Posted on October 23, 2026November 10, 2026 by Dale Phillips Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part One Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part One by Federico Sheppard Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 See also, Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part Two by Federico Sheppard While yet in love with life, aged twenty-three and enraptured by the world, I encountered the following offer of employment: HELP WANTED Young squire needed for intrepid mission to capture, contain, or copy that most sacred of relics known to mankind, the Holy Grail. Age and skills unimportant, but the applicant must have thick skin, and be willing to endure the most lethal of criticisms, those aimed at the heart. Candidate must lack fear of all kinds, especially travel, and must develop the ability to learn from mistakes, no matter how painful. The more painful, the better, actually. 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 October 21, 2026November 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips Stop Giving Your Guitar the Finger Stop Giving Your Guitar the Finger by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #73, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Sometimes we make little changes to our shop routines that end up making large differences to our working lives. These small changes may have scant repercussions at the time, but they are cumulative. Comparing your instrument-making procedures from one year to the next should find that they have been streamlined and improved. Sometimes the result is nicer instruments, but just as often it is a nicer time spent at work, though in the end, I believe they will be the same thing. If your shop life is more pleasant and efficient, it has to show up in your instruments as higher quality and/or higher production. These changes seldom come as a thunderbolt that makes a quantum change, but more often as a nudge in a direction that feels good and makes me smile. At the same time a bit of self-rebuke may arise for not installing a change when it was first thought of. In some cases years may separate the birth of an idea and its initiation in the shop. I here offer you some of my little changes. Your reaction to some of them may be, “Well, heck, I thought that was obvious!” That only means you should have shared the idea with us long ago. 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 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.
Posted on June 24, 2019May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Grading and Resawing Lutherie Wood Resawing Lutherie Wood by Bruce Creps previously published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 See also, “Sharpening the Stellite Teeth on the 3" Hitachi Blade” by Bruce Creps “Grading and Curing Lumber” by Bruce Creps Harvesting, milling, and processing tonewood can be a wasteful business. Much of the wood used by luthiers comes from large, older trees, elders worthy of respect. As someone fortunate enough to work with these rare, high-grade woods, one of my top goals is to minimize waste by processing this valuable resource efficiently. This article concerns the Hitachi CB75F resaw, though much of what follows is general enough to be applicable to other resaws. Luthiers who buy resawn sets might glean information about how their wood is processed and what to request or avoid when ordering. A note on nomenclature: A resaw is an upright or horizontal bandsaw set up to make uniform rip cuts. The front of the saw is where you start feeding a cut. The face of a board is its wide, longitudinal surface; the edge is its narrow longitudinal surface; the end is its crosscut surface. The resaw blade is made up of its band and its teeth (terms not necessarily interchangeable). I refer to vertical-grain wood in place of quartersawn wood to avoid confusion, since a sawyer can get vertical-grain cuts without quartering a log. 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 January 6, 2010May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Reviewed by Ernest Nussbaum Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Review: Selected Articles from VSA Journal Violin Society of America 48 Academy St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601 Vol. VII No. 3. (All the articles in this issue were originally presented as papers at the VSA’s Tenth Annual Convention in November 1982, and include discussion based on questions from the audience.) Peggy Shipman: “Retouching: Methods and Materials.” Ms. Shipman’s paper mentions the use of water color; choosing the right wood for repairs and possible heat treatment for same, types of stains, color theory, the use of oil vs. alcohol varnish, pigments and coloring materials, and brush types. Herbert A. Wilson: “Space Age Technology for the Violin World.” Mr. Wilson manufactures an abrasive called “Micro-Mesh” which can be used for producing an ultra-fine finish on many surfaces including those of musical instruments. (The material is also sold on a foam backing under the name “Polysand.”) The paper deals with where, when, and how to use this material, how it acts on a surface, and how its action differs from that of other abrasives/polishing agents. 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.
