Posted on May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 by Dale Phillips Testing Threaded Inserts Testing Threaded Inserts by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 Threaded inserts are used in bolt-on acoustic guitar necks, in the style of neck joint popularized by Taylor guitars. An example of a butt-joint neck heel with threaded inserts is shown in Photo 1. I have posted instructions for constructing this style of neck joint on my lutherie info website and not long ago received an e‑mail message from someone taking me to task for the type of threaded inserts specified there. For years I have used self-tapping machine screw threaded inserts and have had good success. But the writer pointed out that these inserts were “not for wood” and so I thought a test of these and other types of threaded inserts would be an appropriate thing to do. There may be better inserts than the ones I was using, and testing is the only way to find out. What I wanted to discover was how strong the hold of the insert was on the wood into which it is inserted. 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 13, 2026May 13, 2026 by Dale Phillips Still Voicing, Still Dreaming Still Voicing, Still Dreaming by Dana Bourgeois Originally published in American Lutherie #127, 2016 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Dana Bourgeois builds acoustic guitars in what could be considered the Martin tradition. His association with Martin, Schoenberg, Paul Reed Smith, and Bourgeois guitar companies, not to mention his solo building career, has given him the opportunity to voice thousands of flattops, which in turn has given him as deep an understanding of the process as (perhaps) anyone alive. Dana has also been writing and lecturing about lutherie for many years. In August of 1997, he presented a seminar on voicing the guitar at the American School of Lutherie. This article is an adaptation of that presentation. Comparing it with Dana’s lecture at the 1990 GAL Convention (published in American Lutherie #24, and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Two) shows many similarities, sometimes word for word. This is often the mark of a teacher who has been presented with no reason to change his thoughts. On the other hand, there are major changes in his voicing procedures, demonstrating that none of us reach the end of our evolution as luthiers. 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 April 24, 2026April 24, 2026 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me: String Dampening It Worked for Me: String Dampening by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #109, 2012 I noticed that Michael Cone uses a piece of foam to damp the strings on the guitar for testing (AL#102, p. 8). This is pretty much universal. If you don’t damp the strings, the body response is swamped by the string response. I’ve been testing guitars since the early ’90s and have spent way too much time cutting pieces of foam to put under strings. A little while ago, I thought to use disposable foam earplugs. They are cheap, universally available, and designed for high damping. Better still, they are just the right size to stuff between guitar strings. I have had the best luck with the yellow foam ear plugs made by EAR, but the cheap generic ones work well enough. You don’t even have to throw the earplugs away when you are done. ◆
Posted on April 22, 2026April 22, 2026 by Dale Phillips Hunting the Elusive Guitar Wolf Hunting the Elusive Guitar Wolf by Alan Carruth from his 2011 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #114, 2013 About that title: Please note that it’s hunting the wolf, not finding. These things are often hard to find, but generally easy to kill once you’ve found them. So I’m going to discuss what the wolf is, where it tends to lurk, and how you can go after it in a more-or-less organized fashion. As in any hunt, we’ll need to think about what the prey is, and its natural history: where it prowls, what it feeds on, and so forth. I use a pretty broad definition of a wolf: It’s a bad note linked to some feature of the resonant structure of the instrument or strings. “Bad” has to be seen in context: We usually want our guitars to be loud, but one loud note in the middle of a group of softer ones is a wolf, or a soft one in the middle of a bunch of loud ones is a wolf. Wolves can thud, or warble, or just plain sound different. Like pornography, it’s hard to define but easy to recognize. 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 March 3, 2026March 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips Length of Newt’s Tail by Width of Dragon’s Hair Length of Newt’s Tail by Width of Dragon’s Hair by Ken Sribnick Originally published in American Lutherie #55, 1998 Don’t hurt me. I’m going to tell you an old joke. How many luthiers does it take to split a dragon’s hair? One to split the hair, and the rest to say, “Oh, that’s how you do it.” At our 1995 convention, I heard a number of luthiers ask about measurement and precision: How do you check this? When is that flat enough? In the spirit of the little joke, I thought it might be interesting to tell you my approach. These surely aren’t the only, or necessarily the best, methods — only how one man splits dragon hair and newt’s tail in our little shop. My early lutherie and repair went slowly until an experienced luthier, a repairman in New York’s music district, helped me along. His “luthier’s gold” included explaining which measuring tools to have, and how to use them. Consistency is essential. You must strive to reduce error and deviation. To this end I have “master” reference tools in the shop: one ruler, one caliper, one flat surface, and my drawings. It doesn't matter if you use metric measurements or inches. Just pick the system you’re comfortable with, have good master references, and, stick with them. You’ll be successful. I’m metric because I tune Toyotas as well as 12-strings. 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.
