Posted on September 25, 2026September 25, 2026 by Dale Phillips The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #140, 2020 See also, A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French There are four major subassemblies in Charles’ guitar design. The separately completed rim, soundboard, and back are assembled to create the body, to which the completed neck is then fitted and attached. Given that the design process has highlighted and resolved all their relationships, they can each be considered individually, and created either serially, in any sequence, or simultaneously. Starting the Neck At first glance, Charles’ neck follows a fairly standard design, but it incorporates features that make it work better. One characteristic of Charles’ instruments is that many features and dimensions are shared across different body shapes (“Production Techniques for the Custom Luthier,” AL#110). One of these is the neck. Since most of Charles’ instruments share the same 25.5˝ scale, they can use the same 12-fret or 14-fret necks. The only visible difference is their heel depths, as shown in Photo 1. Even then, there are only two different depths. 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 25, 2026September 25, 2026 by Dale Phillips The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Three by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #141, 2020 See also, A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part One by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Two by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Four by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Five by Mark French The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method, Part Six by Mark French With the rim, the soundboard, and the back complete, our first three subassemblies are ready to become a body. The body assembly process takes place on two slightly concave benchtop vacuum fixtures (Photo 1). Their hollow surfaces match the guitar plates’ spherical contours, a 30´ soundboard radius and a 12´ back radius. Vacuum holds each plate in place and in its correct spherical shape during that plate’s final fitting and marriage to the rim. Charles notes that: 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 24, 2026September 30, 2026 by Dale Phillips Charles Fox’s Superglue Binding Method Charles Fox’s Superglue Binding Method by Tom Harper Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 My first binding effort was done using basic tools and materials — a gramil, chisel, yellow glue, and masking tape. I sweated bullets carving out those channels! Then came the gluing: wet sticks going everywhere but in the channel, tape sticking to gluey fingers and then peeling off and making a mess of fragile purfling strips. Somehow it worked out. Since that first experience, I’ve gotten enough control over the task that it’s an orderly process these days. However, I still have a little foreboding when I start binding an instrument. Based on the amount of discussion about binding methods that I’ve encountered, I think this may be true for others as well. When I saw that Charles Fox was offering a course at American School of Lutherie (ASL) about his binding methods, I jumped at the chance to attend. I had taken some other courses from Charles and had seen some of his earlier methods demonstrated. I knew that Charles would have about as foolproof a setup as anyone and that his methods would be easy to incorporate into my own shop. 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 9, 2026September 25, 2026 by Dale Phillips Eight Concerns of Highly Successful Guitar Makers Eight Concerns of Highly Successful Guitar Makers by R.E. Bruné from his 2001 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #79, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Many of you know a little of my history, but I’ll say a bit more so you’ll understand where I’m coming from and why I will espouse some of the radical ideas that you may hear today. I began playing guitar in the early 1960s when I was just a teenager. I taught myself flamenco, then moved to Mexico City in 1968 and lived there for two years. I played in flamenco troupes for a number of dancers and singers including Roberto de Ronda, Lola Golan, and La Poli. Later I worked with other singers like Pepe Culata and Agujetas (Manuel de los Santos). So I began my career by struggling to make a living as a musician. My attitude toward the instrument was from the standpoint of a player. 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 8, 2026July 8, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Pre-bend Rosette Rings It Worked for Me: Pre-bend Rosette Rings by Dan Alexander Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 I’ve been learning to build acoustic guitars for a couple of years. I’m getting there. One of the minor issues I’ve had is gluing purfling strips into routed channels around the soundhole without breaking the fragile little strips. Routing the channels is a piece of cake with this StewMac Dremel accessory, but when you have gloves on, and the channel is full of epoxy, getting the strips into the slots can be problematic. So, I made this jig to deal with it (Photo 1). I place the strips into the channels, which is easy when there are no gloves and no glue. Then I use my heat gun to heat the strips, and Bob’s your uncle. The strips come out of the jig prebent, and gluing them into the rosette is no problem! Best thing: I made the jig in fifteen minutes from a scrap of plywood. Cost: Zipski, baby! ◆ Photo 1. Photo by Dan Alexander.
