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 30, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips The MacRostie Mandolin Deflection Jig The MacRostie Mandolin Deflection Jig by Don MacRostie from his 2004 GAL Convention workshop Originally published in American Lutherie #94, 2008 The mandolin world is small enough that if you’re even thinking about building one, you probably already know who Don MacRostie is. Don is an inventor, and he’s done more for Stewart-MacDonald than we will ever hear about. He’s been making Red Diamond mandolins for two decades now. At the 2004 GAL Convention Don discussed one of his research tools and told us how he applies it to his construction process to make the sound of his finished instruments more consistent and predictable. — John Calkin At the GAL Convention in 2001, Charles Fox floated the idea of teaching a mandolin building class at his American School of Lutherie. As a result, I taught a two week class, building A-style mandolins from scratch. The only thing we started with was thickly precarved oversize tops and backs. Everything else we made totally from scratch. It was a great experience. Peggy Stuart, a student in the class, documented the experience in a series of American Lutherie articles (AL#75–AL#79). Tim Olsen asked me to demonstrate and explain the plate-deflection machine we used in the class at this convention, so that’s why we’re all here. 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.
Posted on June 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Kiaat Kiaat by Rodney Stedall Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Kiaat (Pterocarpus angiolensisis) is found in south-central Africa. It is from the same family as padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) which is known to be a good tonewood with sound properties somewhere between Brazilian and Indian rosewood according to the LMI catalog. It does not have as intense a red coloring as padauk but varies in color from a pale uniform brown to having irregular reddish/orange streaks and occasional flame. It has a fairly large percentage of oatmeal-colored sapwood of an inferior quality. This is generally eliminated when building guitars. Grain can be quite variable, from wavy to straight. It has excellent drying properties and dry weight is about 640KG/M3. Its strength is generally about 30% lower than padauk. It cuts, sands, and bends easily. It is moderately porous and takes any finish or polish well. Kiaat is freely available in lumberyards in South Africa but it is very seldom quartersawn and of the necessary guitar back dimensions as is required for guitar making. Luthiers spend hours searching through piles of wood stock to find suitable size, grain, and cut. The sap of the kiaat tree has cultural and medicinal significance. The red sap is mixed with fat and used as red face paint in tribal rituals. It has been believed to have magical healing powers especially concerning blood disorders as well as other medicinal uses. ◆ Seeking lutherie wood in southern Africa. Camel thorn trees in Botswana. Both photos courtesy of Mervyn Davis. Crossing the Zambezi River.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: North American Wood Questions: North American Wood by Mark French, Ned Steinberger, and Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #94, 2008 See also, Questions: Nontropical Fingerboard Materials by Tom Theil Larry L. from the Internet asks: I’ve noticed that my choices in materials have evolved over the years to favor wood from North America. At this point I’d like to take the final step and eliminate all tropical hardwood. The two fingerboard materials that make the most sense to me are phenolic impregnated paper or cloth (Garolite, Micarta) and phenolic impregnated wood (Dymondwood, Pakkawood, Staminawood). I think I understand issues with machining these materials and fret installation, but I wonder how differential expansion/contraction with changes in humidity will affect the stability of necks with wood shafts and fingerboards made of these materials. Does anyone have experience here? Mark French from West Lafayette, Indiana responds: Any time you have differential expansion of two materials that are bonded, you have the possibility of large deformations. For example, one type of thermometer works by having a coiled bimetallic strip inside. When the temperature changes, the end of the coil moves a needle. 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.
