Posted on August 31, 2026August 31, 2026 by Dale Phillips Cutting a Fanned-Fret Fingerboard Cutting a Fanned-Fret Fingerboard by Mike Doolin Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003, Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Here’s a simple method for accurately slotting a fanned-fret fingerboard using fretting templates. I made two saw guides of 1/2˝ aluminum angle stock, slotting them using my usual Stew-Mac blade and templates. Then I double-stick taped them to the fretboard and sawed the slots with a backsaw, using the slots in the aluminum to guide the saw. I chose my two scales and purchased plexiglas templates for them to fit my Stew-Mac fretting setup. Then I made a dummy fretboard to allow me to slot the aluminum pieces using that same setup. The dummy fretboard is made out of scrap which is 1/4˝ thick along one edge and 1/2˝ thick along the other edge. I attached one of the fretting templates to the 1/4˝ edge with double-sided carpet tape, taped the aluminum to the 1/2˝ edge, and slotted the leading edge of the aluminum to a depth of 5/16˝. Photo 1 shows the dummy fretboard and an aluminum piece in the slotting setup. 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 August 28, 2026August 28, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Simple Binding Rabbet Sander It Worked for Me: Simple Binding Rabbet Sander by Doug Berch Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017 Occasionally I’m left with an area in a binding rebate that is a little lumpy or ragged after routing and/or hand cutting. I can usually clean these areas up with a chisel, small scraper or file, but sometimes it is difficult to smoothly fair a curve along a top or back. Today I got the idea to take a small scrap of square kerfed lining and glue a piece of sandpaper to it (Photo 1). It is, in effect, a flexible file that conforms to the curve and smooths out any irregularities (Photo 2). The sides of this gizmo provide “safe edges” like on a file, and it is easy to keep the rebate square to the soundboard. This simple tool saved me about an hour of work today. ◆ Photo 1. Both photos by Doug Berch. Photo 2
Posted on August 5, 2026August 5, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Make a Vise from a Workmate It Worked for Me: Make a Vise from a Workmate by Steve Kennel Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 Now, more than ever, I feel the need to get a grip. The Workmate is a brilliant piece of design, but the heart of the beast is that big flat and conveniently not-necessarily parallel vise/work surface. I was using mine for holding woodcut printing blocks while carving, and found the Workmate itself to be too low and too wobbly. I robbed the vise mechanism from it, welded a piece of angle steel to the underside of each adjuster (Photo 1), and ran screws through those new brackets to mount the vise hardware on a plywood base that could be clamped to my workbench (Photo 2). This made the thing tall enough and sturdy enough to be useful for me. I also made new and shorter plywood jaws, as I wanted the thing to take up as little room as possible. The whole unit now fits under a workbench with a bunch of workshop flotsam when not in use. 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 July 16, 2026July 16, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Magnets Hold Truss Rod Cover It Worked for Me: Magnets Hold Truss Rod Cover by Jon Sevy Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 I use truss rods that are adjustable at the peghead, which requires a cover for the exposed truss-rod nut and groove. I usually make the covers out of rosewood, and have for some time been securing them with several small brass screws. One thing users frequently do when they get one of my guitars, especially when they live in a different region of the country with different humidity, is to remove the cover and adjust the truss rod to get the relief and action to their liking. However, to my extreme vexation, they almost never put the truss rod cover back on after adjusting! I’ve seen photos and videos of several of my guitars being played, and almost always there’s a gaping hole (to my vision) at the end of the neck with the truss rod showing. It finally dawned on me that those little screws were just enough of a PITA for the owners that they decided to bag the covers. And in truth, I found them a bit irritating myself. So I started thinking of ways to affix the covers without using screws. I considered some sort of compression clip or spring that would squeeze into the truss rod slot, but never came up with anything that seemed likely to work, until I saw some little neodymium magnets at the local hobby shop. 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 July 15, 2026July 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Junk Plane Makes Sanding Beam Handle It Worked for Me: Junk Plane Makes Sanding Beam Handle by Aaron Cash Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 I use a large aluminum radius beam to radius my fretboards by hand. I plane the edges of the fretboard to approximate the shape of the radius, then use woven-fabric double-stick carpet tape to affix it to my shooting board (Photo 1). The beam is hard to hold onto, so I used some of the carpet tape to attach an old handyman plane body to the top of the beam. I run the beam down the edge of the shooting board to make sure I won’t drift to either side (Photo 2). This is much more comfortable, and it’s not permanent, so I can use the same plane body on different-sized beams. ◆ Photo 1. Both photos by Aaron Cash. Photo 2
