Posted on September 9, 2020May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Bluegrass Dobro The Bluegrass Dobro America’s Second Native Instrument by Bobby Wolfe Originally published in American Lutherie #5, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 There is a little ditty known as “The Duck Principle.” It says: If it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. Well, since the Dobro only looks like a guitar, and even in this respect with significant differences, and doesn’t qualify in the other ways, I say it’s not a duck. Seriously, in my opinion, the mechanically amplified instrument known as the Dobro does qualify as America’s second native instrument. This article is designed to acquaint you with the Dobro and to provide information on common repair and setup needs of the instrument. Today, in addition to the members of The Original Family building the original instrument, there are many individuals building their versions. Most of these people have their own ideas and opinions about what works best. Therefore, I am not presenting my ideas, experiences, and working practices as the “last word.” First, let’s define Dobro. It is a registered brand name that is now also used generically to describe most resonator-type guitars. The name comes from the Dopera (Dopyera) brothers. There are five Dopera brothers. There are five letters in Dobro. The word dobro means “good” in their native Slavic language. Take your pick! 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 June 22, 2020May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Brazilian Guitar Makers Brazilian Guitarmakers by Roberto Gomes Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The guitar has been the main musical instrument in Brazil since it was brought by the Portuguese colonizers centuries ago. In those times, Baroque guitars were the most common string instruments. They had five courses of gut or wire strings. Since then it hasn’t changed much, as we can see in the “Brazilian viola” which is used for a kind of Brazilian country music called musica sertaneja (countryside music). The shape of the soundbox of this viola today resembles more a small classic guitar. Unfortunately there are very few records of those times, making it difficult to make a better study of those guitars and their makers. It’s known that most of the instruments were made in Portugal, Italy, and France. The first decade of this century brought three immigrant families from Italy: the Gianninis, the DiGiorgios, and the DelVecchios. These families were luthiers in their country of origin and later they founded the main Brazilian guitar factories which became the backbone of Brazilian-made guitars for nearly eighty years. They made mostly classic guitars and some violins, along with Brazilian violas. They also made mandolins, first with vaulted backs like lutes and later with flat backs, which are used to play choro music. 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 June 1, 2020May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota by Joseph R. Johnson Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2000 When the name Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) is mentioned, images of fine quality violins, master craftsmanship, and exorbitantly large price tags come to mind. Stradivari is known to the world primarily as an excellent violin maker. However, the members of the violin family were not the only stringed instruments that he made. Stradivari’s output also included a harp, three known guitars, and patterns for lutes, mandolins, mandolas, and violas da gamba. The Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, is home to the “Rawlins,” one of three extant guitars made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, between 1680 and 1700. The second is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University in England. The third, much altered and in need of restoration, is privately owned in Italy. 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 June 1, 2020May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Birth of the Packaxe Birth of the Packaxe by Francis Kosheleff Previously published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 9 #2, 1981, updated 1994 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 The Need. Several years ago after reading an article in Guitar Player about the hassles of traveling with a guitar and remembering my own camping trips in Europe and the United States, it dawned on me that the answer was a folding guitar. That night I went to work on that idea with pencil and paper, slept over it, dreamt about it, and the next morning started work in the shop. The following Saturday I went to the flea market and bought several cheap, broken acoustic guitars to experiment with. Later on that month I started the actual construction of the first folding guitar and named it the Packaxe. The name Packaxe is now trademarked. The idea of a hinged neck on a guitar is not new. It must have occurred to many luthiers before me, yet I had never seen a folding guitar, nor read or heard of one. Knowledgeable people usually told me that such an instrument could not possibly work for a hundred reasons. I went ahead anyway building several types of guitars with folding necks, and sure enough, there were problems, lots of them. But for an inventor, this is a challenge to be enjoyed. 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 May 21, 2020May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Portuguese Guitarra: A Modern Cittern The Portuguese Guitarra: A Modern Cittern by Ronald Louis Fernández Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 In Portugal, the word guitarra refers to a present-day cittern similar in appearance to and directly derived from the 18th-century English guitar. This instrument, typically accompanied by a Spanish-type guitar called viola or violão in Portuguese, is used in performing musical variations and in accompanying the fado, an urban Portuguese song form. Consequently, it is also known in Portuguese as the guitarra de fado. While these instruments are not abundant in North America, luthiers do encounter them here, especially where Portuguese fishermen have come ashore or emigrants have settled — New Bedford and Fall River, Massachusetts; the Hawaiian Islands; Providence, Rhode Island; San Diego, San Jose, Tulare, Visalia, Artesia, and Chino, California; Newark, New Jersey; Seattle, Washington; Montreal, Quebec; Ottawa and Toronto, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Vancouver, British Columbia. 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.
