Posted on August 21, 2026August 21, 2026 by Dale Phillips Making a Spiral Rainbow Rosette Making a Spiral Rainbow Rosette by David Freeman Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012 At the 2011 GAL convention, I was asked by a few people about the construction of my spiral rainbow rosette. I use colored purfling strips and spiral them from the outside of the circle to the inside, with various filler patterns between. In my original design I used all the colors of the rainbow, but I have since worked with different color combinations. I install the filler first. In this example, it is a sequence of koa, padauk, zebrawood, and holly bindings, alternated to create four quadrants in a bookmatched look. There are two walnut triangles just below three o’clock and nine o’clock to fill the joins there and visually ground the movement of the strips. 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 21, 2026August 21, 2026 by Dale Phillips Visual Overview of Making Laminated Slides Visual Overview of Making Laminated Slides by Larry Breslin Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012 Laminated sides can be fabricated to be light, strong, less prone to cracking, flat across the grain, and form fitting. The following technique is one way to produce this type of side. Three veneers are cut to size 31˝×4 1/2˝. The outer veneer is .030˝ Brazilian rosewood and the center veneer is .022˝ maple. Both of these were purchased from a supplier. The inner veneer is .050˝ spruce, resawn in-house and thicknessed on a drum sander. To assist with the resawing, a Lennox blade alignment gauge is temporarily clipped to the 3 tpi bandsaw blade. The fence of the bandsaw is set parallel to the guide; this allows the blade to cut accurately (Photo 1). 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 14, 2026August 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Simple Kerfed Lining Jig It Worked for Me: Simple Kerfed Lining Jig by Lennis Laviolette Originally published in American Lutherie #118, 2014 Cheesy as this is, it works pretty well. I got an old Ryobi battery-powered circular as a gift years ago and had never found a use for it. With this simple jig, I have dedicated the saw to making kerfed lining. You will no doubt improve the design. A scrap of plywood or MDF serves as a table, and a pair of scraps with rabbeted edges guide the saw over the lining strips. I set the depth of cut one time, such that the distance between the blade and the table of the jig is the thickness of the web of the lining, and leave it permanently. 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 14, 2026August 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Deep Nut Slots It Worked for Me: Deep Nut Slots by David Thormahlen Originally published in American Lutherie #118, 2014 I hate it when I try to make the nut slots perfect but it winds up too deep, and I need to either make a new nut or somehow fill the slot and cut it again. I have tried the superglue-and-dust method, but it makes the string stick in the groove so it won’t tune smoothly. My assistant brought in some old ivory piano key material. I cut the string slot deeper and thinned out a piece of ivory to fit. I put superglue in the slot and accelerator on the ivory (Photo 1). I held it in place for a second and then was able to trim it off (Photo 2) and recut the groove. This time I cut the slot until I hit a dime held up against the nut (Photo 3). This keeps me from cutting too deep. The string travels nice and smoothly over the ivory and you can barely see that it’s there. ◆ Photo 1. All photos by David Thormahlen. Photo 2 Photo 3
Posted on August 14, 2026August 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips An Optical Sensor For Detecting String Motion An Optical Sensor For Detecting String Motion by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #106, 2011 For luthiers who want to make accurate dynamic measurements on their instruments, it is a challenge to achieve precision for a cost that stays below the pain threshold. Commercial test equipment is readily available, but the prices can be breathtakingly high. There is always eBay, but the selection isn’t always there and the condition of the equipment can be a little sketchy. That leaves the option of making test equipment for yourself. Since the average luthier is constantly making nifty jigs and fixtures, it makes sense to offer a very inexpensive DIY option. I needed a pickup for some projects that require measuring the first twenty or thirty harmonic frequencies of a vibrating string. I’m worried that the pickup response at high frequencies might drop off. All pickups have a window over which they are sensitive, and that window needs to be very short in order to observe the really high harmonics. Single-coil pickups have a shorter window than humbuckers. This makes them more sensitive to higher frequencies and is at least part of the reason that they can sound “brighter.” Also, the presence of a strong magnetic field from a coil pickup might affect the motion of the string. In order to affect the string as little as possible, I wanted to make an optical sensor. 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.
