Posted on June 22, 2026June 22, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Géza Burghardt Meet the Maker: Géza Burghardt by Cindy Burton Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 I met Géza and his wife and business partner, Tini, at the 1998 GAL Convention in Tacoma. I’d been hearing about him for several years and was really looking forward to our chat. Three hours whizzed by as Géza told his remarkable story, a true immigrant success story. He, Tini, and their young daughter Eszter arrived in Vancouver, B.C. in 1988 with little more than the shirts on their backs. They spoke very little English. Twelve years later they have a thriving lutherie business, a beautiful shop, and a comfortable life. What follows is Géza’s story in his own words. I was fourteen years old when I became an apprentice in a special woodworking school in Hungary for three years to become a pattern maker. This is an extremely complicated job requiring great precision. We were taught to do everything by hand. We were not allowed to use any power machines, not even a grinder to grind the chisels. After you were done with a job it was sent to a special room for checking. There was no tolerance — not even a tenth of a millimeter. They’d send it back and you’d have to fix it, and your salary went down. 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 18, 2026June 18, 2026 by Dale Phillips Steaming Hide Glue and Laminating Ribs Steaming Hide Glue and Laminating Ribs by James Ham from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #109, 2012 I make double basses, and I also do a lot of instrument restoration and repair. My glue of choice for both new work and restoration is hot hide glue. You guitar makers need to take your Titebond and throw it in that bin over there and learn to use hide glue. (laughter, applause) It will make your guitars better. Hot hide glue has a very short working time. I used to clamp the joint dry and without glue, then section-by-section I’d loosen the clamps and insert a little bit of glue. Then I thought, what if I put the glue on first and let it dry, then go along and add a little hot water? Not boiling water, but hotter than tap water — enough to resoften the glue. That worked, and I did many instruments that way, but it was still messy, and loosening the clamps could allow things to slip out of position. One day I went into a vacuum cleaner repair store and saw a steamer, and thought, “Hmmm. What could I do with that?” (laughs) And history was made. What I do now is to use that steamer to reactivate hide glue that was applied earlier to both surfaces and allowed to dry. 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 12, 2026June 12, 2026 by Dale Phillips Let’s Catch Up With Graham Caldersmith Let's Catch Up With Graham Caldersmith by Juan Oscar Azaret Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017 Hop on a plane in Boston. Fly twenty-seven hours to Sydney, then connect on a prop plane to Port Macquarie on the coast of New South Wales. Rent a car (no, the steering wheel is not on that side, dummy), and drive 60KM southwest. (Stay to the left, the left, the LEFT!) Oops, here comes a traffic circle — drive around clockwise, cars on your right have the right of way, remember to exit left, and stay left. Why is that left wheel always grabbing the shoulder... where the heck is it, anyway? Now out of the city (whew!) and on beautiful Australian farmland — rolling green hills in the mild August winter. Past the logging town of Wauchope and the hamlet of Byabarra. The road narrows to a winding switchback climb up the steep slopes of Bago Bluff, and finally we find ourselves on a high plateau of rich farmland in the town of Comboyne, NSW, population two hundred. Comboyne is the home of luthier Graham Caldersmith and his partner Angela MacPherson (Photo 1). On a recent trip to visit our son in Australia, I took the time to spend a delightful day with Graham and Angela in their enchanting home/workshop/tea house where I learned much about lutherie and acoustics, and enjoyed their wonderful hospitality. 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.
