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 November 30, 2024May 30, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Bird’s Eye Maple Questions: Bird's Eye Maple by Bruce Harvie Originally published in American Lutherie #60, 1999 Sheldon Urlik of Los Angeles, CA asks: In AL#58 Gary Southwell mentions that bird’s-eye maple always comes from America, even though one often sees it on very old European-made instruments. Torres used it in several extant guitars, including two in my collection (First Epoch, #24, 1867 and Second Epoch, #129, 1889). Could it be that there are other maples, perhaps ones grown in Europe, which exhibit the bird’s-eye figure when slab cut? 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 8, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Ed Arnold: String-Tie Kind of Guy Ed Arnold: String-Tie Kind of Guy by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 Ed Arnold is a crew-cut and string-tie kind of guy. I met him while crewing aboard his son-in-law’s thirty-two foot sloop Iolaire on definitely not a crew- cut and string-tie kind of day. As a storm scudded down on us and I ejected my lunch off to leeward, I watched Ed go forward with the lithe grace of an athlete to hank on the storm jib on that bucking bronco of a foredeck. Ed turned sixty-seven in June. He’s the kind of guy you can picture being at home on a rugged wilderness trail or negotiating a mountain pass on a donkey, and making it look easy. In his sixteen years as an exotic wood importer I’m sure he has ridden a few donkeys and walked a few dusty miles. A one-man operation, he went into Mexico and Central America, selected his trees, oversaw their handling and production, then shipped them home by container. He knows wood in a way that few luthiers ever will, our work beginning with the end result of Ed’s labors. I obtained some answers to things I have pondered over from time to time and even some I haven’t. Anybody know the Mexican name for mahogany? Zopilozontecomacuahitl. 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 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Lacey Act Amendment Questions: Lacey act amendment by Ric Larson, Chuck Erikson, Anne Middleton, and Michael Greenfield Originally published in American Lutherie #103, 2010 Lucy from the Internet asks: The Lacey Act amendment that went into effect in 2008 may have great impact on makers, wood merchants, instrument dealers, and the general public. What is it and how will it affect my ability to get the raw materials I need to build musical instruments? What will it mean for importing finished instruments to sell in my store? And what consequences will it have for the supply of wood I have accumulated over the years? I am planning on requiring all wood suppliers I deal with in the future to be able to indicate botanical names and country of origin for every piece of wood I buy. Are they prepared to do this? Ric Larson from Vikwood in Sheboygan, Wisconsin replies: We have been requiring all our wood suppliers to comply with the Lacey Act for the past year in anticipation of the actual effective date (April 1, 2010). In addition we have asked them to go back and send us copies of all their nation’s government permits for harvesting, cutting, and exporting the various species they sent us during the past two years. Fortunately we have only the most scrupulous and honest suppliers so this was an easy, albeit time-consuming, job. I am by no means any kind of expert regarding the Lacey Act and struggle to find answers. We don’t know how to account for the inventory that dates back in some cases almost twenty years for some of the slower-moving species. It would seem to make sense that this inventory would not be affected by the law since it predated the effective date, but we don’t really know. 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.
