Posted on February 1, 2026April 1, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Curly Koa Sides It Worked for Me: Curly Koa Sides by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 Recently I was faced with the gnarliest set of curly koa sides I’ve ever worked with. I was building a custom tenor ukulele, and the client had personally selected the woods. After thinning the sides, I gently flexed one to check its stiffness, and the darn thing broke! I was able to glue it back together, but I was sure that in the bending process the glue would soften and it would fall apart again. So I installed another clamp bar on my bending form, just at the point of the break, clamped the sides down securely at that point, and proceeded to bend outwards in both directions (Photo 1). 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 February 1, 2026April 1, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked For Me: Nut Spacing It Worked For Me: Nut Spacing by Graham McDonald Originally published in American Lutherie #127, 2016 Getting the correct string spacing at the nut on mandolin family instruments can be tricky. The nut width is often quite small and you need to fit four or sometimes five double courses of strings. It is not only the distance between the courses which is important, but also the distance between the strings of each course (the intracourse distance) which can make a real difference in the feel and playability of the instrument. A friend who has an early Steve Gilchrist A-5 mandolin brought it to me a few years ago for a nut replacement. He was insistent that I duplicate the string spacing, as it was about as good as it was going to get. This mandolin had a 30MM (1 3/16") nut. I needed to document the spacings in order to be able to replicate the nut. The best thing I could think of doing was to slide a short steel ruler under the strings in front of the nut and take a photo. This was a few cameras back so the maximum resolution was only 1600×1200 pixels, but still, it clearly shows where the strings sit in relation to the edges of the fretboard and to each other. A printout at maximum resolution is a handy thing to have stuck on the wall above the bench. Photo by Graham McDonald. Of course, it is not just mandolins that this can be used for. I am sure we have all found guitars or other instruments where the strings just sit comfortably on the fretboard under the left hand. Building up a small collection of such digital images could come in quite handy. ◆
Posted on February 1, 2026April 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Adapting Dreadnaught It Worked for Me: Adapting Dreadnaught by Charles Freeborn Originally published in American Lutherie #119, 2014 I decided to add a parlor guitar model to my existing line by adapting the dreadnaught-sized Freestyle model to the smaller dimensions. I started with the Freestyle’s CAD drawing, then offset the body shape inward 1/2" (Photo 1). Since I construct my instruments in an external mold, I asked myself “why not do the same thing to the existing mold, by adding a removable sleeve?” That way my current mold could be used for both the original model and its smaller sibling (Photo 2). 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 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.
