitar case. Setup was quite easy, and once I downloaded the app and turned it on, it reported its location hourly on a phone, tablet, or computer. Mine ran for at least two weeks on a single charge, and it should last up to five weeks if you adjust the report frequency. 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.
