Posted on October 23, 2026November 10, 2026 by Dale Phillips Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part One Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part One by Federico Sheppard Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 See also, Seeking the Holy Grail: Torres’ FE08, Part Two by Federico Sheppard While yet in love with life, aged twenty-three and enraptured by the world, I encountered the following offer of employment: HELP WANTED Young squire needed for intrepid mission to capture, contain, or copy that most sacred of relics known to mankind, the Holy Grail. Age and skills unimportant, but the applicant must have thick skin, and be willing to endure the most lethal of criticisms, those aimed at the heart. Candidate must lack fear of all kinds, especially travel, and must develop the ability to learn from mistakes, no matter how painful. The more painful, the better, actually. 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 October 1, 2026October 26, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Makers: David and Rob Rodgers Meet the Makers: David and Rob Rodgers by Cyndy Burton with Jeffrey R. Elliott¸ Originally published in American Lutherie #109, 2012 About thirty-five years ago, a very successful design engineer discovered that the best tuners found on classical guitars did not work very well. He had previously designed and made large equipment like precision grinding machines and saws for cutting metal joists. While still working at his day job, he experimented in his home workshop and figured out how to make precision tuning machines that not only work very well, but are beautiful. In May of 2010, Jeff Elliott and I met David Rodgers and his wife/partner Muriel in the Leicester train station (about 75 miles north of London), where they greeted us like old friends, though we knew each other only through our business correspondence. (Full disclosure: Yes, we’ve been Rodgers’ customers for over thirty years.) They drove us to their home in nearby Kirby Muxloe, where we spent a delightful few days in their home and shop, and visited as well with their son and business partner Rob in his shop just across the road. After sitting down with our requisite tea, we began our conversation. 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 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 July 15, 2026July 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips The $75 Guitar Challenge The $75 Guitar Challenge by Doug Hunt and Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 Mark: A couple years ago, I was walking around a big home store and started to wonder whether it would be possible to build a guitar only from things I could buy there. Obviously, they didn’t sell tuners, fretwire, or truss rods. However, I thought it might be possible if one had those three things. I decided that, given those parts, it might be possible to make a guitar with $75 to spend at the home store. Thinking it might be an interesting challenge, I suggested the idea to Doug Hunt. Doug and I have been guitar-making friends for years, having met as part of a project aiming to teach technical subjects to high school students through guitar making. (Check it out at guitarbuilding.org.) He was interested, though not looking for one more thing to do at the time. A while later, he suggested that a better idea would be to start with a budget of $75 that could be spent anywhere (he’s a big fan of eBay, as it happens). As long as the money could be spent anywhere, he thought that it might be possible to do the whole instrument for $75. Over some months of occasionally revisiting the idea, we did a little negotiating and settled on the following rules: 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 May 22, 2026May 22, 2026 by Dale Phillips Peg Shapers That You Can Adjust Peg Shapers That You Can Adjust by David Golber Originally published in American Lutherie #96, 2008 There are two meanings of the word “adjustable.” One is that you loosen some screws, and some part becomes moveable. Then, if you have superhuman fineness of hand and eye, you can put that part in exactly the right place, and then tighten the screws — hoping that tightening the screws won’t move the part out of place again! The other meaning of “adjustable” is that ordinary human beings can get the part into the right place. Photo 1 shows the usual kind of peg shaper on the right. You loosen the screws that hold a blade and then somehow get the blade to exactly the right spot. Some people use these; they don’t work for me. On the left is one of my peg shapers. The crucial difference is the adjusting nuts, which allow mere mortals to actually adjust the thing. 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.
