Posted on January 13, 2025May 2, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Myles Gilmer Meet the Maker: Myles Gilmer by Todd Brotherton Originally published in American Lutherie #26, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 Would you give us some background on yourself? The wood business that I’m doing now is an offshoot of what I was doing in the ’70s. My education was in medical research, but there weren’t too many jobs in that area, so I built furniture accessories and sold them to galleries and stores across the country for a few years. I lived in equatorial Africa in the early to mid ’70s. I was working in the wood business in Ghana and Liberia as a jack-of-all-trades, doing vehicle maintenance, repairing machine saws, and doing some cutting and milling. I spent a lot of time hiking in the forest. The trees are incredible there. I have photographs of a native hut next to a tree that was 220' tall and 12'–14' in diameter. People often imagine an African forest as being a jungle but it’s more like what we see here in the Northwest; an old growth high canopy forest, very open inside with not much secondary growth on the floor, and quite dark to walk through. When I moved back to the USA, I quickly found that there weren’t great sources for the wood I was interested in. I had friends in Africa and started importing a little for my production line. We started importing more, and soon my competitors were interested in buying. I was still producing wood pieces, but getting tired of production woodwork. Over a two-year period I just switched from being a manufacturer to being a supplier. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 8, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Repairing the Sitar Repairing the Sitar by Dave Schneider Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The sitar is a member of the plucked lute family of Indian instruments known generally as vina. The name sitar is from a Persian word meaning “three strings.” The first sitars had three strings which gradually increased to seven. Sympathetic (taraf) strings were added later. The modern sitar has from eleven to thirteen sympathetic strings. An upper resonating gourd, usually attached underneath the nut, is common on most sitars today. The standard number of frets is 19, although Ravi Shankar has added a 20th fret at the top of the sitar for increased virtuosity. Teak is the wood most often used to construct sitars. The bridges for the main strings and taraf strings, which produce the characteristic buzzing sound of the sitar known as jawari, are made from bone and teak. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 7, 2024May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Gourd Seeds Letter: Gourd Seeds by Tony Pizzo Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 Yo Tim, Deb and Bonnie! American Lutherie looks great! You join a select group of survivors with this latest move. I’m going to (against my better judgement) try growing some gourds under plastic up here, but I don’t expect much, so no data sheet. But I’ve got a list of gourds and gourd seed for sale from The Gourd (February issue) magazine which may be of use to beleaguered luthiers. It may be easiest for people looking for gourds to contact Charlie Cannon as he’s already set up to sell them. Of course people who can get to the Ohio Fair can pick up gourds at the Gourd Show there — shipping can be a headache for growers. This is the best I’ve been able to come up with in this department. Very hard to get them on the east coast. (American Gourd Society, Box 274, Mt. Gilead, OH 43338 and Charlie Cannon, Rt. 1, Box 49, Hobgood, NC 27843) 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 30, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips “Cricket”: A Reclaimed Salvage Recovery “Cricket”: A Reclaimed Salvage Recovery by James Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 A good friend of mine outside of Bend, Oregon has a wonderful old wood shop that has been in production since the 1940s, outliving several owners. The place is full of fantastic old machinery from the last hundred years. Big chrome badges with names like Walker Turner, Crescent, and Oliver are everywhere. Dusty billets and half logs of claro walnut, bigleaf maple, and figured myrtle, stacked decades ago, lie piled up in the back. Favored ebony and true Honduras mahogany boards are stashed in the ceiling rafters. The building itself has signs of constant evolution — false roofs, sealed-off rooms, and hidden treasures everywhere. Every few years, Doug calls me over to help knock out a wall or some similar project in the constant evolution of his floor plan. That is when I discover hidden gems from seventy years ago when Bend was a tiny little cowboy town that nobody had ever heard of. Old-growth Douglas fir trees covered the Cascades surrounding the high desert in such abundance that even your shop and garage were built from fine timbers: 30–40 even lines per inch, quartersawn, no runout, perfectly clear. After three quarters of a century seasoning in the arid climate, the stuff rings like a church bell when you tap it and splinters like fiberglass when you break it against the grain. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Kiaat and Tambotie Kiaat and Tambotie by Ron Bushman Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 During a trip to South Africa in 2002, I was fortunate to spend some time with Rodney Stedall, president of the Guild of South African Luthiers. Rodney gave generously of his time and took me to a local lumber dealer where we climbed atop huge stacks of indigenous woods. I selected several planks of kiaat and tambotie which he helped me prepare to carry back to California. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
