Posted on June 30, 2024May 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips Inside Pacific Rim Tonewoods Inside Pacific Rim Tonewoods by Steve McMinn Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 We make wooden components for stringed musical instruments, mostly guitar soundboards. We attempt to be the best in the world at what we do. For the past five years, most of our production has been for large American guitar companies such as Martin and Taylor. In the past couple of years, though, we’ve begun to export much of our wood to Europe and Asia. Recently, we’ve begun to sell tops in small retail quantities and are now putting together a price list. Elizabeth Rozier, who bought, sold, and cataloged rare books for years, is handling the retail end of the business. 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 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Great White Sitka The Great White Sitka by Jeffrey R. Elliott Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 In February 1992 friend and fellow luthier John Sullivan and I drove from Portland, Oregon to Elma, Washington to pay a hands-on visit to Steve McMinn’s Pacific Rim Tonewoods, Inc. (The business has since relocated in Bellingham, Washington.) We went for the experience. Steve suggested we bring some rugged clothing and a camera. We discovered why when we arrived to the incredible sight of a gigantic Sitka log 26' long by 11' across at the larger end. A great white whale came to mind. The photos tell the story. For the next couple days, my body reminded me I’d had a real workout. But it felt good because it reminded me of what a great time we had and how fortunate we were to have a hand in turning this huge spruce log into top wood. Steve’s whole operation is very well thought out, very organized, and a pleasant place to work. He’s obviously committed to producing high quality instrument woods and nothing is wasted. This experience also gave me an appreciation for how much work goes into producing one top and why “ideal” tops are so rare. ◆ 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 Mechanical Compliance for Soundboard Optimization Mechanical Compliance for Soundboard Optimization by David Hurd from his 2006 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 People say, “You’ve got to make fifty or a hundred guitars before you get it right.” That makes me crazy. I feel that if you can do the carpentry of putting an instrument together and have idea of what it should look like, you can get 80% or 90% of the way there in terms of top optimization with a mechanical compliance approach. I build many sizes of guitars and ukuleles using different top woods. I have developed an easy method of testing the compliance of a top, that is, how far it flexes under a given force, with a simple fixture. Being able to measure and compare the compliance values has proved to be a very useful thing in optimizing these soundboards for the best sound and stability when I graduate the edges of the tops and carve the braces. After building and measuring many instruments, I have developed a mathematical model that does a very good job of estimating what the target compliance measurements should be for a given instrument size and string tension. I have integrated the model into a spreadsheet which you can use by plugging in just a few simple measurements. 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 Meet the Maker: Mervyn Davis Meet the Maker: Mervyn Davis by Rodney Stedall Originally published in American Luthier #90, 2007 I first met Mervyn in 1998 at his old farm shed workshop in the countryside just outside Pretoria. I had just started my first instrument and had a need to ask questions of someone with experience in building stringed instruments. I found Mervyn to be a deep thinker, very knowledgeable, and willing to share with me the answers to my questions. Mervyn’s knowledge and insight into stringed instruments stems from many years of self-inspired building and innovation. Most South African luthiers like myself can claim to have gone through the Mervyn Davis school at some stage of their building career. The interview below serves to prove Mervyn’s willingness to share his years of experience freely with others. Mervyn, you have thirty-plus years of stringed instrument building experience. Can you tell us what instruments you have made? Guitars, violins, lutes, electrics, archtops, and mandolins of every description. But there are hundreds that I will regretfully never get around to making. My curiosity is still drawing me deeper into the endless well of questions and answers that experimentation offers and which, I am sure, is exactly what got all of us luthiers into the craft to begin with. 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.
