Posted on August 4, 2026August 4, 2026 by Dale Phillips Beginner vs. the Fiddle Kit Beginner vs. the Fiddle Kit by Dave Raley Originally published in American Lutherie #110, 2012 Why would an experienced luthier want to build the Stewart-MacDonald Fiddle Kit? Probably wouldn’t. But some of us are beginners with limited tools. I go into detail here about the errors that I made so that others may avoid those errors. Stew-Mac’s kit is surprisingly complete, but there are pitfalls; here and there the manual assumes that you know as much as the kit master. The greatest gift was that the ribs were already bent. They and the blocks were already glued to the back, which was carved and sanded. The top was also carved and sanded, f-holes cut, and purfling grooves excavated almost enough. The tailpiece wanted only assembly with the tailgut. Strings, pegs, fine tuner, chinrest, end pin, soundpost blank, bass bar blank, bridge, purfling; all there. If you don’t waste any purfling you will have a few inches left over. A soundpost setter is included. You will need a lot more rubber bands than provided. 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 4, 2026August 4, 2026 by Dale Phillips Appreciation of Karl Roy Appreciation of Karl Roy by Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #111, 2012 I met Karl Roy in the summer of 1974 at the first violin repair classes held at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. I was in the Paul Arts Building, standing at an intersection of two corridors and a staircase with my class registration badge newly pinned to my shirt, and a school-issue bright orange fishing tackle box that contained a few odd pieces of violin repair tools. I was unsure which way to turn. I was literally standing at my life’s crossroads when up the stairs bounded a man of imposing figure and steely blue eyes, his head topped with silvery-gray hair. I knew who he was even before I knew who he was. Roy was about ten years my senior, a widely traveled and intelligent man who spoke Oxford English with a German accent. He was a recently appointed director of the Staatliche Berufsfach und Fachschule für Geigenbau (commonly referred to as the Geigenbauschule), the state school for violin making in Mittenwald, Bavaria, founded by King Maximillian II in 1858. Directors there serve consecutively, and his predecessor had just retired. Despite this tradition, by the 1970s violin making worldwide was considered a dying art, and there were no schools in America that I knew about. In Germany the crafts of antiquity are taken seriously, and when a German violin maker is called a “Master,” he or she truly is, with the years of study and the diplomas to back it up. Karl was a Master in every sense of the word. 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 May 7, 2026May 11, 2026 by Dale Phillips Traditional Lutherie Techniques for Violin and Guitar Making Traditional Lutherie Techniques for Violin and Guitar Making by Charles Rufino and Stephen Marchione from their 2014 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #127, 2016 Charles: Necks are where the musician interacts with the instrument, and they have to be absolutely right. A musician brought me a cello with a neck so warped that the high action rendered the instrument unplayable. They had taken it to a well-respected shop in New York. They said, “We just had it fixed, and it’s acting up again.” So I took the fingerboard off and planed the neck, which had a very convex shape. When I applied glue, something told me to check it with a straightedge, and the convex shape was back. Improvising, I grabbed a very flat reference board, just a 2˝×4˝ that I keep planed up very flat, put a couple of pieces of paper in the center of the length to force it into a concave shape, and clamped it up. Later I observed the grain of the neck was straight until 3˝ from the bottom end, where 5MM down from the gluing surface it shot up at a 45° angle. It changed direction remarkably. The next day I realized that this process of sizing the neck and holding it until it took a proper shape might be a simple solution. When I glued it again, I found that it held its shape. The customer was in again a year later, and the neck was still fine. That made perfect sense because hide glue is mostly water, and as it penetrates, the wood reacts and changes shape. By sizing and drying the neck in a controlled shape, I can get it to hold that shape after the sizing glue dries. Later the glue for assembling the joint will penetrate only until it hits that sizing; the shape will not change in gluing, and it’s very stable. I now do this to all my instruments and prefer it to using carbon-fiber rods, which I think make a neck too strong. 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 February 19, 2026February 19, 2026 by Dale Phillips Measuring Archtop Musical Instruments Measuring Archtop Musical Instruments by Chris Burt Originally published in American Lutherie #83, 2005 See also, Arched Plate Carving, Part One by Chris Burt Arched Plate Carving, Part Two by Chris Burt Arched Plate Carving, Part Three by Chris Burt This is the first of three articles that take you from the basics of creating your own database of musical instrument measurements to applying what you have learned from those measured instruments while you carve top and back plates. In this article, you will learn to safely measure fine instruments. Article Two will describe plate carving, and article Three will describe plate graduating. This article is dedicated to Bob Lundberg, from whom I first learned the basics of measuring instruments. He showed us how to set the bar high. — Chris Burt Before you can build an archtop instrument based on an existing model, you need templates — at a minimum: a body-shape template, neck cross-section templates, and plate arching templates. You can’t carve something if you don’t understand it. If you are going to spend the considerable time that’s required to understand an instrument model, seek out the best. Measure several and keep detailed notes. If you take the time to compile a set of measuring tools and learn to use them respectfully and gently, you’ll be surprised to find how many people will allow you access to their fine instruments. 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.
