Posted on March 1, 2025May 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips Vintage Restoration: Playability and Collectability Vintage Restoration: Playability and Collectability by Joe Konkoly from his 2011 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012 Repair is the term I use for fixing what is broken. It also involves making the instrument playable, although with some older instruments it is not always advisable to try to achieve the level of playability that a modern instrument can deliver. There is often an emphasis to stay within the customer’s budget when doing repair work, and it may not be possible to do everything the instrument deserves. In that case you need to consider making the work reversible. Reversibility in repair work is also important for maintaining collectability. Modification means making improvements by changing the present situation. It can include adding features, upgrading parts, modernizing an instrument, or giving a modern instrument the look and feel of an older instrument. The original intent of the maker, as opposed to just the originality of the instrument, is important to consider when making changes to the instrument. And again, make it reversible. 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, 2024May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Chemical Stains Chemical Stains by Michael Darnton Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 One of the biggest problems for the violin maker trying to replicate the effects of time is the imitation of the color of ancient wood. Even unantiqued instruments benefit from the rich appearance of old, time-darkened wood under a coat of fine varnish. Chemical stains have the greatest promise for replicating the look of old wood. Unlike aniline and pigment dyes which insert foreign colors into the wood, either in the form of a soluble dye or of a solid pigment, chemical stains cause a color change in the wood itself. The change is both permanent and clean-looking when compared to that of aniline and pigment colors. 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 July 8, 2022May 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Guy Rabut Meet the Maker: Guy Rabut by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 On a recent trip to New York, I had the good fortune to visit Guy Rabut in his uptown Manhattan apartment above a small grocery store. We sat in his tiny shop, which was piled high with cardboard boxes in anticipation of Guy’s imminent move into a freshly renovated space in Carnegie Hall. He made the move in October, and now shares this classy address with two violin dealers, Charles Rudig and Fred Oster, and Michael Yeats, a bow maker. Artifacts of wide-ranging artistic sensitivities surrounded us, including Northwest coastal Indian carvings which Guy made during a summer seminar with renowned artist Bill Reed; his intriguing logo in which the proper curves of a violin appear in a cubist jumble; a glass case holding a few of his beautiful finished fiddles; and a pine mock-up of a banjo he plans to build someday. Guy Rabut is one of the Guild’s most faithful members. The May ’74 issue of the GAL Newsletter listed him as a new member, and he hasn’t missed a day since. He is also a member of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. 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 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips Violin Setups, Part One Violin Setups, Part One by Michael Darnton from his 1990 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #35, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 See also, Violin Setups, Part Two by Michael Darnton Setups represent one of the most important aspects of violin work. They are the most changeable part of a violin and can make the difference between a customer liking or hating a violin. People who do setups for a living in large shops do a lot of them — countless numbers of bridges, pegs, posts, and nuts. If you’re making one or two or twenty instruments a year you’re not going to be doing many setups. For the people who do those things everyday, it’s a very specialized art and they have very rigorous standards. With that in mind I’m going to try to communicate to you some of those standards, along with some actual “how-to” hints. Tools A bench hook (Photo 1) is simply a piece of wood that has a strip nailed to the bottom on one end and a strip nailed to the top on the other end. It hooks over the front edge of the bench and gives a stop to work against. On the under side of my bench hook I’ve glued a piece of sandpaper (Photo 2). If a tiny, thin piece of wood needs to be planed thinner, I flip over the bench hook and use the sandpaper as a traction area. 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.
