Posted on April 13, 2026April 13, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Breathing Air Systems It Worked for Me: Breathing Air Systems by Gary Hopkins Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012 From what I have read, the majority of guitar buyers prefer a nitrocellulose lacquer finish. Average relative humidity here in Florida is 70%–80% year around. The recommended maximum relative humidity for spraying lacquer is 65%, so times when you could spray lacquer in nonconditioned air would be greatly limited. But spraying lacquer indoors creates additional problems including health hazards from inhaled fumes. So what is the safest way to spray? I started building guitars after a long career in mechanism design engineering with the Space Shuttle program. When working with hazardous gases at Kennedy Space Center, we always used breathing air systems, so when it came time to set up my small shop, my first thought was to set up an inexpensive air system and not have to use air filters at all. Perhaps one day waterborne lacquer will be improved to the point that we will no longer need to be concerned about these health hazards. 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 April 10, 2026April 10, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Portable Live Recording Setup It Worked for Me: Portable Live Recording Setup by John Mello Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012 Wanting a battery-powered, unobtrusive, portable live-recording setup, I cobbled together a system. It allows me to use my preferred recording mikes, Neumann KM 184s, in a configuration I like, with a quality portable digital recorder. I bypass the simpler fixed-position onboard mikes of the recorder. An Atlas TM-1 twin-mike mount is joined to a K&M hinged microphone bar in a T configuration and mounted on a short Atlas DS7 desktop mike stand, the K&M holding the mikes. The rear portion of the Atlas mount has a plywood plate attached with two screws going through two additional holes drilled in the mount. An ART Phantom II power supply is affixed to the plywood plate with strips of Velcro on the bottom of the box and top of the plate and further stabilized with a Velcro strap. The only vaguely tricky part is a 3/8" thumbscrew just behind the mikes that goes through a loose-fit hole drilled in the front part of the Atlas mount. The thumbscrew is held in place by a press-fit rubber washer top and bottom. This affixes the recorder, an Olympus LS10, via its camera-like threaded insert. Two short Canon mike cables plug into the mikes and the ART, and two Canon-to-RCA adapters convert the output to feed an RCA-to-stereo-mini cable that feeds the recorder. 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 April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Dale Phillips About Alcohols Used as Solvents in French Polishing About Alcohols Used as Solvents in French Polishing by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #105, 2011 Most any kind of pure or nearly pure simple alcohol can be used as a solvent for shellac, because shellac will dissolve completely in any of them. But the choice of what kind of alcohol to use gets complicated pretty fast when issues of application, availability, price, and safety are considered. The two most common choices for shellac solvents for use in French polishing are ethanol and denatured alcohol, which is nominally ethanol to which some poisonous substance(s) has been added to make it undrinkable. Both of these are discussed here in terms of all of the qualities listed above. The research behind this article is one of those good examples of one thing leading to another. We were discussing the general availability of ethanol around the American Lutherie cyber water cooler one day, and this led to the realization that both Contributing Editor Cyndy Burton and I suffered from burning eyes when we have used denatured alcohol. This seemed odd, given the generally accepted belief of what is used to denature alcohol (methanol) and how little of it (5%) we believe there is in the mix. This in turn led to a detailed look at denatured alcohols, in terms of chemistry and safety, and this turned up information which I thought fascinating enough to share. 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 April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Dale Phillips The Gibson Monster The Gibson Monster by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #110, 2012 To say I’m no fan of Gibson guitars is to drastically understate the case. They are seldom satisfying instruments, but my dislike is also based on the difficulties they often present to repairmen. Removing their necks is often a struggle, and by now it’s generally known that Gibson occasionally installed the neck before the top, covering the dovetail and creating a trap for unsuspecting neck resetters. The 90th anniversary model in this story upped the ante in difficulty several degrees. Please consider this a warning if you do repairs. The guitar came in as a neck reset. The action wasn’t much too high, but the guitar was too big for the woman who bought it off eBay, and the combination of factors made it difficult for her to play. I quoted her $375 for the job. 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 April 7, 2026April 7, 2026 by Dale Phillips Classical Guitar Setup Classical Guitar Setup by Kevin Aram from his 2014 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017 Thank you for turning out. I appreciate it. I put on this natty little microphone and now I feel like Dolly Parton at Glastonbury — without, of course, the rhinestones. (laughter) Bringing one of my guitars with me wasn’t possible, so a couple days ago I bought a guitar in Seattle for demo purposes. It’s brand new, cost about $300, is mass-produced in China, and has a solid top. Because I want to talk about setup from different angles, I’ll use this guitar, and assume you are interested in building new guitars and repairing older ones as well. To me, setting up a classical guitar means making it play as easily and as in tune as possible, and to make it sound as good as possible. And, most importantly, it must meet the player’s satisfaction. If you’re making a guitar for yourself, you just make it to suit you. Obviously, if you are making guitars for other people, then you have to take into account the way they play. Some people want a guitar that is harder to play. They’ve got a strong technique and they physically need to dig into the strings when they play. No two players are the same, so no two setups are the same. It’s a very personal thing. It’s a balance; on one side is “ease of playing” and on the other “tone” or “quality of sound.” Basically, the higher the action on the guitar, the harder it is to play and the more volume it will produce — all things being equal. The lower the action, the easier it is to play, the quieter it will be, and it will be more prone to buzzing and problems in the sound. 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.
