Posted on July 1, 2022May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Kevin La Due Meet the Maker: Kevin La Due by Cyndy Burton Originally published in American Lutherie #81, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 The fall colors of upstate New York were in full regalia as my sister and I drove towards Binghamton, New York, to meet my niece for lunch. She had just started a new job at nearby Vestal High School, where she’d met a teacher named Kevin La Due, who is teaching high-school kids to make guitars. It sounded like a story asking to be told. Please tell me about your program. I teach two sections of lutherie per year, one each semester, which distills down to about sixty class hours each semester, not really enough time to make a guitar. Most students work extra time before and after school and during their free class periods. Although about fifty students apply, we only have room for fifteen seniors at a time because of facility, prep time, and budget limitations. 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 April 7, 2022May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Visits to Guitarrerias Visits to Guitarrerias by David Macias Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 7 #4, 1979 As a young boy, I used to think that for me to one day be able to play authentic Flamenco guitar would be the greatest thing in my life. Now, many years later, I do play authentic Flamenco, and I have discovered another wonderful way to express myself through the guitar... the Art of Lutherie. How I came to this discovery, is the story t hat follows. To set the scene, imagine yourself in Madrid, Spain, in the fall of 1966. After several years of Flamenco guitar study in San Francisco, California, here I was in Madrid. My guitar teacher, Adonis Puertas, a well-known concert guitarist, was leaving San Francisco. He suggested that I go to Spain for advanced study if at all possible. 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, 2022May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Steve Kauffman: Winnin’ and a-Grinnin’ Steve Kauffman: Winnin’ and a-Grinnin’ by Ted Davis Originally published in American Lutherie #6, 1986 Mention guitar flat-pickers and names like Dan Crary, Tony Rice and Mark O’Connor burst into our minds. To the growing number who know Steve Kauffman, his name flows just as easily and quickly into our thoughts. Steve has many things in common with these “biggies”. For instance only three men have ever won the flat picking championship at Winfield Kansas twice. Mark O’Connor and Steve Kauffman are two of the three. Dan Crary had the following to say about his first meeting with Steve: “One night in the summer of 1977 I had a chance to sit down and join with some fine guitar players in Knoxville, Tennessee. One of the things I remember about that gathering is the looks of respect and awe several of the pickers gave Steve Kauffman when he came over and sat down. I soon found out why: Steve is one of the best young flatpickers in the country. And along with his flair for the hot and flashy, he has some additional ammunition like power, clarity and musical taste. All those things make him an out-of-the-ordinary guitar man. The music is up beat, hot and melodic. When it’s over you feel like you’ve heard the tune and you’ve learned a couple of things about guitar and mandolin playing and you’ve enjoyed yourself besides.” (From the cover of Steve’s first album “Footloose”.) 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, 2022May 19, 2025 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, 2022May 28, 2025 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.
