Posted on January 19, 2010September 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Frets.com CD Product Reviews: Frets.com CD by Fred Carlson Originally published in American Lutherie #62, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Frets.com CD I don’t know how many clones luthier/repairman Frank Ford (Gryphon Stringed Instruments, Palo Alto, California) has made of himself, but we in the lutherie world can be thankful that they all devote vast amounts of time to furthering the luthing cause. At least, it sure seems like there’s got to be more than one of him, considering all the stuff he’s got going. I ran into Frank recently at one of the bimonthly meetings of NCAL (the Northern California Association of Luthiers) where he updated attendees on his latest and ongoing ventures. These included a couple of things that fit into the product category and seemed worthy of mention here. I’ve been intending to figure out a way to justify a more detailed mention of Franks’ amazing lutherie web page, www.frets.com, in one of these columns. I’ve made note of frets.com in the past, but I hadn’t yet figured out how to put a product spin on it. After all, although it is undeniably the product of an enormous amount of work and dedication, a website is essentially bits of digital information on a computer somewhere, freely accessed by anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. This is pretty different stuff than router jigs and fret files. It’s more like a book, only you don’t obtain a hard copy of it. (Unless you do an awful lot of downloading to your computer printer!) 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 10, 2010May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Dan Erlewine’s Don’t Fret video Product Reviews: Dan Erlewine's Don't Fret video by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #34, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Dan Erlewine’s Don’t Fret video and specialized tools Stewart-MacDonald www.stewmac.com I will never forget my first fret job. It was a balmy spring evening; the jasmine were blooming. The year was 1964. We were alone in my bedroom, just me and my Strat. I was an anxious sixteen year old. She was a blonde, born in ’62. This was nine years before I saw a copy of Irving Sloane’s groundbreaking book on repair, so when I decided to fix a few badly worn frets I was on my own. The worst wear was on the 2nd string, 1st fret and the 1st string, 3rd fret; the rest were still pretty good. Out came the soldering gun! No, I wasn’t planning to carefully remove the offending frets for replacement; I was going to fill the grooves with solder! I heated up the frets and flowed a bit of solder on. After they cooled, I smoothed them over with the file on my nail clipper. They looked great and I felt heroic. That is the proper technique, isn’t it? Nearly thirty years later, I know better. I should have used a soldering iron, not a gun. The gun could have demagnetized the pickups! 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 10, 2010May 30, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Zero Fret Advantage Questions: Zero Fret Advantage by Steve Klein Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 Greg Pacetti of Fairbanks, Alaska asks: Can you tell what the advantage is in having a zero fret at the top like on the Klein and Selmer guitars instead of a regular nut? Steve Klein of Sonoma, California responds: I feel the zero fret is the only way to have an open string and fretted string sound the same. I’ve found two other things I like about this arrangement: 1. By using a slightly higher fretwire for my zero fret, I can easily set the string height over the first fret for all the strings at once by filing the top of the zero fret down; 2. This also affects intonation by moving the string termination point forward. There are other articles that explain in more detail the reasons one might want to do that.
Posted on January 10, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 R.M. Mottola of Newton, MA answers Earles L. Mc Caul’s question regarding the effects of guitar fret shape upon intonation and tonality. The short answer is no effects whatsoever. There is a good (but highly technical) article on this subject by Steve Newberry in The Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 106, “Fret Crown Radius: A Cause of Pitch Error?”
Posted on January 6, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments by Dan Erlewine and Paul Newson Review: Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments by Dan Erlewine with Paul Newson Reviewed by George Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments Dan Erlewine with Paul Newson VHS videotape (90 minutes) Stewart-MacDonald $26.95 from Stewart-MacDonald (1999) Teaching violin repairs from a television set! This first struck me as a most inane idea. My thoughts quickly changed after watching the first five minutes of this tape. Paul Newson is a fine repairman, and with Dan Erlewine’s commentary, this tape on violin repair and adjustments is a very good shop aid for a young luthier just starting out. 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.
