Posted on June 20, 2019May 26, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Tale of Two Schools A Tale of Two Schools by Fred Carlson previously published in American Lutherie #53, 1998 In 1975 I was a skinny nineteen-year-old with a small beard and a big passion for making wooden musical instruments, living in a commune in northern Vermont. That fall, I had an extraordinary experience. It was one of those experiences that we are blessed with once or twice in our lives if we’re lucky. I had the opportunity to spend six weeks studying guitar building at a small school devoted to that art, run by a man named Charles Fox. Nearly twenty years later, in the spring of 1995, I found myself on the other side of the continent in Santa Cruz, California, my beard shaved off, still building guitars, and still using those few simple, elegant techniques I’d learned twenty years earlier. I’d long ago lost touch with Charles Fox, but in a very real way he was with me. For many years I had a tattered old blue notebook, my guitar-building bible of notes taken during those six weeks spent with Charles and five other young, crazy, would-be guitar builders. I had referred to those notes time and time again. I’m sure I had parts of them memorized. During my big move west in 1989, the notebook was misplaced, and I have yet to find it. Although I lost an old friend with the passing of that worn volume, I discovered that I had learned its lessons. I could build guitars without it! 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 19, 2010September 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Review: Stew-Mac Shaped Braces Product Review: Stew-Mac Shaped Dreadnought Braces Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #79, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Stewart-MacDonald kindly sent along a set of their shaped dreadnought braces for evaluation. This set up such an internal philosophical debate that I'd like to put off the brace examination for a minute. Just how much of an instrument can we job out and still call it our own? Two decades ago, when I was green and full of attitude, the answer was simple — none of it! Beginning luthiers often harbor a purist attitude that can leave them dreaming of harvesting their own trees, processing their own lumber, and drawing upon nothing from outside their shop but machine heads and strings. Those of us who have actually engaged in such activities have usually found them very satisfying but demanding the answer to another question: Do we want to be luthiers or lumberjacks? In other words, reality can bite us in the butt pretty early in the game. There is so much involved in building an instrument that calling for help in the form of commercial parts might be excused or even expected. Will a commercial truss rod degrade the quality of an instrument? No. Will a commercial bridge or pickguard devalue our work? I don't think so. OK, so how about a commercial set of braces? Suddenly it feels like we're heading into a different sort of territory. 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 19, 2010September 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Glued Vs Floating Bridge Questions: Glued Vs Floating Bridge by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #74, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Greg Pacetti of Fairbanks, Alaska asks: Why is it that most all flattop guitars have a glued-on bridge rather than a floating variety, as in the archtop guitar. I know that historically many have been produced this way, but the standard is still towards the fixed, glued-on bridge. I build a particular model in this configuration with good results. R.M. Mottola of Newtonville, Massachusetts answers: The short answer, to borrow a phrase from Fiddler on the Roof, is tradition. We like, or at least we have become accustomed to, the tone of instruments with glued-on bridges. The long answer (at least my long answer) is, well, longer, and much more speculative. 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 19, 2010September 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Adjustable Truss Rods Questions: Adjustable Truss Rods by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #74, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Steven D’Antonio of Bellingham, Massachusetts asks: I have been using the Hot Rod 2-way Adjustable Truss Rods made by Stewart MacDonald for several years with good results. I have been placing them dead center in the neck without any problems that I am aware of. But recently I read something by John Calkin in AL stating that since the treble strings are under more tension than the bass, some luthiers offset their truss rods toward the treble to compensate for the imbalance in tensions. I asked Stew-Mac and also LMII for their advice, and they both suggested dead center placement for the truss rod. If you suggest offsetting towards the treble, how much is enough? John Calkin of Greenville, Virginia answers: It’s pretty common to find that when the neck of a guitar with some age on it is adjusted, the treble side still has a slight bow after the bass side of the fingerboard is flat. Pulling out the bow on the treble side will often fret out some of the bass notes nearest the nut. Usually this is a minor affair, but occasionally the only fix is some fret filing or even a refret after the fretboard has been trued. I tend to think of this as an electric guitar problem, but that may only be because electric guitarists are more obsessive about having the lowest possible action. 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 19, 2010September 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Review: Fossil Ivory Bridge Pins Product Review: Fossil Ivory Bridge Pins by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #74, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Fossil-Ivory Bridge Pins A beautiful guitar sounds better than a merely nice looking one. An expertly appointed guitar sounds better than an adequately detailed guitar. An expert setup sounds better than one that is merely competent. Why? Because our eye prepares our ear. Our sense of detail tells us whether the guitar was finished with passion or with efficiency. Our hands tell us if the guitar will respond to the range of music we need to express. Not only do these assessments affect our ear and the sound we expect to hear, they affect our desire to purchase a guitar. Virtually all guitarists make decisions about a guitar before they even pick it up. If a guitarist is looking for a new guitar and has a wall of them to choose from, he or she may be drawn unconsciously towards the attractive guitar. Clearly attractive is a relative term and people’s ideas of attractive vary. This is not a cynical point, however. We are interested in selling our guitars so that we may continue to build and learn and grow as luthiers. Even at the moment a client opens the case of their custom-made guitar for the first time upon receiving it after their long wait, they will be more positively disposed and prepared for good tone if their guitar looks and feels good. Of course, none of this matters if the guitar cannot deliver the goods. However, unless the client is expecting folk art, they will appreciate the extra details that separate the custom-built, handmade guitar from even its high-end store-bought counterpart. These details extend from the finishing touches on the fingerboard all the way down to the choice of bridge pins. 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.
