Posted on July 31, 2026July 31, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Alan Carruth Meet the Maker: Alan Carruth by Tom Harper Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012 If curiosity really did kill the cat, the cat should have talked things over with Alan Carruth before the situation got so desperate. Alan has been curious all his life and has not only survived, but thrives on it. Fortunately for us, Alan’s curiosity has been regularly applied to the musical instrument world for around forty years and he likes to share what he learns. He has been actively involved with the Guild for at least thirty years, researches musical acoustics, teaches lutherie, produced a DVD demonstrating his method of free plate tuning, and can be found providing lots of information in various Internet venues for instrument builders. He also produces a line of imaginary tools, but you will need to go to his website to learn more about them. I got a chance to sit down with Alan several times during the last GAL Convention to find out more about what makes him tick. Tell us a little about your formative musical interests? I mostly listened to classical music as a kid, but like lots of other people, I got interested in folk music when the ’60s folk scare happened. That’s when I got my first guitar, which was a cheap nylon-string Japanese import called a Howard, named after the son of the guy who imported it. I wanted a guitar with nylon strings because that’s what Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary played. Or was that Peter? I can never keep those guys straight. 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 29, 2026July 29, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: David Wren Meet the Maker: David Wren by Steve Denvir Originally published in American Lutherie #113, 2013 David Wren is a guitar geek, in the most positive sense of the word. He makes them, for the likes of Joan Baez and Bruce Cockburn; he’s sold them, as one of the partners in The 12th Fret, the high-end guitar store in Toronto; he even photographs them, supplying studio-quality shots to a number of his guitar-making peers. And he can talk about them. Forever. About his guitars, other makers’ guitars, the history of guitar making in Canada, what retail customers are looking for, the difference between classical and steel-string buyers, on and on. And he does it with warmth and charm and much humility, not to mention a lot of humor. If I had to put “(laughs)” every time it was appropriate, this article would be half again as long. 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 24, 2026July 24, 2026 by Dale Phillips Design Analysis of Torres Guitars: Based on the Catalog by Romanillos Design Analysis of Torres Guitars: Based on the Catalog by Romanillos by John Saucier Originally published in American Lutherie #113, 2013 José Romanillos has provided an invaluable resource for those interested in Torres’ guitars with his book Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker — His Life and Work. Romanillos has cataloged eighty-eight Torres instruments divided into the two periods, or “epochs,” Torres was active building guitars. This includes thirty-nine instruments from the first epoch (1854–1868), and forty-nine instruments from the second epoch (1875–1892). With the dimensional data provided in Romanillos’ catalog, it is possible to investigate some of Torres’ design principles. Romanillos has assigned a catalog number to each instrument to designate its construction sequence. Guitars from the first epoch are given the designation “FE” followed by a construction sequence number. First-epoch instruments were not numbered by Torres so Romanillos has assigned them sequence numbers. Guitars from the second epoch are given the designation “SE” followed by a construction sequence number. In some cases, the catalog number has been augmented with a letter (A, B, C, etc.) where a new instrument has come to light since the original catalog. The letter “U” has been used to designate an instrument where the sequence number on the label (typically added by Torres for second-epoch labels) is missing or illegible. 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 24, 2026July 24, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Martin de Witte Meet the Maker: Martin de Witte by Federico Sheppard Originally published in American Lutherie #115, 2013 My task seemed fairly routine. I was delivering guitars in a quiet residential neighborhood of The Hague in the Netherlands. The area was densely populated, mostly with homes, a small retail area, and none of the modern urban standards such as convenience stores or strip malls. It looked as if it hadn’t changed much since World War II, with unbroken rows of tidy brick houses standing two stories high, cars lining both sides of the narrow street, and bicycles chained to posts on the sidewalks. But inside one of the unassuming apartments, about 150M from a large canal, I visited the cluttered shop of Martin de Witte, which seemed like its own world. I doubted his neighbors even knew about the little one-man operation inside. The years seemed to turn back even centuries further as I admired his authentic period instruments. The quiet fifty-one year old is a man of few words, which I have paraphrased as best I could from memory. Many thanks to guitarist and guitar collector Chris Erwich for making this interview possible. 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 17, 2026July 21, 2026 by Dale Phillips Let’s Catch Up With Fabio Ragghianti Let’s Catch Up With Fabio Ragghianti by Brian Yarosh Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 Back in the spring of 2000, AL#61 was published with an interesting and well-written “Meet the Maker” article on Fabio Ragghianti by Harry Fleishman. Shortly after that article was published, I had the pleasure to meet Fabio at Harry’s shop in Boulder, Colorado. Now that I’ve become a close friend of Fabio’s and a fellow traveler on his most recent adventurers in lutherie, I felt it fitting to discuss with him what has gone on in the past thirteen years and what might be in store over the next thirteen. I’m sure there is a lot to cover since your interview with Harry back in 2000. First off, how are you doing? Family good? Besides a few minor health problems due to aging, I guess I’m fine all in all. I still live with my wife Luciana in the same 17th-century house with 80CM thick walls up on a hill in Tuscany. When Harry visited, my shop was here in the basement. Eight years ago, I opened a shop in the nearby town of Pietrasanta, specifically to make it easier for customers to find me. I still do a lot of repair, which pays the bills, and I like it. Repairs, besides the routine stuff, can be very challenging and require creativity, ingenuity, and intuition. But the most important change in my life was the birth of my grandson Milo, in September 2011. 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.
