Posted on January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Partial Refrets Partial Refrets by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Partial refrets are a somewhat different matter than a full refret. Full refrets are often done for reasons other than worn frets, such as a compression refret to take excess relief out of a neck with a nonoperative or nonadjustable truss rod, or to allow a fretboard hump at the body joint to be dressed out. Partial refrets are usually performed on an instrument that has been played exclusively on the first few frets. Those frets have been grooved by the strings to the point where the strings buzz on the seldom-used frets. Most of the time I like to replace a couple of the unmarred frets as well just to play it safe. Occasionally a fret in the middle of the fretboard gets damaged and must be replaced. The procedure for this is similar to a partial refret for worn frets. There are other reasons to perform a partial refret, such as installing taller frets by the nut to make a slightly back-bowed neck playable, but these considerations are not covered here. I used to dislike partial refrets and tried to talk the customer into a full refret. This insured that the same fretwire covered the entire fretboard and also put more money in my pocket. After a slight mental adjustment and some practice at partial refrets I have come to look forward to them. The money involved is less, but partial refrets are normally far less complicated than a full refret and take a predictable amount of time. 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 January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: John Calkin Meet the Maker: John Calkin by Lamar Scomp Originally published in American Lutherie #99, 2009 John Calkin lives in my neighborhood. He’s trying to teach me to build guitars. We talk about lots of things, but we always start with guitars. Finally he says to me, “Lamar, why don’t we talk into a tape machine about me, and if it’s any good, I’ll type it up and send it in.” Well shoot, with a confidence boost like that, who could say no? So here’s the talkin’ — if’n he liked it. Where was you born, and how come you’re here in Virginia? Don’t jump in time so fast, Lamar. You’ll get the hang of this as we go. I was born in New Jersey. It was a good place to be a boy when I was one. Now it’s not a good place for anyone, and that’s why I’m in Virginia. 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 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Hearing Voices: A Recipe for Voicing the Steel String Guitar Hearing Voices: A Recipe for Voicing the Steel String Guitar by John Greven from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 Let’s discuss a vocabulary for tone. These are the words I use when I talk to my customers. Power. We’re talking about headroom, the ability to get louder when you play harder. Responsiveness. I want a top that will respond easily to a light touch, but it will also sustain under a heavy one. The finished guitar will have a full voice played lightly or heavily or anywhere in between. A lot of guitars require a heavy touch; as playing pressure diminishes, the voice gets thin and loses its full substance. Projection. How far away can you hear it? I want the guitar to throw its voice as far as possible. When I was at Gruhn’s, a 1937 D-28 came in, all original. The top was the thinnest we’d seen on a herringbone, about .090", but it was really stiff. The sound of that guitar was painful, but you could hear it for miles. For a bluegrasser trying to play lead over six banjos, that’s the guitar. 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 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Summary of John Greven’s Voicing Method A Summary of John Greven’s Voicing Method by Mike Doolin Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 John Greven has been building guitars for fifty years, and has single-handedly built over 2200 guitars in that time. Doing the math, that means he averages close to a guitar a week. Given that kind of efficiency, it’s not surprising that his methods for controlling the sound of his guitars are simple and direct. He’s distilled the huge number of variables down to the handful that he believes are most important, and has evolved testing methods that take only seconds and require no measurement tools. While John is a trained scientist, and does speak of the scientific aspects of guitars and wood, he’s quick to point out that his methods are not scientific, but intuitive and experiential. This is a major problem in documenting his methods: in a sense, you have to be John Greven to fully understand them. They rely on John’s vast experience in building thousands of guitars, and playing those guitars and thousands of guitars by other builders, and on his “photographic” memory for sound, and the database of sounds that his experience and memory have created in his head. Moreover, sound is not accurately describable in words, and tactile sense is not accurately quantifiable. 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 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Production Techniques for the Custom Luthier Production Techniques for the Custom Luthier by Charles Fox from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #110, 2012 Tim Olsen: It’s my pleasure to introduce Charles Fox, America’s lutherie teacher number one. Charles, didn’t you used to teach in yurts? (laughter) There weren’t many lutherie teachers in America during the early ’70s. Charles has a lot of credits, but to me, the credit that beats all others is that this is the guy who taught Fred Carlson. That means a lot to me. So please welcome Charles Fox. (applause) Charles Fox: Yes, I am proud of Fred. In fact, I’m proud of so many people who have been through my classes. How many here have spent time with me? Wow, look at that. You’ve gotten so old. (laughter) I arrived late yesterday, and John Greven was just finishing his talk. I went up in the back and looked down, and all I saw was bald and gray. (laughter) We’ve got to do something to get more young people into the field. The way guitar making is evolving suggests a glorious future, but if a new group of people doesn’t come along to take it over, it might have just been a moment in history. Today I’m going to discuss and demonstrate some practical approaches to being more prolific luthiers. Many processes that make guitar making relatively easy, efficient, accurate, and consistent in a production situation can be adapted to the needs of the creative custom builder. Having been in both worlds, I can tell you that there’s a lot you can do to become more efficient without compromising quality. 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.
