Posted on July 16, 2026July 16, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Magnets Hold Truss Rod Cover It Worked for Me: Magnets Hold Truss Rod Cover by Jon Sevy Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 I use truss rods that are adjustable at the peghead, which requires a cover for the exposed truss-rod nut and groove. I usually make the covers out of rosewood, and have for some time been securing them with several small brass screws. One thing users frequently do when they get one of my guitars, especially when they live in a different region of the country with different humidity, is to remove the cover and adjust the truss rod to get the relief and action to their liking. However, to my extreme vexation, they almost never put the truss rod cover back on after adjusting! I’ve seen photos and videos of several of my guitars being played, and almost always there’s a gaping hole (to my vision) at the end of the neck with the truss rod showing. It finally dawned on me that those little screws were just enough of a PITA for the owners that they decided to bag the covers. And in truth, I found them a bit irritating myself. So I started thinking of ways to affix the covers without using screws. I considered some sort of compression clip or spring that would squeeze into the truss rod slot, but never came up with anything that seemed likely to work, until I saw some little neodymium magnets at the local hobby shop. 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, 2026July 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips New Frets in Old Nibs New Frets in Old Nibs by Ben Haskenhoff Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 A 2004 Hamer Monaco Elite recently passed over my workbench for a refret. It seemed like a good opportunity to take some pictures of my process for refretting a guitar while keeping the binding nibs intact. Photo 1. There were deep grooves and flat spots on the first several frets, and the wear went farther up the neck as well. 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 29, 2026June 29, 2026 by Dale Phillips Review: Michael Bashkin Fretting Course from ObrienGuitars.com Review: Michael Bashkin Fretting Course from ObrienGuitars.com by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Fretting Course with Michael Bashkin Video download ObrienGuitars.com, $134 Twenty-seven lessons, 4:21:49 run time Viewing Michael Bashkin’s video fretting course strongly reminded me that lutherie is a thinking person’s profession. No matter how we learn an operation, and even if we work in the darkest isolation, the work slowly begins to evolve in technique, first in our minds and then on the bench. The goals of lutherie — to produce and maintain the most playable, best sounding instruments — never change, but the ways we get there change all the time. It is difficult to imagine that a luthier might so slavishly follow a teacher that his methods never develop beyond his initial instruction. Michael Bashkin is certainly one of those thinking men, and this course is not a generic description of applying frets to a guitar neck that we’ve all been exposed to those over the years. It is an in-depth method of discovering problems in a guitar neck/fretboard and solving them in such a way that the frets are perfect once they are installed, no final fret dressing required — just polish and play. 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 24, 2026June 24, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Robert Anderson Meet the Maker: Robert Anderson by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Robert Anderson took the long road to banjo building, just as so many of us have approached lutherie. The instrument first came to his attention during a TV appearance by Eddie Peabody, but the desire to play came from Earl Scruggs via the movie Bonnie and Clyde. “My first banjo was a tenor because I didn’t know any better.” That’s a mistake many beginners have made. Once set on the right path, he acquired a cheap 5-string banjo just before starting college at Kent State in Ohio. As luck would have it, as he moved into his dorm room he heard bluegrass-style banjo being played in the room next door. His dorm neighbor, Ken Serger, became his first banjo instructor. 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 22, 2026June 22, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Géza Burghardt Meet the Maker: Géza Burghardt by Cindy Burton Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 I met Géza and his wife and business partner, Tini, at the 1998 GAL Convention in Tacoma. I’d been hearing about him for several years and was really looking forward to our chat. Three hours whizzed by as Géza told his remarkable story, a true immigrant success story. He, Tini, and their young daughter Eszter arrived in Vancouver, B.C. in 1988 with little more than the shirts on their backs. They spoke very little English. Twelve years later they have a thriving lutherie business, a beautiful shop, and a comfortable life. What follows is Géza’s story in his own words. I was fourteen years old when I became an apprentice in a special woodworking school in Hungary for three years to become a pattern maker. This is an extremely complicated job requiring great precision. We were taught to do everything by hand. We were not allowed to use any power machines, not even a grinder to grind the chisels. After you were done with a job it was sent to a special room for checking. There was no tolerance — not even a tenth of a millimeter. They’d send it back and you’d have to fix it, and your salary went down. 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.
