American Lutherie #146 Summer 2022 On this issue’s cover, we see Cindy Hulej making an electric guitar neck of solid vintage pine salvaged from a demolished historic building in New York City. Photo by Cindy Hulej American Lutherie #146 – Summer 2022$14.00 – $16.00 Choose Membership Status Choose an optionMemberNon-memberClear American Lutherie #146 - Summer 2022 quantity Add to cart SKU: N/A Category: American Lutherie Additional information Additional information Choose Membership Status Member, Non-member Related products American Lutherie #113 – Spring 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #128 – Winter 2016 $8.00 – $10.00 Select options American Lutherie #134 Summer 2018 $8.00 – $10.00 Select options Remembering The Master’s Last Class by Flip Scipio Ten years ago, Flip Scipio attended the last of the summer seminars given by José Romanillos at his base in Sigüenza, Spain. Now, after the recent passing of the Maestro, this review is both informative and poignant. On this issue’s cover, we see Cindy Hulej making an electric guitar neck of solid vintage pine salvaged from a demolished historic building in New York City. Photo by Cindy Hulej American Lutherie #146 – Summer 2022$14.00 – $16.00 Choose Membership Status Choose an optionMemberNon-memberClear American Lutherie #146 - Summer 2022 quantity Add to cart SKU: N/A Category: American Lutherie Additional information Additional information Choose Membership Status Member, Non-member Related products American Lutherie #114 – Summer 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #115 – Fall 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #130 – Summer 2017 $8.00 – $10.00 Select options On the back cover, we see David Thormahlen’s vise for holding carved-top instrument bodies. Photo by Sharon Thormahlen Meet Cindy Hulej by Max Mclaughlin Here’s a story that will sound familiar to a lot of us old farts of the Lutherie Boom generation for the decades-old echoes that it evokes. A bold young person wants to do unusual and arty things with guitars, and they find an older mentor in the crowded back room of a New York City guitar store. That takes you back, don’t it Gramps? The Difficult Case of Getting Too Old by Don Barnes Closing Up Shop by Samuel Barnes Remember those heroic old days when a few of us self-starting hippies dreamed of a forging a renaissance of guitar making in America? Well if you do, you are probably already past “retirement age.” What will become of all your tools and wood? Will your grandkids just toss them out? Time to start thinking about it. Sorry. Meet David Thormahlen by John Calkin David Thormahlen started making many kinds of string instruments in the woodshop in college, and then made a strategic decision to focus his lutherie career on lever harps. It all worked out well, and he still makes guitars, mandolins, and bouzoukis in addition to the harps. He shows us some of his gluing fixtures which involve bicycle inner tubes; some stretched, some inflated. GAL Instrument Plan #81: 1982 Douglas Ching Slack-Key Guitar drawn by Tim Olsen The Hawaiian Twin-Soundhole Guitar by January Williams Here’s a quick review of how the slack-key guitar got to be a thing, and a full plan drawing of a nice early example. An All-American 7-String Guitar by Lee Herron Sometimes you get a customer who just wants you to run wild. Check out the design and build process of this 17.75-inch, 7-string, multiscale black-locust flattop guitar. Fun! Measuring Mechanical Properties of Neck Blanks by Mark French and Alyssa Fernandez How stiff is that neck blank? You could cut all your blanks to the same dimensions and then set up a rig with a hanging weight to measure deflection and such. But hey, got a smart phone? It can listen while you tap on a bunch of neck blanks, and then tell you how stiff each one is. “Ear”idescent Nightingales A New Instrument Family by Richard Bozung Here’s a new kind of autoharp that can change keys in seconds without retuning or switching chord bars. It’s easy to build, and sounds great because you play it with your ear comfortably pressed against the frame. Universal Side Caul by Beau Hannam These simple plywood squares with dowel halves glued to them can replace all the carefully shaped side cauls that thousands of luthiers have been using for decades. Sometimes one size really does fit all. Review: Ukulele Making Course with Heidi Litke by John Calkin Ukes are serious lutherie projects these days. Standards and expectations are high. The same is true for instructional videos. The reviewer is favorably impressed with the instruments, the instructors, and the presentation. The Confidence Game — Overcoming the Fear by Aaron Cash Lutherie is way cool. The guitars that people are making these days are mind-blowing. Standards of craftsmanship and creativity are sky high. And all that can be daunting to a sincere wanna-be. Here’s how to talk yourself into not talking yourself out of it. In Memoriam: José Luis Romanillos Vega by Federico Sheppard, Kevin Aram, Josep Melo, and Mónica Esparza Romanillos was a towering figure in the lutherie field during a long and productive career as a maker and scholar. He was also a generous mentor and friend to many guitar makers. Four of those makers share fond memories of him here. Many more will miss him. In Memoriam: G.D. (George) Armstrong by GAL Staff G.D. lived in Yamhill, Oregon, built a wide variety of instruments, was the repairman and proprietor of the Newburg (Oregon) Music Center, and was a regular attendee at GAL Conventions in Tacoma. It Worked for Me by Harry Fleishman, Steve Kennel, Mark French, Graham McDonald, and Geoff Needham When you are pressing frets into an unmounted fretboard, it matters what order they go in, though that’s counter-intuitive. Post-It material comes in other forms besides notes, and they can be particularly useful for lutherie. Make a quick and dirty guitar humidifier out of materials you may actually have in your pocket. Make a simple jig to get double duty from a strip of ivoroid binding material. Use a lumberyard laser level to align guitar parts during construction. Web Extras View photo gallery for this issue of American Lutherie. American Lutherie #149 – Summer 2023 American Lutherie #148 – Spring 2023 American Lutherie #147 – Winter 2022 American Lutherie #146 – Summer 2022 American Lutherie #145 – Spring 2022 American Lutherie #144 – Winter 2021 American Lutherie #143 – Summer 2021 American Lutherie #142 – Spring 2021 American Lutherie #141 – Winter 2020 American Lutherie #140 – Summer 2020 American Lutherie #139 – Spring 2020 Journal
