Posted on September 23, 2026October 2, 2026 by Dale Phillips Plywood Bass Restoration, Part One Plywood Bass Restoration, Part One from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop by James Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #109, 2012 See also, Plywood Bass Restoration, Part Two by James Condino There were five different bass shops in Portland, where I used to live. Nobody came to me looking for help with a bass. About five years ago I moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville, like most towns, has a million guitar players and lots of builders, but you have to drive 150 miles in any direction to find someone else who works on an upright bass — especially someone who plays. Within about ten months, just hiding in my dusty little shop with no advertising, I was the bass guy in North Carolina. A lot of people ask why I want to work on those old plywood things that take up so much space. Just nine days working on basses allows me to do whatever I want for the rest of the month; then I can go back to making funny-looking green mandolins and prototype stuff. From a customer standpoint, bass players are the most gentle, mild-mannered, low-maintenance people I work with. They usually don’t ask for help until the action’s so high they physically can’t play it. After dealing with mandolin buyers, who will blow a gasket if it’s off .001˝ on the first fret, it’s like being on vacation. 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 23, 2026October 2, 2026 by Dale Phillips Plywood Bass Restoration, Part Two Plywood Bass Restoration, Part Two from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop by James Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #110, 2012 See also, Plywood Bass Restoration, Part One by James Condino Anyone who works on old plywood basses is probably familiar with Chuck Traeger’s book, The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound. It’s the bible for plywood repair and I reviewed it in AL#84. It’s about 300 pages; $75 at Amazon. I spend more than that for one string. I recommend that you buy it from Henry Strobel. He’s in Aumsville, Oregon, outside of Salem. He’s written most of the violin books that we have, and he has a publishing company. One of my students liked my copy more than I did, so I don’t have one for the show. The book really gets beyond simple things like replacing the bass bar, into jobs like mode matching the differences between the fingerboard and the tailpiece. Chuck was the first guy to publish information about these breast patches on the soundboard; they make quite a difference in the response of a Kay. His new book is basically an addendum. I think he wanted to get the information out rather than wait for the next printing. It’s fairly common to use some sort of graft material when you’re working on braces. The plies are weak, and it often happens that when the bass takes a hit, the bass bar sticks to the wood but the plies delaminate. I picked up the idea of a big graft from Chuck’s book. He uses linen, and that’s a popular material. Some people like natural parchment or goatskin, and drumheads are good too. You can buy them really thin (some almost too thin to sell), and for ten bucks you can get a big patch that works well. I ran out of material, so I went down to an old-school sewing shop in North Carolina. I took my little boy with me, and as soon as we walked in the door, all the old ladies with big hats were on us, petting his head and stuff. I told them what I wanted to do, and they put their heads together and found the best stuff in the shop for the job: it’s the substrate you use for needlepoint. Do you know what I mean by needlepoint? A big hoop and frame, and you load this material into it and you cross-stitch in and out? 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 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 July 31, 2026July 31, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Alan Carruth Meet the Maker: Alan Carruth by Tom Harper Originally published in American Lutherie #112, 2012 If curiosity really did kill the cat, the cat should have talked things over with Alan Carruth before the situation got so desperate. Alan has been curious all his life and has not only survived, but thrives on it. Fortunately for us, Alan’s curiosity has been regularly applied to the musical instrument world for around forty years and he likes to share what he learns. He has been actively involved with the Guild for at least thirty years, researches musical acoustics, teaches lutherie, produced a DVD demonstrating his method of free plate tuning, and can be found providing lots of information in various Internet venues for instrument builders. He also produces a line of imaginary tools, but you will need to go to his website to learn more about them. I got a chance to sit down with Alan several times during the last GAL Convention to find out more about what makes him tick. Tell us a little about your formative musical interests? I mostly listened to classical music as a kid, but like lots of other people, I got interested in folk music when the ’60s folk scare happened. That’s when I got my first guitar, which was a cheap nylon-string Japanese import called a Howard, named after the son of the guy who imported it. I wanted a guitar with nylon strings because that’s what Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary played. Or was that Peter? I can never keep those guys straight. 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.
