Posted on April 15, 2026April 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Floss Sanding Neck Joints It Worked for Me: Floss Sanding Neck Joints by Jon Simpson Originally published in American Lutherie #107, 2011 To avoid tearing when floss-sanding a neck joint, I line the back side of the sandpaper with clear shipping tape. It not only makes the paper infinitely stronger, but also slicker on the nonabrasive side. ◆ Both photos by Jon Simpson.
Posted on April 15, 2026April 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Clamping a Scarf Joint It Worked for Me: Clamping a Scarf Joint by Peter True Originally published in American Lutherie #106, 2011 Two wedge-shaped blocks faced with rubber can be used to clamp a scarf joint. Here, they are placed on either side of the joint of a ukulele neck and clamped. The blocks are off cuts from the neck blanks so the angles work nicely. The rubber is car inner tube stuck with contact adhesive. Photo by Peter True. I figure that the wedges ensure that the clamping pressure is perpendicular to the glue surfaces. The rubber stops the blocks from sliding down the ramp on which they rest. In the past I’ve done virtually the same thing using wedge-shaped MDF blocks sacrificially glued to the headstock assembly. As I thought it a chore to chop the blocks off, I experimented with the rubber-faced wedges. This too I’ve found to work. I’ve done about ten assemblies like this and managed to get them pretty much spot on. I ensure that the glue surfaces are wetted by the adhesive, so the joint is not over-lubricated. The tongue is oversize and is planed to the desired thickness when the glue is dry. ◆
Posted on April 15, 2026April 20, 2026 by Dale Phillips Building the Tanbour Building the Tanbour by Nasser Shirazi Originally published in American Lutherie #120, 2014 About a thousand years ago, the great Persian philosopher Abu Nasr Farabi (873ad–950ad) dedicated a large portion of his major work on music Al Mosighi Kabeer (Great Music) to the tanbour. In this day and age, instruments similar to the tanbour are still played in different countries of the Middle East. I have based this article on an instrument that belongs to my friend Amir Nojan, a master setar player. It was made in Kurdistan, west of Iran, where the tanbour is very popular. The plan presented here is based on measurements of this instrument, whose builder is Ostad Assadollah Gahvareh, known to be one of the best in this part of the world. The sound chamber (kaseh) is most often made of a solid piece of wood. In recent times, some builders use ribs like those used to make an oud to build the sound chamber, but what we see in this article is the traditional way and it works well. I wrote more about the solid-wood method in my article on constructing the tar in AL#10. Also, I wrote about making a sound chamber of ribs in my book about constructing the setar. Both of these are also long-necked plucked Persian instruments and they share many structural features. 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 14, 2026April 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Purfled Bindings It Worked for Me: Purfled Bindings by John Calkin Originally published in Ameican Lutherie #106, 2011 Some of these tips I discovered long ago, but I don’t think I ever wrote them down. Some are recent developments. They may seem obvious once you know them, but each one made a noticeable difference in the quality of my work. Huss & Dalton buys almost all its wooden binding stock from Michael Gurian. It comes prepurfled. The price is pretty good, but you have to buy a whole lay-up, which may entail as many as 100 pieces. As you might expect, Gurian makes up planks of binding stock and then saws out the individual strips. The black in a black/maple/black purfling is fiber. I assume that when the plank of binding/purfling is sawn into strips the purfling is down, and the saw blade leaves a bit of fiber burr on each corner that stands proud of the strip. If allowed to remain, the installed binding strip will sit on the burr, and if enough binding/purfling is scraped away when it is dressed to the sides, the burr is eliminated and a gap remains between the bottom black line of purfling and the rib. Finish won’t flow in there, so the gap has to be filled manually beforehand. It’s much easier to sand away the burr before binding proceeds. After the bent binding is rough-fitted to the guitar, I sand the bottom edge of the binding with an 80-grit sanding stick. The black fiber will turn to gray when sanded, and that color change is enough to tell you the job has been completed. Any more sanding will change the thickness of the bottom line, which is also to be avoided. 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 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.
