Posted on June 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Ray Cowell Ukes Letter: Ray Cowell Ukes by Thomas Johnson Originally published in American Lutherie #99, 2009 Dear Tim: A ukulele revival is underway in the U.K. Of special interest here is Ray Cowell, who has crafted a pair of ukes from the Titanic’s sister ship, the RMS Olympic. Captain Edward Smith was the Olympic’s first skipper, and he went on to his last command aboard the Titanic. The Olympic was dismantled in 1937, and local industries purchased salvaged timbers and fittings for further use. Ray worked as an engineer in coal mines in the early ‘60s under appalling conditions. He shifted to the paint manufacturing industry, where he developed specialized machinery; when his job evaporated, he bought and developed his own successful factory that serviced the paint industry. One of the factory’s existing buildings was fitted with materials salvaged from the Olympic: paneling, lighting, floor tile, decking, and even the main staircase. 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 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: NMM Opens Gudelsky Gallery Letter: NMM Opens Gudelsky Gallery by The National Music Museum Originally published in American Lutherie #82, 2005 GAL members — The National Music Museum on the campus of The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota, will celebrate the 500th birthday of Andrea Amati, in whose workshop in Cremona, Italy, the form of the instruments of the violin family as we know them today first crystallized, by hosting an international conference — The Secrets, Lives, and Violins of the Great Cremona Makers 1505–1744, Friday–Monday, July 1–4, 2005. The program brings together individuals who have been at the forefront of archival research in Cremona, amidst some of the earliest, best preserved, and historically most important instruments known to survive. Presenters include Carlo Chiesa, John Dilworth, Andrew Dipper, Roger Hargrave, and Duane Rosengard. The event is being coordinated by Claire Givens (Minneapolis), a NMM Trustee. Major underwriting is being provided by four prominent American violin dealers: Chris Reuning (Boston), Jim Warren (Chicago), Bob Bein and Geoffrey Fushi (Chicago), and David Kerr (Portland). Registration forms and housing information are available on the NMM website. 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 6, 2024January 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Public School Lutherie Class Letter: Public School Lutherie Class by Glen Friesen Originally published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 Dear Tim, I am a high school industrial arts teacher at Waldheim School Industrial Arts. Waldheim is a small community of about a thousand people located about thirty-five miles north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in the heart of the Canadian prairies. I have constructed electric guitars and basses with students for years, but this year one of my 12th grade students, Trevor Boehm, completed our shop’s first steel string guitar. Traditional woods were used: mahogany, Sitka spruce, and ebony. Trevor added a number of personal touches such as using abalone for the peghead inlays, rosette, and pick guard; cocobolo and poplar purfling and binding; and a Tru-Oil finish. This is not a kit guitar. Each of the pieces was cut from larger dimensional stock. What makes this project even more amazing is that it was constructed in a multi-activity shop environment. Oxyacetylene and plasma cutting, arc and MIG welding, several furniture projects, and two electric guitars were all being done in the same small shop while Trevor was constructing his guitar. This is Trevor’s third guitar. His 10th grade project was a 6-string electric, and in 11th grade he designed and constructed a unique electric baritone guitar. Trevor will be graduating in June and hopes to explore a career in lutherie. Both photos by Glen Friesen Trevor’s steel string guitar marks the culmination of several years of planning and jig construction. We were really excited to hear the first notes from it. In my opinion, he did an exceptional job. The steel string is now a project that students can choose to attempt if they desire. All of this would have been a lot more difficult if I had not had access to your publications. I just felt that I needed to thank you. ◆
Posted on March 7, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Byron Will Meet the Maker: Byron Will by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #31, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 Why are you building harpsichords and how did you get started? I studied climatology for two years at the University of Wisconsin. I was really interested in long-range weather forecasting. However, you cannot be a climatologist and not work with computers. Now I think that computers are great, but this was the dark ages of 1970. I hated key-punch cards, writing programs, rewriting programs, sorting cards, and computer rooms, but a lot of the upper-level classes I was taking required this work. I found myself taking more and more music classes, and I started taking harpsichord lessons with one of the music professors. I really enjoyed it. I love the music of the Baroque Period, and I became more and more interested in the harpsichord. After a semester I switched majors to music history and literature, and I studied harpsichord. During that time I built a small harpsichord from a kit so I’d have something to practice on at home, and I really enjoyed that. It was an early Zuckermann kit. Not a slab – (straight) sided one; this was after David Way took over. It was a Flemish II or something. 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 March 7, 2024May 8, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Business of Lutherie, 1984 The Business of Lutherie, 1984 by Ted Davis, Steve Grimes, Bob Meltz, and Matt Umanov from their 1984 GAL Convention panel discussion, moderated by David Sheppard Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 See also, The Business of Lutherie, 1980 by Richard Bruné, George Gruhn, Steve Klein, Max Krimmel, and Robert Lundberg Where Are They Now? by Tim Olsen We’ve got four people up here who are involved in the business of lutherie in various areas. We’re going to start by letting each of them take a few minutes and tell you about their situation currently. Then we have some questions, some of which we thought up out of our own heads and some of which were turned in by you. So then we will ask these questions and let each person give a brief answer as regards his particular situation. After that, if we have time, we will take questions from the audience. So let’s start down at the end and find out a little bit about each person. Bob Meltz: I did my first repair in 1969, when I was actively involved as a sound man for a variety of rock-and-roll bands in my area. I was one of the first people in the area to rent out small sound systems, to fill the gap between Shure Vocalmasters and humongous concert systems. 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.
