Posted on March 4, 2022May 30, 2025 by Dale Phillips Reinventing the Celluloid Tortoise Reinventing the Celluloid Tortoise by Henry Stocek Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Celluloid is a dinosaur, and making it is a disappearing art. Only musical instruments and ping-pong balls require it anymore. Yet it is the only plastic that can resemble organic materials, have a beautiful depth in its look, and be sliced into thin sheets that remain stable. Acetates and resins still cannot achieve the look and remain stable at the thicknesses required for pickguards. Its composition is very simple: cellulose soaked in a nitric acid solution and plasticized with camphor. Cellulose is derived from the cell walls of any plant. Cotton used to be the source of the cellulose used to make celluloid, but I think wood is the main source today because it’s the cheapest. In 1846, it was discovered that if cotton was soaked in a nitric acid solution, they got nitrocellulose. With a lot of nitric acid, it becomes an explosive — gun cotton. The Navy shoots big guns with this even today. With a less acidic application, the nitrocellulose is a nonexplosive stuff that can be molded into solid shapes, although it is very brittle. About 1860, John Wesley Hyatt accidentally discovered that by adding camphor, an aromatic paste from an Asian tree (think Vicks and mothballs), the nitrocellulose became a moldable solid that did not get brittle. Hence, celluloid. Today, solvents like acetone and alcohol are used to blend it. It’s cooked under pressure once the color composition has been established. It is an approximate science — more art and intuition than exactness. Hence the difficulty in achieving a tortoise pattern and color that come out right. 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 August 11, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Ren-Shaped Precision Mold Material Ren-Shaped Precision Mold Material by Ed Beylerian Originally published in American Lutherie #21, 1990 The demand for ever-increasing quality in end-use products has generated a concurrent need for improved modeling materials. Patterns and molds constructed from traditional materials such as laminated wood and plaster cannot maintain the precise tolerances required by model makers in the automotive, aerospace, foundry, and prototyping industries. With Ren-Shape 450, models can be built with a more stable medium, using precision numerically controlled (NC) machining equipment. I obtained a 2"×16"×60" board of Ren-Shape from Ciba-Geigy corporation, as well as the laminating compound and the repair kit. Ren-Shape is about the same hardness and density of a medium hard wood, and a tan color. The setting time of the two-part laminating compound is easily controlled by the amount of hardener used, and can range from one to six hours. The repair compound sets overnight. 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 March 13, 2020May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Commercial Graphite Acoustic Guitars Commercial Graphite Acoustic Guitars by John A. Decker, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #31, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 Why would anyone want to build an acoustic guitar of graphite? The primary reason is that wooden acoustic guitars (particularly good ones) are fragile. They are especially prone to cracking, warping, and joint separation due to heat, humidity, and water. Graphite/epoxy technology — properly employed, which isn’t easy — can maintain the sound quality of a wooden guitar while completely removing its susceptibility to heat and moisture. During the past seven years Kuau Technology has been working with luthiers at the firm of Pimentel & Sons, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the development of acoustic guitar technology employing fiber-reinforced resins, particularly graphite/epoxy. Our approach has been to duplicate as closely as possible, panel by panel, the acoustic properties of fine wooden classical guitars, rather than attempt to reinvent the guitar de nova. This work has resulted in the development of the RainSong® Graphite Acoustic Guitars,* which we believe to be the first commercially available all-graphite acoustic guitars. 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 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Tusq Martin-Style Bridge Pins Product Reviews: Tusq Martin-Style Bridge Pins by Fred Carlson Originally published in American Lutherie #70, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Graph Tech Tusq Far away at the ends of the earth is a beautiful country called Plasticland, filled with marvelous plastic trees and flowers and peopled with a rugged but gentle folk, some of whom bear striking resemblance to those little plastic Cowboys and Indians many of us grew up with. Here plastic dinosaurs roam rolling hills verdant with AstroTurf, mingling merrily with plastic cows, chickens, and deer. Lots of wondrous items in everyday use in our modern culture are the products of this little-known country, including that which I review for you here today. Sustainable Plasticulture. I’d heard of the material called Tusq before; it’s used for guitar saddles and nuts, and sold by acompany called Graph Tech. But it never occurred to me until Iundertook the extensive research necessary for this review (readers have come to expect this level of expertise in my columns) just where Tusq comes from. Turns out the Graph Tech people have connections with a sustainable plasticulture program in Plasticland, with profits benefiting indigenous Plasticlanders. Using traditional skills passed down through generations, workers harvest the tusks of the plastic elephant that has inhabited their forests since plastic began. The tuskless elephants are confined in giant breakfast cereal boxes until the tusks regenerate, at which time they are reintroduced to the wild. In my travels researching this article, I photographed the actual harvesting process so that our readers can observe this phenomenal event. I also observed numerous other wondrous things on that trip, which I haven’t made up yet, and so I move on to... 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 Review: Shoptalk 6 Review: Shoptalk 6 Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #73, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Shoptalk 6 Stewart-MacDonald Video, 90 minutes, 2002 www.stewmac.com I look forward to each new edition of the Shoptalk videos. They show off the new Stew-Mac tools in the best soft-sell manner by simply demonstrating how they work in a real guitar shop; and on top of that there is always plenty of good randomly gathered information that has nothing to do with selling stuff. The camera work has become excellent, Stew-Mac has developed a fine team of on-camera luthiers, and the cost of the videos is always too low to pass up. You couldn’t beat that combination with a stick. Dan Erlewine leads off with an exhibition of nifty new tools. The BridgeSaver is a set of small hand tools used to repair worn bridge plates and to restore the bridge-pin area of guitar tops. Removing a shot bridge plate has become a last-ditch effort that is frowned upon by vintage folks who wish to maintain instrument originality as much as possible, and by luthiers because it is time consuming and sometimes dangerous to the guitar top. The BridgeSaver removes wood around wallowed-out or misplaced bridge-plate material and/or top material and cuts a mating disk of new wood (not included) to precisely mate with the newly formed hole. The exact procedure is better seen than described. The catalog pictures are good enough to give you the idea, but the video ought to light you up if you’ve done any old-style bridge-plate work in the past. 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.
