American Lutherie #152 Summer 2024 You must be a 2024 member to receive this issue. Join or Renew your membership now! 2024 Members: Login to view the digital version of this issue. On this issue’s cover we see a guitar built by Brad Goodman, nicely inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone. Photo by Brad Goodman Electric Guitar Repair: Setups, Frets, and Inspiration from their 2023 GAL Convention workshop by Evan Gluck and Larry Fitzgerald Gluck is a beloved repeat presenter at GAL Conventions. This time, he brought along veteran New York repair guy Larry Fitzgerald. In addition to demonstrating fret-leveling techniques, they tell war stories of maneuvering their businesses to survive the recent global pandemic. On this issue’s cover we see a guitar built by Brad Goodman, nicely inlaid with mother of pearl and abalone. Photo by Brad Goodman The back cover shows the pegbox (in progress) of a large viol in the elaborate style of Joachim Tielke built by Derek Porter. Photo by Derek Porter Construction of a Tielke Violt by Derek Porter A kid from Idaho finds himself enrolled in a rigorous instrument-making course situated in a story-book Great House in the English countryside. He leaps right into an ambitious project of building a large viol in the elaborate style of Joachim Tielke. Beautiful Bog Oak by Gary Southwell Bog oak is the ultimate “sinker” wood. Giant oak trees sank into peat bogs thousands of years ago. Now they are being dug up, sawed into planks, and carefully dried. Innovative traditionalist Gary Southwell loves the stuff. The Black British Timber by Kevin Aram All the native trees on the British Isles yield light-colored wood. And in the case of guitar-making materials, blondes don’t have more fun. That’s why Kevin Aram was delighted to find that marinating oak for scores of centuries in an all-natural soup of organic chemicals will turn it black, and that nature already did all the work. He also visits a friend and his wonderful old Stennor bandsaw. Meet the Maker: Brad Goodman by Raymond Bryant Guitarist Bryant fell in love with an instrument that he tried at a local music store. When he learned to his surprise that it was individually handcrafted just a few miles from his home, he had to make the short pilgrimage. He takes us along to meet Brad Goodman, who has been working alone for decades in his simple and efficient home workshop. Changing Guitar Body Resonant Frequencies by Devon Pessler, Alyssa Fernandez and Mark French A lot of people have a rough idea of how it would affect the sound of a flattop guitar to make the sides deeper, or to make the soundhole smaller. But now a college professor and two students have built the test apparatus and quantified the question. Read this article and see if you guessed right. Make a Fret Press or Two by Steve Kennel The do-it-yourself mentality is at the root of the whole American Lutherie Boom. Kennel helps you mimic recent advances in commercially available tooling, but DIY it with that stuff they use for competition-level skateboard ramps. Cheap and Easy String Testing by John Huffman If you are a guitar maker, I’ll bet you know the thrill of adapting some cheap gizmo into a specialized tool for the lutherie trade. Huffman quickly jury-rigs an inexpensive fish scale into a useful jig for measuring individual string tension. A Simplified Larrivée-Style Binding Jig by Jon Sevy Unlike some of us, Jon Sevy paid attention in high school geometry class. He calls this method of setting up a router to cut a binding ledge “simplified” but it is really more like “optimised;” it is both simpler and better. Supplemental String Action Data for The Spanish Guitar by Federico Sheppard Action matters. It matters to the playability and to the sound. And the height of the strings off the soundboard is no accident on a fine guitar. Sheppard takes a very close look at eighty-nine extraordinary examples in one of the world’s great classical and flamenco guitar collections and gives us the deets. In Memoriam: Kent Rayman by Jeffrey R. Elliott Kent Rayman was a kind-hearted giant of a man who was helpful and influential in the Guild’s earliest phase. Kent’s lutherie mentor remembers him here with fondness and respect. Link to full memoriam. It Worked for Me by Ralf Grammel, Robert W. Taylor, and Steve Kennel Grammel shows us how to replace the rings in a rosette after the instrument is completed. Taylor uses industrial-strength hand cleaner to cut the finger schmutz that builds up on a guitar. Kennel reminds us to respect the simple beauty of a limp cloth measuring tape. Letters from our Readers J.R. Beall had the original idea for the Guild of American Luthiers. Now nearing ninety, he takes a look back on the whole project. Longtime member Marc Connelly pens an appreciation of R.E. Bruné, who encouraged his early efforts. 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
