Posted on September 2, 2026September 2, 2026 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Mandolin tuners Product Reviews: Mandolin tuners by JAmes Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 About ten years ago, I was in the middle of a guitar lesson when my teacher suddenly put down his guitar and picked up a mandolin to describe a moment of musical universality. I was instantly hooked; the giant light bulb appeared above my head; I realized I could build a nice mandolin from my guitar off-cuts and scrap pile. I didn’t know anything about mandolin tuning machines, so I let a fellow at the local fiddle shop sell me a set that turned the gears in the reverse direction for every string. I thought they were a bit deco and fun. A few weeks later I found myself backstage at North Carolina’s Merlefest, new mandolin in hand, talking up a storm with one of the more popular (anonymous) mandolin players in the world who also can sing a great story while sawing on his fiddle. Quirky fellow that he is, he picked up my new mandolin and turned the first string a few cents out of tune in the wrong direction. After he adjusted the other seven strings, retuning the entire mandolin flat, he told me never to use those tuners again! That day I realized I needed a lot more information on what tuners were out there and how they worked. 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 31, 2026August 31, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: Fretboard Radiusing Jig It Worked for Me: Fretboard Radiusing Jig by James Blilie Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017 I have always found creating the fretboard radius a laborious process. I never liked sanding it all the way using a radiused sanding block: too slow, too much work. I wanted a way to get it close enough so that the final sanding with the radius block and the 180-grit sandpaper would complete the job quickly and without so much effort. I’ve seen several luthiers use a shaper to put the basic radius on. (I don’t have a shaper.) I used to sometimes use a plane to rough out the radius before sanding, but this method was laborious and hard to control. Dissatisfied with my previous methods, I designed and built a jig that bolts onto my 6˝×48˝ flatbed belt sander and provides the radius for the fretboard. The inner frame holds the fretboard using double-stick cloth carpet tape. This sits inside of and is bolted to an outer frame that clamps to the sander, using locating pins. (I drilled holes in the sander frame and put the pins into the wooden jig frame.) The interface between the inner frame and the outer frame is a radius. Both sides of the interface are cut from a single piece of 3/4˝ Baltic hardwood plywood (well, two pieces, one for each end; I screwed them together for cutting the radius). Take great care cutting the radius as this single bandsaw cut defines the interface. This radius is not the desired radius of your fretboard: It is the desired fretboard radius minus the distance from the interface to the sanding bed. This radius must be calculated as part of the design of the jig. 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 7, 2026August 7, 2026 by Dale Phillips “Restomodding” Wall-Hanger Guitars “Restomodding” Wall-Hanger Guitars by Roger Häggström Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Cheap guitars were made in great numbers all over the world at the beginning of the last century. In Sweden, the driving force behind a burgeoning interest in guitars was the independent church movement. The prevailing sentiment was that every able-bodied parishioner should be able to play three chords on a guitar at prayer meetings and fundraisers (Photo 1). Many of these instruments still exist, mostly in unplayable condition. I have found ways to restore these wonderful old guitars and make them play and sound better than ever. I love the bass-balanced sound of old-style ladder bracing in a small steel-strung parlor guitar. The complex sounds keep me wanting to play another chord. Modern X bracing gives more bass but also less varied tone, in my opinion. 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: Magnetic Table Saw Jig for Narrow Ripping It Worked for Me: Magnetic Table Saw Jig for Narrow Ripping by Bob Gleason Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 Here is a simple jig I use when I cut binding or kerfing strips (Photo 1). For this repetitive operation I needed an easy way to set up to cut the strips and also to add a zero throat to the saw. This will work on any table saw with a cast-iron table. It is simply a piece of cabinet-grade 3/4˝ plywood, cut to an appropriate size to fit your saw table, with six powerful magnets glued flush into the underside (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 July 14, 2026July 14, 2026 by Dale Phillips Side Bender and Body Mold Cut from One Sheet of Plywood Side Bender and Body Mold Cut from One Sheet of Plywood by Terence Warbey Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 After reading Mark French’s article about his time in the shop of Charles Fox (“A Guitar Is Born: Attending Charles Fox’s Hands-On Guitar Making Course,” AL#136 and Mark’s series, “The Charles Fox Guitar-Building Method,” beginning in AL#139), one idea kept coming back into my mind: “a library of bending forms.” Wouldn’t that be delightful, to have the forms stacked like books rather than my jumble of assembled forms, precariously balanced upon each other on a shelf, collecting dust? I was able to make such a bending form and a matching body mold from a single piece of 24˝×48˝×18MM Baltic-birch plywood, cut into four pieces 12˝×24˝. The bending form uses three upright pieces. They are notched to receive two, also notched, cross pieces. These cross pieces are cut from the spare fourth piece and have a small horizontal piece attached to the bottom of them to easily clamp the assembly down to my Workmate. 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.
