Posted on January 16, 2026January 17, 2026 by Dale Phillips Harvey Thomas and the Infernal Music Machine Harvey Thomas and the Infernal Music Machine by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume 1, 2000 Remember what the term “Japanese guitar” used to mean, back when beatniks roamed the earth and Elvis was still kinda nasty? The Beatles hadn’t landed and I was in the third grade when my big brother Jim brought home a brand new Japanese guitar. Loosely modeled after a classic, it was already caving in from the load of its steel strings. You don’t see them like this anymore, man. Painted-on binding, decal rosette, door skin luan plywood, basswood (or worse) neck, nice sharp ends on those rough brass frets. I was totally fascinated! But the word fascination found new meaning a year later when my even bigger brother Dick came home from college with what might as well have been the Messiah Strad. It was a very plain, small bodied New York era Epiphone archtop with a badly repaired crack running the full length of the soundboard, and he had bought it cheap in a pawn shop. The hand of mortal man never created such perfection. This was a gift from the angels! Oh, the lovely dissonances that it spoke as I whanged it with a juice glass slide! When Dick was begged, he would strum “Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy’s Chowder.” 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 Getting Good Inlay Results with Inexpensive CNC Routers Getting Good Inlay Results with Inexpensive CNC Routers by Jon Sevy Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Prices for basic CNC routers have dropped dramatically, to the point where small machines in the “3018” class cost only about $250. The name comes from the workable cutting area of 30CM×18CM, which is too small for cutting many of the parts of a guitar (neck, body outline, and so on), but perfect for creating inlays for the peghead and fretboard. The router can be used to cut out both the inlays (in shell, wood, and other materials) and the pockets into which they will be glued. If you have done this by hand, you’ll know just how exacting and time consuming this work is. I use a jeweler’s saw and bird’s-mouth platform to cut the delicate inlays from mother-of-pearl and abalone, and a Dremel with a selection of fine bits to cut out the pockets, using a high-magnification headpiece so I can cut precisely to the lines. It’s tedious work, especially for the repetitive fretboard inlays, so I was interested to try a CNC router as a way to offload this task. There are many resources available for getting started with one of these routers, including tutorials and software packages for developing designs and controlling the router. The routers are widely available on Amazon; I purchased a SainSmart Genmitsu 3018 Pro model based on the reviews (Photo 1). Some assembly is required, but it was relatively straightforward to get it up and running. Most routers come with software that can be used to control the machine, but it’s often proprietary and may be somewhat limited in functionality. However, the machines generally use a standard open-source firmware called GRBL, which makes it easy to use other software packages to control the router. Though the software supplied with the Genmitsu router is adequate, it’s Windows-based software and I run Linux on my laptop, so I chose to use the open-source bCNC package instead of the Genmitsu software. But all of these software packages support the two essential operations for router control, which are manual positioning and execution of G-code to automatically drive the router. G-code is a simple text-based language to specify the position of the cutting bit. 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 July 15, 2025July 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Greven Images Greven Images John Greven Demonstrates His Inlaying and Engraving Methods by John Greven from his 2001 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 In over forty years in this business, I’ve developed my own way of doing things. Today I’m going to show you my method for cutting the inlay out of shell or laminate, for cutting the hole for the inlay and gluing it in, and for engraving it to bring it to life. “Don’t try this at home, kids.” It’s my own method, not the gospel. I learned this on my own, and it works better than the standard technique of cutting pearl by hand for me. If you want to see the standard way, check out Larry Robinson’s book, The Art of Inlay. It has wonderful pictures. His method for cutting pearl, which is more orthodox, involves a simple cutting table that has a V-shaped cutout with a small hole at the narrow end, and you saw vertically as you hold the piece down on this table. I just never could get the hang of that; it seemed very cumbersome and slow. The one advantage I can see in that approach is that the material is always supported right next to your blade, so you can make little tight cuts with less risk of breakage. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 3, 2025June 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips An Introduction to Metal Engraving An Introduction to Metal Engraving by David Giulietti from his 2001 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #68, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Design is always the most important element in engraving. I like a clear, simple design that has a central theme. I like it to have a structure and a pattern that is easily read from across the room, but still looks nice when you get up close. If you don’t have a good plan to start with, any job becomes more difficult. Once you make a mark, it’s there and it is very hard to take it out, so it’s always good to know exactly where you are going to go before you start. It is helpful when starting a design to first look at the big picture before you fill in any of the details. Start with the general shape of the design. You’ve got a box, or a circle, or some kind of shape; no matter what it is, you always want to consider what the biggest lines are, and put them in first. I always draw my largest elements first, clean them up, and then add other smaller elements to the design, and work down from there. In drawing scrolls or people, or any design, it is always the same — start with the biggest elements and work down to fine details. When you work in this way, all of your design aspects come together as a unified whole. Everything flows together. 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 June 3, 2025June 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Guitar Tattoos: Inlay Harry’s Way Guitar Tattoos: Inlay Harry’s Way by Harry Fleishman from his 2001 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #74, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 There are many paths from point A to point B. There are people in this audience who have done more and better inlay than I have. I’ll be talking about the thought process that I go through when designing inlay patterns. Of course, you should all do exactly as I do. Everyone else is wrong. I’m going to do a question-and-answer session, but it will all just be me. I’ll ask the questions and I’ll answer them. (laughter) My first question is, “Why would one put inlay on a guitar?” Some of you who might be here to heckle, thinking that there’s no point in putting inlay on a guitar. You’re probably right. But I think one of the reasons that we might do it would be personalization. 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.
