Web Extras American Lutherie #153 - Fall/Winter 2024 Page 6 - Vacuum Laminating Sides, and Beyond by James Condino Labels from vintage American plywood basses. All photos courtesy of James Condino except as noted. (Photo 1 of 3) Labels from vintage American plywood basses. All photos courtesy of James Condino except as noted. (Photo 2 of 3) Labels from vintage American plywood basses. All photos courtesy of James Condino except as noted. (Photo 3 of 3) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 1 of 6) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 2 of 6) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 3 of 6) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 4 of 6) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 5 of 6) Plywood bass lamination details. (Photo 6 of 6) There’s an Alcoa aluminum bass in my shop. I have a couple of these, a 1928 and a 1930, and I play them on gigs. They are tough, and I can do fun stuff on stage. I literally can set the bass on fire with a little lighter fluid. Once you get to the point where everybody knows the changes, then it’s all performance. Aluminum bass. (Photo 1 of 3) Aluminum bass. (Photo 2 of 3) Aluminum bass. (Photo 3 of 3) Bass rib lamination experiments. Photo by Steve McElrath. (Photo 1 of 4) Bass rib lamination experiments. Photo by Steve McElrath. (Photo 2 of 4) Bass rib lamination experiments. Photo by Steve McElrath. (Photo 3 of 4) Bass rib lamination experiments. Photo by Steve McElrath. (Photo 4 of 4) Mandolin ribs are around 1.5 inches wide. The linings are each about 3/8" wide. You only have about 1/2" of exposed rib surface, so there’s not much area for radiating sound, and not much risk of cracking. Typically, the scroll of an F5 is a big chunk of wood with a lot of mass. I like to build hollow scrolls. It gives me a little more air volume. If I look at my favorite pre-Loar mandolins, like say the 1914–15 era, those ribs tend to be around 0.115", up to 0.120". They’re thick, and they’re tough. Those mandolins have a little edge to the sound that I like. As you get up to 1918–1919 they get a little thinner. And then by the time you get into the Loar era, they tend to be only around 0.065" thick. If I try to bend a flamed maple rib that’s 0.120" it breaks on all the short grain and I wind up with a headache. By dropping down to around 0.090". It still has structural strength, but it’s still going to break on the short grain. But if I take that down to 0.045", this same piece of maple works really well. Even if I’m using just a hot pipe, it goes exactly where I want. If I laminate this rib, if just do it twice, then I come out with something that’s easier to build, and I don’t waste any materials. It also allows me to change a number of other characteristics and the acoustics of it. Photo courtesy of James Condino. (Photo 1 of 3) Photo courtesy of James Condino. (Photo 2 of 3) Photo courtesy of James Condino. (Photo 3 of 3) Page 90 - In Memoriam: Harry Fleishman by Michael Bashkin, Fred Carlson, Fabio Ragghianti, January Williams, and Tim Olsen More Harry Moments by January Williams Here is my favorite photo I took of Harry teaching a guitar making class in May, 2005. He’s demonstrating the use of round wooden toothpicks to facilitate gluing a scarf joint peghead; they are easy to install when the wood is dry, and counter the slipping and sliding that is inevitable with wet glue. All photos by January Williams except as noted. When we finished installing the frets in Harry’s class, he brought out some leveling files, and I was immediately drawn to an old one that was worn but seemed loved; it had a warmth and energy in it. I examined it and tried to divine exactly what I was holding. Harry came over and explained how and why he made it. Then looked at me and asked if I would like to have it. Well, yeah! And he gave it to me on the spot. I was (and still am) very touched by his generosity. At the beginning of the class Harry explained the Japanese concept of “wabi,” a flaw that is inevitable, but is part of life to be accepted with humility; it was his way of saying that inevitably, mistakes would be made... and that we would deal with them. While I was cutting the rebate for my rosette with a Stew-Mac Dremel base circle cutter, the screw setting the radius loosened, and the outer edge of the rebate wowed out a couple of millimeters. It felt like a big mistake at the time, but you take a deep breath and move on. Seemed pretty clear to me that the easiest fix was to widen the cut all the way around into a circle, and then add some lines onto the rosette to widen it out to the new radius. I quickly made a jig out of a scrap of wood, drew out circles for the needed size and started “augmenting” my rosette by adding a strip of purfling around the outside. It occurred to me to use brads to pin the rings in place as I worked it around. I don’t remember when Harry became involved, but he laughed and said “Don’t skimp on the wabi!” He complemented me on my improvisation and said that he wanted to document it, and he grabbed his camera and took pictures of my fix. Harry was gracious and would always credit sources as he was sharing ideas. Photo by Bruce Sanderson. Photo by Bruce Sanderson. Photo by Bruce Sanderson. Harry taught and built guitars with domed backs and tops, and had several ways of accomplishing the required shapes for the rims, as always with improvised jigs. One solution was a dished disk with sandpaper that was affixed to a pipe mandrel. A mount was screwed to the workboard which enclosed the rim with the kerfed linings in place, and then the dish was spun by a handle to sand the back of the rim to the dome contour. Another improvised jig consisted of a dished disk with sandpaper, mounted on to the bottom drive wheel of his band saw. Harry called this “the wheel of minor injury.” It spun around, and you simply pressed your rim into the dish to sand the edges to the desired profile. Great jigs, creative problem solving. Photo by Bruce Sanderson. Here are a couple of shots of Harry peeling off the fingerboard improperly epoxied onto a student guitar neck. Harry was fearless about jumping in and fixing mistakes. He passed this confidence on to his students, another great lesson. God bless you Harry wherever you are; you moved us all a long way More photos of Harry. Harry with his first electric bass. Photo courtesy of Harry Fleishman. 1995 GAL Convention. Harry with Linda Breton. Photo by Dale Blindheim 2001 GAL Convention. (l to r) Ken Goodwin, Jerry ?, Todd Rose, and Harry. Photo by Hap Newsom. 2001 GAL Convention. Richard Glick and Harry. Photo by Hap Newsom. 2004 GAL Convention. (l to r) Fabio Ragghianti, Mike Doolin and Harry. Photo by Jonathon Peterson. 2004 GAL Convention. (l to r) Don Alder, Harry, Steve Kinnaird, and John Calkin. Photo by Hap Newsom. 2006 GAL Convention. Mark Swanson and Harry at their voicing workshop. 2006 GAL Convention. (l to r) ?, Harry, and Brian Yarosh. Photo by Robert Desmond. 2017 GAL Convention. Kathy Matsushita and Harry at the workshop by Evan Gluck. Photo by Linda Stuckey. Photos from Michael Bashkin. Harry at his storefront, Free Range Guitars in 2018. Photo by Michael Bashkin. Harry in 2024. Photo by Michael Bashkin. (Photo 1 of 4) Harry in 2024. Photo by Michael Bashkin. (Photo 2 of 4) Harry in 2024. Photo by Michael Bashkin. (Photo 3 of 4) Harry in 2024. With Tom Ribbecke. Photo by Michael Bashkin. (Photo 4 of 4)