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.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Banjo Fifth Peg Press Banjo Fifth Peg Press by John M. Colombini Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #207, 1982 and Lutherie Tools, 1990 Procedure: Make a bushing from a 3/4"×3/8" piece of steel or brass round by drilling a 7/32" hole and countersinking one end. Round off the bottom of a 4" C clamp screw so it seats in teh countersunk hole in the bushing centering the clamp. Cut a hardwood block 2"×1 5/8"×1 5/8" cutout to fit the banjo neck. I use a contour gauge or my actual size templet. Apply 1/16" piece of leather to the cutout using contact cement. The drawing should explain the usage. The important part is to be sure the bushing is longer than the shaft of the tuning peg. Add spacers between the bushing and the peg shaft if you should come across a longer shaft or make a slightly longer bushing. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: 3 String Balalaika Tuner Questions: 3 String Balalaika Tuner by Francis Kosheleff Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Bob Mussro from cyberspace asks: I’m trying to find replacement tuners for a three-string balalaika. Would you have such or know of a source? Francis Kosheleff from Los Gatos, CA responds: The easy solution to the problem is to remove the old tuners, plug the three holes , and get single tuners like Schaller or Gotoh. Drill a hole on the treble side of the peghead for one tuner (steel A string ). Do the same on the other side for the two nylon E strings. The hard solution, if you absolutely need a perfect, identical, replacement is to send somebody you trust to Russia to search for the craftsman or the factory who made your instrument and buy the replacement tuners. (Good luck!) Another (expensive) solution is to have somebody (professional) build a copy of your tuners. And finally you can alter two of the three tuners by making a longer shaft (a small length of thin tubing) that will reach the edge of the peghead from the existing holes. It’s not too difficult to do. I have done that a couple of times. ◆
