Posted on January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Chalk-fitting Guitar Braces Chalk-fitting Guitar Braces by Stephen Marchione from his 2017 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #140, 2020 First, have a plan. Know what you’re making. It seems like an obvious thing, but sometimes people start a guitar without a good idea of what the brace layout will be. When I design a new model, I’ll often get a piece of aluminum flashing and lay out a bracing template. If you’re building an historical model, you can transfer the blueprint to a template of aluminum or plexiglas. This gives you a clear idea of what your braces are supposed to be doing, and it lets you be sure that the braces end up where they were designed to go. Photo 1 is a closeup of one of my bracing templates. I use the little holes to make pencil marks on the soundboard. On a classical guitar, a lot of builders push the big harmonic bars down into the solera, or dished workboard. But that can cause distortion of the top. Even on a Spanish guitar, I take the time to chalk-fit the brace. That gives a better structure with less stress. I highly recommend it. 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 January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Evolving the Dished Workboard Evolving the Dished Workboard by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #65, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Six, 2013 For my money, the dished workboard is one of the most important lutherie inventions ever, making it possible for even rookies to build guitars that are precisely and tightly put together. I’d like to suggest ways to make them more useful. First, though, let’s make it clear what the heck we’re talking about. Guitars were initially built with flat tops. Classical guitars (and not a few steel strings) were built on a flat workboard that more resembled a tabletop than a piece of movable gear, since it was the size of the entire instrument, neck included. The construction method using the Spanish foot required this size, since the neck became a structural part of the body. Mechanical joints such as the dovetail or bolts freed the luthier to build the body and neck as separate units, and the workboard was reduced to a laminated rectangle the size of the body, and was often dispensed with altogether when the body was built inside a mold. In 1975 David Russell Young published The Steel String Guitar, the first guitar construction book recommending domed tops. Young, however, made no mention of the dished workboard, but used more primitive methods to achieve the domed top. It wasn’t until the late ’80s that the spherically domed guitar top began to catch on. (Forgive me if I simply call them SDTs.) The easiest way to build SDTs was on top of a spherically dished workboard, which came on the market about that time. (Let’s not call them SDWs; I’ll explain why in a bit.) The merits of SDTs are not at all obvious to musicians, nor are all luthiers convinced that they are the way to go, but an important thing happened here. Guitar backs have always been arched, and fitting an arched back to a set of bent sides equipped with lining and end blocks has always been one of the bugaboos of lutherie. It’s not easy to do in a professional manner. But with one simple step, it became possible to fit perfectly arched braces to a perfectly arched back, and then to fit the entire assembly to perfectly shaped ribs. 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 January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Slotting Fretboards Slotting Fretboards by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #70, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Six, 2013 Many luthiers skip the tedious chore of slotting their own fretboards, and with good reason. Preslotted boards are readily available in most of the common scale lengths, and I’ve never used a prepared board that wasn’t accurately made. However, if you wish to escape the use of ebony or rosewood, or if a strange scale length is calling your name, you may have no choice but to slot your own fretboards. Accuracy and neatness are the attributes of a properly slotted board. Completing the job efficiently while keeping your temper under control requires a few basic tools. Be warned, however, that the frustration factor is harder to control than the necessary accuracy. Fretboard wood is usually the hardest and most abrasion resistant that can be found, and it doesn’t give in to slotting politely. It’s possible to buy your way out of this situation. It’s ironic that the cost of machine slotting is hardly more than a dedicated miter box, and can be a lot cheaper than a deluxe miter box. Assuming, that is, that you haven’t invested in a table saw just to cut fret slots. 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 December 5, 2025June 8, 2026 by Dale Phillips Guitar Making as a Teaching Tool Guitar Making as a Teaching Tool by Debbie French and Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Guitar making can be many things. To some it is a craft; to some it is a livelihood. And it’s also being used as a compelling teaching tool around the country. We are part of a project called STEM Guitar that is funded by the National Science Foundation, which provides faculty professional development to high-school and community-college faculty and students around the country, so they can, in turn, use guitar making to teach technical subjects. In educational lingo, these are STEM subjects — Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. We all know how important it is for students to learn at least the basics of STEM subjects. As luthiers, many of us routinely work with structural dynamics, acoustics, material properties, geometry, and computer-controlled machines. Modern guitar factories wouldn’t work without heavy investments of technology or without trained people. In 2009, industrial arts courses represented just 0.02% of credits taken nationally by high school students (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). However, when an updated report was released in 2013, industrial arts courses were not even included in the NCES reporting; such courses were replaced by engineering and design and manufacturing and technology courses were listed, which represent 0.7% and 0.6% of credits earned by high school students, respectively (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). The guitar program offers an engaging way of exposing students to industrial arts skills through STEM curriculum. 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 October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Hearing Voices: A Recipe for Voicing the Steel String Guitar Hearing Voices: A Recipe for Voicing the Steel String Guitar by John Greven from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 Let’s discuss a vocabulary for tone. These are the words I use when I talk to my customers. Power. We’re talking about headroom, the ability to get louder when you play harder. Responsiveness. I want a top that will respond easily to a light touch, but it will also sustain under a heavy one. The finished guitar will have a full voice played lightly or heavily or anywhere in between. A lot of guitars require a heavy touch; as playing pressure diminishes, the voice gets thin and loses its full substance. Projection. How far away can you hear it? I want the guitar to throw its voice as far as possible. When I was at Gruhn’s, a 1937 D-28 came in, all original. The top was the thinnest we’d seen on a herringbone, about .090", but it was really stiff. The sound of that guitar was painful, but you could hear it for miles. For a bluegrasser trying to play lead over six banjos, that’s the guitar. 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.
