American Lutherie Current Issues Back Issues Search Article Abstracts Advertise in American Lutherie American Lutherie is the main benefit of annual GAL membership. We currently publish three full-color print issues of each year: Spring, Summer and Fall/Winter. Want to receive this year’s issues of American Lutherie? Become a GAL member today! Sharing lutherie information is what the Guild is all about, and American Lutherie is our primary vehicle for accomplishing that goal. Articles come from two sources: those produced by the GAL staff in collaboration with our members (such as presentations from our conventions, and interviews with instrument makers), and voluntary submissions by Guild members themselves. Our volunteer authors are motivated by a desire to benefit others with what they have learned, and to support the give-and-take system employed by the Guild. Our respected journal American Lutherie focuses on all aspects of the art, craft, and science of stringed instrument making and repair, and it reflects the varied interests of our diverse membership. Rich in quality content, friendly in tone, and abundantly illustrated with full-color photos, each 76-page issue contains interviews, adventures, research, opinion, reviews, and how-to information, all of specific interest to the maker and repairer of stringed musical instruments. In American Lutherie, we strive to publish methods, opinions, and explanations that are backed by experience. GAL members find the techniques, practices, and materials of other builders to be of value in their own workshops, whether in their own specific fields or not. This wide outlook and open attitude is basic to the success of the Guild. It seems to be working. Never has the worldwide lutherie scene been stronger, deeper, more productive, or more highly regarded. The Guild and its members are proud to continue to be a part of the ongoing advancement of the luthier’s craft. What started as a small newsletter in 1972, grew and developed into our full-sized journal American Lutherie in 1985, with a full-color version starting in 2011. Beginning in 2000, we began collecting three years of American Lutherie into large hardcover volumes called the Big Red Books of American Lutherie, as the back issues went out of print. We published seven Big Red Books, covering eighty-four issues of American Lutherie. Several Big Red Books are still available. In 2018 we began our American Lutherie Anthology book series, taking articles from more recent issues of American Lutherie. The AL Anthology book series are softcover books, organized by topic and printed in color. All six titles are currently available. American Lutherie 2025 Issues American Lutherie #154 – Spring 2025 Rob Golderg was a self-starting teenage luthier in the 1960s, and then became Bill Cumpiano’s very first apprentice. After moving to Alaska an having a career in fine arts, he's been back to lutherie for more than a quarter century. He shows us how he inlays big, bold designs in stained glass into ebony fretboards. Veteran lutherie teacher Robbie O’Brien follows the construction of a classical guitar where a student starts with a box of wood, and strings up a nice classical guitar only six days later (Part Two of a three-part series). In Napoleonic times, René Lacôte used elaborate and high-precision MOP-and-ebony rosettes that were supplied by a specialized shop; Simon Burgun has set himself the task of making them using traditional machinists’ techniques of the time. The small and dedicated team that makes Gibson F-5 mandolins at the custom shop in Nashville gets a little help from CNC, but the mandolins are very much handmade. Longtime lutherie schoolmaster David Freeman shows us how he makes a fully adjustable interior sliding door for the side soundports he builds into his guitars and mandolin-family instruments. We finally find out how C.F. Casey, an early GAL member and frequent author, got into the lutherie game. The basic form of an old-school guitar pickup seems simple: A lot of skinny wire wrapped around some kind of magnet. But Veronica Merryfield is here to explain that there's a lot of math and physics behind the simplicity. Reviews of Super Assilex Flexible Sanding Sheets, the Wagner Orion 950 Moisture Meter, and Acoustic Guitar Design by Richard Mark French. An In-Memoriam remembrance of tuning-gear maker David Rodgers. Four shop tips by sculptor and luthier Steve Kennel. See Preview The Spring 2025 issue will be mailed to all 2025 members late April. American Lutherie 2024 Issues American Lutherie #153 – Fall/Winter 2024 In our biggest-ever issue of American Lutherie, you’ll find detailed articles based on three presentations from our 2023 Convention: James Condino on the process and advantages of lamination, Barry Grzbik on the thought that goes into designing his electric Grez guitars, and an examination by Mark French of what we do and don’t know about making guitars. Then we rewind to the 2017 GAL Convention for the first installment of a three-part series on Robbie O’Brien’s classical guitar building course. Also included are a 1939 Martin 0-18 guitar plan, Steve Kennel’s cheap Stella Jumbo build, and lots more. Plus, two great encore articles: the archtop guitar building panel from our 2008 Convention, and John Calkin’s funky guitar resurrection project. See Preview American Lutherie #152 – Summer 2024 Evan Gluck and fellow veteran New York repair guy Larry Fitzgerald demonstrate fret-leveling techniques at our recent Convention. Derek Porter takes a rigorous instrument-making course in the English countryside and builds a large viol in the elaborate style of Joachim Tielke. Bog oak is wood from ancient logs preserved in peat bogs. Gary Southwell loves the stuff as a lutherie material. So does Kevin Aram. We visit the home workshop of Brad Goodman, who has been working alone for decades in his simple and efficient home workshop, building many styles of fine guitars. How it would affect the response of a flattop guitar to make the sides deeper, or to make the soundhole smaller? A college professor and two students have built the test apparatus to quantify the question. Make a semi-do-it-yourself fret press. Jury-rig an inexpensive fish scale into a useful jig for measuring individual string tension. Make a simple optimized Larrivée-style binding ledge cutter. Federico Sheppard presents action and relief details for eighty-nine instruments in one of the world’s great classical and flamenco guitar collections. Jeffrey Elliott fondly remembers his long-ago apprentice, Kent Rayman. Make a simple jig for replacing the rings in a rosette after the instrument is completed. Familiar industrial-strength hand cleaner cuts the finger schmutz that builds up on a guitar. Respect the simple beauty of a limp cloth measuring tape. 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. See Preview American Lutherie #151 – Spring 2024 Todd Cambio finds inspiration in those inexpensive "catalog" guitars, made in their millions before WWII in American factories using American woods. How do you explain that the glue squeeze-out in some fine old guitars by Spanish masters drips the wrong way? Tobias Braun built a solera like a mysterious century-old example in the shop of Santos Hernández to show how it might have been done. Imagine attending an intensive seminar to build a fine classical guitar from scratch with an instructor who is carrying on the teaching work of José Romanillos; and it's in an authentic castle in Austria, with a gourmet restaurant. Jay Anderson innocently attended a James Taylor concert, and received an epiphany that changed his life; that is to say, he became a luthier. Fourteen-year-old Harry Fleishman found a kindly and perceptive mentor in Seymour Drugan, an older legit jazz player who was running a guitar store. It's never too late to say thank you. StewMac has bought a European wood supply house; meet the new VP of Global Sales. Want to know the breaking point of a particular steel guitar string? Here's the neat and tidy way, using a cell phone. Lee Herron tinkered together a cool bandsaw jig to cut the kerfs in lining strips. Make an action gauge from cheap mail-order stuff. Dan Erlewine and William Eaton remember their friend and guitar repair guru Frank Ford. Plus: a double-sided steel jig to join the halves of a guitar top or back. Mark on dark wood with soapstone, not pencils. Nut-filing guides made on a laser cutter. Fleishman-style swing-arm binding router. See Preview American Lutherie Back Issues Back issues of American Lutherie from previous years are available to purchase individually. We currently have over 45 back issues available. See our Big Red Book of American Lutherie Series for even more American Lutherie content. To get this year’s current issues of American Lutherie, become a member! In addition to getting the current issues of American Lutherie, you’ll get the member discount price on back issues as well as on our books and plans. American Lutherie #85-1042006-2010 American Lutherie #105-1322011-2017 American Lutherie #133-1532018-2024
