Posted on August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Separating Glued Joints Separating Glued Joints by Nick Hayden Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #7, 1975 Here’s a good method for separating glue. I’ve taken so many tops off without breaking, it isn’t even funny. First of all, you have to get white vinegar, then heat it up. It has to be hot. Work it into the glue joint. Use a razor knife and a small brush. The glue will turn white and you can work it loose. I told this to Bill Spigelsky, and he couldn’t get over it, when he tried it. ◆
Posted on August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Foam Cases Foam Cases by Reagan Cole Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #62, 1978 These paper-styrene laminates are very strong. I can safely sit on a board made up of 1” foam and two sides of cardboard. It is most convenient to use cloth hinges, elastic, snaps and velcro in your closure system. Styrene laminates also make good forms for laminating forms in vacuum presses. No deformation, as gas pressure in the foam “cells” equal outside air pressure. Suitable glues for styrene foam cores include: white glue, yellow glue, hot melt, pet, ether based impact adhesive (“Styro Bond”). Eposy works, but won’t cut with a hot wire. 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 August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Guitar Outline Formula Guitar Outline Formula by Leo Bidne Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #79, 1978 From taking several measurements of various guitars, I’ve discovered only slight differences from one to the next. These differences seem to contribute very little to the finished sound. The question is, what is the reason for making a guitar the shape that it is? What are the determining factors, besides the obvious ones? Can there be a “formula” that produces an “ideal” outline? This is what I set out to find. What I came up with, rather independently, so closely resembles, at least in dimension, the existing standard outline of the classic guitar as introduced by Torres, that I wonder if a similar technique may have been in use in the past, in some modified form. This formula, based on the string length, may be of no use to acoustical science, but it’s as fun as a math game, and twice as surprising. Although the information below describes how to derive an outline for a classic guitar with a string length of 65CM, joining the body at the 12th fret, it can also be used, with slight modifications, for other instruments, such as the flattop, the acoustic bass, the electric guitar, etc. Once the outline is established, the depth of the sound cavity can be adjusted with the sides, helping to establish the instruments sonority, as well as adjusting the soundboard bracing. 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 August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Design Diamond The Design Diamond by Dan Neil McCrimmon Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #100, 1978 The basic idea behind this geometry jazz is to have the elements of design organized in such a way to give a sense of cohesion to the total design. The drawing is of a classic guitar, other guitars will be different but should have simple relationships. I have not tried this with the violin but suspect it should fit in there somehow. The whole design is broken into simple subdivisions of the total length of the sides (i.e. 1/2, 1/3, 1/4). Line XY is half the length of AB. 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 August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Epoxy Epoxy by Paul Jacobson Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #90, 1978 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 For the contemporary luthier, epoxy opens up an entire realm of innovative techniques never before possible. It can be more than a mere substitute for earlier, less satisfactory materials; it can make way for totally new design concepts in the luthier’s art. Epoxy is so different from any material used in the past by luthiers that it requires a whole new set of assumptions about application possibilities and handling techniques. Many luthiers who have had any experience at all with epoxy think of it as merely a kind of glue and may substitute it on occasion for Elmer’s. To be sure, epoxy is an excellent adhesive, but to think of it as just glue is to have a limited concept of its basic properties and its vast potential in lutherie. Epoxy, the Material. Epoxy is one of a group of chemicals known as thermoset plastics in which change from liquid to solid occurs by endothermic chemical reaction rather than ectothermic hardening or volatilization of a solvent. The reaction is nonreversible; epoxy, once hardened, cannot be melted with heat or dissolved in any solvent. Heat of 150°F or higher will soften it slightly, but as the heat increases the epoxy undergoes molecular deterioration rather than melting and tends to turn crumbly. 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.
