Posted on January 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? Is “Guitar Design” an Oxymoron? by Steve Klein from his 2001 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Webster’s defines “oxymoron” as “a figure of speech in which opposites or contradictory ideas or terms are combined, e.g., sweet sorrow” and my personal favorite, “thunderous silence.” The second definition of “design” is “being able to make original plans.” When Todd Brotherton called to ask if I would speak here today, he mentioned that I’ve been doing my design thing for near on thirty years. And almost in the same breath, he called my ideas new and innovative. What’s wrong with this picture? Palm pilots are new. Downloading MP3s is new. Viagra is new. My ideas are no longer new. So why are the things that I’m trying to do still thought of as new? Or we might ask, why is the musical world so slow to change, when everything else in our culture seems to be on the fast track? Why might it take so long for acoustic guitars to evolve? This begs some questions, such as: 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 June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Future Fable A Future Fable by Leo Bidne Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 9, #1, 1981 A bell softly chimed. The girl and her guitar sank back into the practice stool, letting out a sigh. Six hours! I must really be worried about performing tomorrow, she thought. “What’s wrong Sandy?” asked Martin. “Why did you stop? You were doing very well.” “Nothing. Just tired.” She put down her guitar and slid off the stool. Her naked feet made a soft thud on the padded deck. She punched in her room code and ordered up breakfast. What am I doing here, she asked herself. Three boring hours on a smelly, bumpy shuttle cruiser, watching some old flat-screen epic called Star something. A-lock customs, then a transfer bus to this crummy hotel. Even the service buttons stick! She banged her fist on the console. 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 September 22, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Wonders of the Lutherie World: The Great Oregon Prairie Fiddle Wonders of the Lutherie World The Great Oregon Prairie Fiddle by Peggy Stuart Originally published in American Lutherie #15, 1988 Long ago, when European settlers first began to hew out a rough existence in the wild Pacific Northwest, they found some really big trees growing there. Their response, prompted by the insistent urgings of western culture, was to make really big fiddles! 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 11, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Wonders of the Lutherie World: Grand Guitar Wonders of the Lutherie World: Grand Guitar by Bob Banghart Originally published in American Lutherie #21, 1990 Bob Banghart of Douglas, Alaska sent in this stunning photo by Laura Lucas. If Elvis has indeed lived before as an ancient Sumerian king (still The King, right?), this mysterious monument may be a signal to time-traveling extraterrestrials. Git-boxes of the gods. If your travels to strange, faraway lands shrouded in myth and magic, like Tennessee, have revealed to you a Wonder of the Lutherie World, our investigative reporters stand ready to put the nation’s check-out lines to shame! 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 11, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Floyd Floyd by Nicholas von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #37, 1994 KERplunkit! I reduced speed hoping the noise would go away, but no such luck. I had been traveling up US 395 from Los Angeles, and for the last half-hour I had not seen another vehicle, village, or even a gas station. Just dust, sage, and a few billboards. Then, RANDSBURG — 35 MPH. I dutifully slowed and glimpsing a hand-painted GARAGE sign, pulled over and shut her down in front of the big double doors. I squatted behind the left rear wheel and saw that the rubber bushing on the shock absorber had deteriorated and come off, so that the shock was metal-to-metal on the stud. Sensing a presence beside me, I turned, and was about six inches away from a pock-marked face with three days of salt-and-pepper stubble. He grinned — no teeth and purple gums. I caught a whiff of unwashed socks and potato skins. Another nanosecond and the potato smell registered as vodka. 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.
