Posted on April 7, 2022May 13, 2025 by Dale Phillips Violin Setups, Part One Violin Setups, Part One by Michael Darnton from his 1990 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #35, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 See also, Violin Setups, Part Two by Michael Darnton Setups represent one of the most important aspects of violin work. They are the most changeable part of a violin and can make the difference between a customer liking or hating a violin. People who do setups for a living in large shops do a lot of them — countless numbers of bridges, pegs, posts, and nuts. If you’re making one or two or twenty instruments a year you’re not going to be doing many setups. For the people who do those things everyday, it’s a very specialized art and they have very rigorous standards. With that in mind I’m going to try to communicate to you some of those standards, along with some actual “how-to” hints. Tools A bench hook (Photo 1) is simply a piece of wood that has a strip nailed to the bottom on one end and a strip nailed to the top on the other end. It hooks over the front edge of the bench and gives a stop to work against. On the under side of my bench hook I’ve glued a piece of sandpaper (Photo 2). If a tiny, thin piece of wood needs to be planed thinner, I flip over the bench hook and use the sandpaper as a traction area. 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 4, 2022May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Router Trimming Attachment Router Trimming Attachment by James Gilbert Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #135, 1980 This attachment plate is used on the Dremel Moto-Tool in place of the regular router base plate. The other end is drilled and slotted to fit the Sears router attachment part #25731. The Sears attachment is used for laminate trimming. It has an adjustable slide and a roller guide to follow contours easily. The full size drawing below could serve as a rough template for cutting and drilling a piece of 3/16" aluminum. The only modification that I have made to the manufactured units is to drill an extra hole in the Sears attachment for securing it to the base plate. This way it can still be used on a regular router. ◆
Posted on October 25, 2021May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-holes by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll by Robert J. Spear I have little doubt that artists, artisans, and architects of the Renaissance and Baroque used some system of guidance for their drawings that was based on the knowledge of geometry and the use of straightedge and divider. I began my drawing adventure almost five years ago by following the guidelines for the geometric design of the Model G in Sacconi’s book and soon discovered errors. Even so, I was convinced that it would be worthwhile to use a classical Cremonese approach based on geometry because I wanted to see if I could integrate it with Hutchins and Schelleng’s scaling theories used for the New Violin Family. While the acoustical aspects of the exercise are not germane here, I worked to realize a design system that would essentially produce a second generation of octet instruments close to a classical Cremonese violin in the style of the Model G Stradivari. My goal was to impart a greater uniformity to the octet family’s models, but to keep this article within bounds I have confined my remarks to the violin. There are those who question whether geometric design really played an important role in violin design and suggest that the model outline could be designed freehand. Others allow that some sort of geometrical or proportion scheme was used, but that it was not based on the golden section. A few ask why one can’t just get a good photo of a good model and enlarge or reduce it at the local copy center. You can (and I did at first), but because strange things start to happen in the larger and smaller instruments during the scaling process, straight scaling does not hold up. Still others, including Sacconi, stress that the eye was the final arbiter of any design, no matter how it was derived. I will attempt to address all of these points in this series of articles. 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 September 22, 2021May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Shop-Made Bandsaw Dust Port Shop-Made Bandsaw Dust Port by John Calkin Published online by Guild of American Luthiers, September 2021 My old bandsaw was made before dust ports were added to every power machine, so I made one out of wood. It's a close copy of the heavy-gauge steel cover for the lower wheel but made out of light plywood. The dust port itself was purchased and screwed to the cover. A mahogany interface to accept the 3" vacuum hose was made to fit the port. The sides of the cover were kerfed to permit easy bending to match the original metal cover. I think the rest of the construction is self-explanatory. ◆ All photos by John Calkin
Posted on September 22, 2021May 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Paul Schuback Story The Paul Schuback Story from his 1986 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Paul Schuback was born in Barbados in the West Indies in 1946 and moved to the United States at the age of nine months. Through his experiences and training, he lived in thirty-three different homes before the age of twenty. His interest in musical instruments began when he was quite young, when he took up the violin at the age of seven. At the age of nine he began playing the cello, joining a youth symphony orchestra in Utah at the age of fifteen. Then, before graduating high school, he began his career as a luthier with a three-year apprenticeship to master Rene Morizot, in Mirecourt, France. Following this, he specialized in violin making in Mittenwald, Germany. He then became a graduate in bow making at the Morizot Freres again in Mirecourt, France. He continued his studies by researching historical instruments in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. From 1968 to 1971 he worked as journeyman in the Peter Paul Prier violin shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Portland, Oregon, where he established his own workshop and where he resides today. 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.
