Posted on March 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips First Impression of America First Impression of America by George Gorodnitski Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 You can’t understand if I don’t tell you my last impression in USSR. My country was on the edge of civil war; bitter people, interruptions in food, nationality problems, economic chaos. Imagine — early morning, 6am, I leave to go to the airport. In my pocket a ticket to Chicago. At the subway station I see my train approaching. Doors open, the crowd falls out, and two men from this train began to smash each other’s faces. From the silence of the platform, to frenzy, to blood, and nobody paid attention! Soon they scatter, and I stand there and think, ‘‘My Lord! What have they done to these good Russian people, to this land that was once one of the richest countries on earth?! I hate this Power who spoils my people and my country. I think it is irreversible. Seventy-three years of blood and hunger, a whole country intimidated, like a big jail. How long can people bear it?” I can never forget this episode. 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 4, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips They Eat Linseed Oil, Don’t They? They Eat Linseed Oil, Don’t They? An Adventure in Austrian Lutherie and Gastronomy by Stephen Frith Originally published in American Lutherie #77, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Last year my wife Sherrie and I took a working holiday in Austria. We met up with a small group of guitar makers to harvest some of the best European spruce available. The excursion to the sawmill of Christoph Kolbl in Aigen was organized by Tobias Braun. The picturesque town of Neufelden (Photo 1) could inspire many peghead designs. We began by gathering at the Hotel Mühltalhof for dinner, a nightly experience lasting two or three hours. 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 October 25, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Heavens Open for Robbie Heavens Open for Robbie by R.L. Robinson from his 1980 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 8 #4, 1980 My wife says, “You really shouldn’t go up there to San Francisco, because you’re too darn old and your hair’s not long enough.” I did feel a little out of place until I met old Doc Lyle here. While you people were all down here learning the business of lutherie, he and I were finishing off a bottle and having a ball slapping our sides and cackling about all you young folks. We already know it all because we’ve been here about 20 years more than most of you, but that’s the only difference between us. Twenty years ago the heavens opened up for me and changed my whole life. From that point on it’s been 24 hours a day every day thinking about nothing except the harp. I used to be in the State Department and worked all over the world, living in various countries. My whole world had caved in, my wife was on the verge of leaving me, and I lost everything I had. I was pondering that great question, you know the one that Hamlet asks, “To be or not to be” and whether life is worth all that stuff. Well, I heard something. In Rio de Janero the record stores have 568,000 watt amplifiers. They put the record on inside and the speaker outside. Well, I heard this record and, as I said, the heavens opened up; this sound really turned me on. As I remember that episode I get very emotional. It turns out that the record was by Luis Bordone, who was a Paraguayan with eighteen gold records living in Sao Paulo. 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, 2021March 5, 2024 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 September 22, 2021May 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Paul Schuback Story The Paul Schuback Story from his 1986 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Paul Schuback was born in Barbados in the West Indies in 1946 and moved to the United States at the age of nine months. Through his experiences and training, he lived in thirty-three different homes before the age of twenty. His interest in musical instruments began when he was quite young, when he took up the violin at the age of seven. At the age of nine he began playing the cello, joining a youth symphony orchestra in Utah at the age of fifteen. Then, before graduating high school, he began his career as a luthier with a three-year apprenticeship to master Rene Morizot, in Mirecourt, France. Following this, he specialized in violin making in Mittenwald, Germany. He then became a graduate in bow making at the Morizot Freres again in Mirecourt, France. He continued his studies by researching historical instruments in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. From 1968 to 1971 he worked as journeyman in the Peter Paul Prier violin shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Portland, Oregon, where he established his own workshop and where he resides today. 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.
