Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar by Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Review: Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar by Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Reviewed by Dave Maize Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Supply Shop Video tape, 90 minutes Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar is a 90-minute video sold by Stewart-MacDonald originally to accompany their Herringbone Guitar Kit. The kit has since been discontinued but individual parts are still available. The video guides the beginning luthier through the process of building a rosewood and spruce Herringbone dreadnaught. The video is well-organized, dividing its time between constructing the body, finishing and fitting the neck to the body, sanding and finishing and setup. The producers of the video have realized that the viewer may be building their one and only guitar. Therefore, they have successfully attempted to demonstrate the process using a fairly modest array of tools (razor knife, straightedge, chisel, coping saw, router, and a few clamps). In addition, the video avoids requiring the novice to build elaborate jigs just to get their first taste of lutherie. A clever heavy-cardboard inside form and outside U-shaped holder keep the rim in the correct shape until top and back are attached, avoiding having to build a more time-consuming outside mold. A nice feature of the tape is the use of a simply built, versatile workboard which is used in a variety of configurations throughout the process. 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, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock by Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Review: Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock by Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Reviewed by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Paddington Press Ltd. 1977 Out of print (1999) Of all the popular (as opposed to strictly scholarly) histories of the guitar, this is in my opinion by far the best. Laid out in five broad sections (classical guitar, at 150 pages the longest; flamenco guitar; the guitar in Latin America; steel string acoustic guitar; and electric guitar), the book goes into considerable detail on the musical styles, composers and performers, social background, and styles of construction of the instrument. Regarding this last, luthiers will be especially interested in the “Gallery” section of each chapter, consisting of photographs, measurements, and very thorough descriptions of typical and exceptional instruments from each phase of the guitar’s history. In addition, there are visits to the workshop of classical guitar maker José Romanillos and the factory of the Gibson company. 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, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) by Ian C. Bishop Review: The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) by Ian C. Bishop Reviewed by Gary Frisbie Originally published in American Lutherie #28, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) Ian C. Bishop The Bold Strummer, 1990 ISBN 0-933224-46-X (Volume 1) ISBN 0-933224-47-8 (Volume 2) These are books from the ’70s, written by an Englishman and intended to provide a wealth of information on the Gibson guitars built from 1950 to the end of the ’70s when the second volume was published. Volume 1 would appear to be the more essential of the two because it covers the major lines of solidbody and hollowbody electrics, plus the jazz and flattop acoustics. However, Volume 2 is really just as important, because the author discusses omissions and inaccuracies which occurred in Volume 1, and also because he covers the Epiphone guitars produced under Gibson auspices, as well as Japanese Epiphones. Also discussed are some off-brand peculiarities such as Kalamazoos and Dwights. Because there are so many myths and assumed facts regarding these instruments, it is hard to believe that everything written in these books is true. However, a great majority of the material seems to be accurate, and one could do worse than to consult these books as a reference to the authenticity of a given guitar. The author even states that one of his main goals is to provide enough information for a reader to accurately assess a guitar and thereby avoid paying more than is warranted if the guitar is being misrepresented as older and more collectible than it really is. 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, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations by Robert Carl Hartman Review: Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations by Robert Carl Hartman Reviewed by John Bromka Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations Robert Carl Hartman Maurer & Co., 1984 $39.95 from amazon.com (1999) Every fine luthier of creative and abundant output should be so lucky as to have a memory book devoted to preserving his art and times. Robert Carl Hartman has done a thorough job of this for his grandfather Carl Larson and Carl’s brother August, who together maintained a lutherie business from the 1880s to 1944. A great portion of the Larsons’ output was built to order to receive the manufacturers’ and distributors’ labels of Maurer, Prairie State, Dyer, and Stahl. If you are not yet familiar with the Larson brothers or their instruments (am I too far east of Midwest?), you’re in for a treat. The Larsons built beautiful and highly original instruments, and a large sample of designs are given here among the book’s 150 photographs and drawings. Included are mandolins, mandolas, mandocello and bass, flattop and archtop guitars, acoustic bass guitar, and harp mandolins and guitars. A chart of measurements is given with each instrument. Reprints of the guitar patents give very thorough drawings, descriptions, theory, and reasoning behind such innovations as laminated braces, further developed X bracing, through-the-body truss rods, and building under tension. Testimonials from Stefan Grossman, George Gruhn, and Johnny Cash, and a humorous reminiscence from Les Paul give further incentive to look into the Larsons’ designs. 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 5, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars by Jonathan Kellerman Review: With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars by Jonathan Kellerman Reviewed by Walter Carter Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars by Jonathan Kellerman ISBN: 978-0345499783 Ballantine Books 2008 Best-selling novelist Jonathan Kellerman is also well-known for his guitar collection, particularly his affinity for the acoustic Hawaiian guitars of Knutsen and Weissenborn. Photos of those guitars make up a significant portion of With Strings Attached, but there are plenty of other unanticipated highlights among the book’s 344 pages. We’ve all seen books filled with fine guitars from impressive collections. The photos of Kellerman’s guitars by Jonathan Exley are exquisite, and the book certainly lives up to its subtitle, The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars, on the strength of photos alone. But what sets this book apart are — just as you would expect from a novelist — the stories. Much of this reviewer’s work was done for him in the introductions by Andy Summers (guitarist with The Police) and Kellerman’s son Jesse (also a novelist) and Kellerman himself. Summers tells of a visit to the studio that houses the collection. “Jon began telling me about them,” Summers writes. “For every guitar, he had a great story.... Each guitar in Jon’s collection seemed to have a true and unique character, which — to me, anyway — is the mark of a great instrument.” 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.
