American Lutherie #156 – Fall/Winter 2025 – Guild of American Luthiers

American Lutherie #156
Fall/Winter 2025

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Observations on the Topography of Spanish Guitar Soundboards

by R.E. Bruné

So, the top of a classical guitar is flat. But is it flat, like FLAT? Or is it more like spherical? Or cylendrical? Or scooped, like a lute? Or kinda arched in the lower bout? Or caved in? Or bellied up? Here’s the guy that can tell you. RE Brune has sixty years of building, playing, collecting, restoring, measuring, dealing, and researching classical guitars to his credit so far, and is still going strong. He gives us the lowdown on what the Spanish Old Boys did, and why. And does it matter to the sound? Yes, it does.

A Steel-String Guitar Maker’s Journey

by Steve Kauffman

from his 2023 GAL Convention lecture

A young guitar-playing cabinet maker attends a GAL Convention and finds that his life has re-aligned itself in a moment. I’m talking about that fateful day when Steve K (Kauffman) met Steve K (Klein) at the 1979 GAL Convention in Boston. Steve has had a remarkable lutherie career which is in many ways illustrative of the can-do, self-starter development of the American Lutherie Boom. If you are old, you’ll enjoy the memories and the affirmation. If you are young, you will learn something about the giants on whose shoulders you stand.

Agustín Barrios: History of the Guitar Rewritten

by Federico Sheppard

from his 2023 GAL Convention lecture

The life of Agustín Barrios is a remarkable story indeed, one worthy of an epic poem, a larger-than-life bronze statue, a broadway show, or some such cultural monument. It would not only be a recognition of his acheivements as a performer and composer which, according to Federico Sheppard, shaped the modern world of classical guitar music and lutherie, but also of the personal struggle to take his place as the artist he was by his own definition, and not as the predjudiced eyes of others saw him.

1935 Epiphone Olympic Archtop Guitar

by Tim Olsen

When Olsen was a ten-year-old kid, he encountered a guitar that enchanted him and made him want to become a guitar maker, which he did. Sixty-two years later, that very guitar has come back to him. Naturally, he has drawn a full-scale plan of it for the GAL Instrument Plan series. It’s a full-circle story.

Nissim’s Guitar

by Zack Youcha

A father-and-son lutherie team traveling in the Mediterranean area discover an odd old guitar in the modest museum of a small town. They discover a connection, and the connection becomes a mission. Sometimes lutherie is a lot more than just lutherie.

Acoustic Guitar Repair: Bridge, Rod, and Pickguard

by Alex Glasser and Brian Michael

from their 2023 GAL Convention workshop

Long ago, Brian and Alex worked together under the legendary Frank Ford in the Gryphon Guitars repair department. Brian still works there. Alex is on his own at Iron Horse Instruments. They presented demo workshops at GAL Conventions in 2011, 2014, and at our final Convention in 2023. This is part two of their 2023 presentation. Part one was in AL#155.

Donnie, Jim, and Me: A Tale of Three Shops

by Jay Anderson

As you may recall from AL#151, Jay Anderson is a relatively late-blooming maker whose surprising flattop guitars glory in large, flamboyant slabs of found maple burls and crotches. In this article he travels to the Southwest to interview Don Kendall, the iconoclastic luthier and inventor of the JLD Bridge Doctor. He finds a tight-knit family operation that gets the job done in a low-tech and very direct manner, then takes a side trip to visit his mentor James Olson. Also, pointing to the future, Jay praises the involvement of his own young grandchildren in his lutherie shop.

Marchione Fretting Techniques

by Stephen Marchione

from his 2023 GAL Convention workshop

Stephen Marchione has a long history of making and working on high-quality instruments for uncompromising professional musicians. In this presentation he considers each element — the neck, the rod, the fretboard, the fret wire — and stresses the procedure that will lead to be best, most durable result.

Recreating the Lacôte Veneered Neck

by Simon Burgun

Simon Burgun won French national recognition for his reproduction of a René Lacôte Romantic guitar. (Yes, my American friends; they really are that civilized over there on The Continent.) In this article Simon shows how he made the rosewood-veneered neck with a grafted peghead and heel. See AL#154 for his article on reproducing the spectacular MOP-and-ebony rosette using period-appropriate machinist’s techniques.

Reflections on Collecting Guitars

by R.E. Bruné, Jeffrey Elliott with Cyndy Burton, Federico Sheppard, and René Izquierdo

Four luthiers and a classical guitarist consider the value of guitar collecting for the art, craft, science, and culture of lutherie. All of them have been closely connected to the magnificent collection of Sheldon Urlik. They praise Shel, the collection, and the ambitious book project that arose from it.

In Memoriam: Ken Parker

by Mike Doolin

Ken Parker was one of the young guitar-infatuated Americans who sparked the current golden age of lutherie a half-century ago, joyfully going full-tilt in whatever direction his powerful imagination led him. Along the way he accumulated numerous skills and was a pathfinder for many new guitar-making directions. Generations yet unborn will study his work with delight — an enviable and well-earned legacy. Mike Doolin, himself no slouch in the innovation department, offers a heart-felt appreciation.