Membership

The Guild of American Luthiers is a nonprofit educational membership organization for luthiers and anyone interested in the art, craft, and science of stringed musical instrument building, repair, and restoration. We’ve been sharing information and inspiration for luthiers for over 50 years. In 2025, membership benefits include our acclaimed journal, American Lutherie; access to our hundreds of Articles Online; and member discounts on all our publications. In 2026, we are transitioning to Legacy membership (see details below). Don’t miss our last year of American Lutherie by becoming a member in 2025!

Membership is the best way to support the Guild and benefit from our information sharing system. Membership is open to everyone. Please read on for details on dues, benefits, gift memberships, and more.

2025 membership dues are $65 in the USA, $78 in Canada, or $85 (or $65 digital only) everywhere else.

This is our last year of publication of our print journal, American Lutherie. Read more...

- Three issues of our print journal, American Lutherie: Spring and Summer regular issues, plus an extra-large Fall/Winter issue.
- Digital access to 2025 issues of American Lutherie starting with our Spring issue.*
- Member-only access to our rapidly-growing library of American Lutherie Articles Online from out-of-print issues.
- Member discounts on GAL publications: Books, plans, and back issues of American Lutherie.
- Supporting and sustaining the Guild’s non-profit educational mission.
(*Overseas members can opt for a digital-only membership. See more info below.)

Guild Membership

Price range: $65.00 through $150.00

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Your Location	United States, Canada, Outside U.S. and Canada
Membership Years	2024 + 2025, 2024 + 2025 Digital Only, 2025, 2025 Digital Only, 2025 + 2026-Donation, 2025 Digital Only + 2026-Donation, 2026-Donation

IMPORTANT CHANGES FOR 2026 AND BEYOND - GUILD LEGACY MEMBERSHIP
Starting in January 2026, the main benefit of Guild membership will be 12 months of access to our growing online library, American Lutherie Articles Online. We currently have over 900 articles posted and will be constantly adding more out-of-print articles to this online resource for Guild members. Some new, previously unpublished articles will also appear. Legacy members will continue to receive discounts on all our plans, back issues and books. Legacy membership dues will be lower than current membership dues (TBD). As we make this transition, we need your help. Please consider adding a 2026 membership + donation to your 2025 membership purchase or when you renew for 2026. When you do, you’ll support our huge project of preserving our 50+ years of lutherie content and making it available to members online.

MORE ON MEMBERSHIP FOR 2025
Membership dues are paid on a calendar-year basis. When you join for 2025, you’ll receive all three print issues of American Lutherie (AL#154, #155 and #156), and have immediate access to our Articles Online until the end of 2025. All 2025 memberships end on December 31, 2025. The 2025 issues of American Lutherie are published in the Spring (#154), Summer (#155), and Fall/Winter (#156, published in December). New members can immediately access the digital versions of this year’s published issues when they join, and will receive their print copies in the mail. New additions in our American Lutherie Articles Online will be released continuously during the year. Check the Articles Online periodically to see what’s been newly added.

OVERSEAS MEMBERSHIP IN 2025
Due to the high cost of postage and the unreliability of mail delivery, we are offering a digital-only membership to members outside the USA and Canada. Overseas members can still receive the print version of American Lutherie (with increased postage fees) or they can opt for a digital-only version at the regular (USA) membership rate.

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS
In 2025: Guild Membership makes a great gift!
You can purchase gift membership(s) or other items on our website by selecting the membership year(s) and any other items you want to purchase and proceeding to checkout.
IMPORTANT: Put YOUR name and address in the “Billing details” and the RECIPIENT’S name and address in the “Ship to a different address” section. In the “Order notes” mention that it is a gift, and PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR RECIPIENT’S EMAIL ADDRESS . The website will automatically give the purchaser access to our Articles Online, so you can forward that info to your recipient, or we can create an new online login account in their name (or update their existing one) if we have their email address. If you’ve given a gift in the past, the site may ask you to login first.
In 2026: Since all Legacy memberships will revolve around the member’s ability to login, we’ll need their email address to create an account for them. See above.

PRINT A GIFT GREETING CARD: You can print this card to announce your gift to your recipient. (Print on an 8.5" × 11" sheet and fold in quarters.)

JOIN US!
The Guild of American Luthiers is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational membership organization that has led the way since 1972 to create a community of craftspeople who want to share their knowledge, experience, and inspiration about lutherie with their fellow members in order to advance the lutherie craft. As you can see from our catalog of GAL books, back issues, plans, and American Lutherie Articles Online, the Guild’s mission to share lutherie knowledge is an idea that has been working to educate and inspire luthiers for over five decades, helping to create the culture of sharing that exists today in the worldwide lutherie community. The Guild and its members have played a major role in the progress and excellence achieved in the field of handcrafted instrument since the early 1970s. We encourage you to be a part of our legacy by joining the Guild and participating in our long and successful information-sharing experiment.

DONATE TO THE GAL
We encourage members and others to donate to the GAL. We need your help to continue our goals of information sharing as we move from our last year of printing American Lutherie in 2025, to our digital-only Legacy phase starting in 2026. Please consider donating to help us continue the Guild’s sharing of lutherie information and inspiration into future. As a 501 (c)(3) organization, donations to the Guild are tax deductible in the USA. See our donation page for more info on ways you can help.

American Lutherie

Our respected quarterly 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.

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.

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, and went to full-color printing in 2011. Beginning in 2000, we collected three years of American Lutherie at a time 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 magazine.

Three issues of American Lutherie are the main benefit of annual GAL membership. Want to get the current issues of American Lutherie? Become a GAL member today!

2025 Issues

2024 Issues

The Guild is Great!

Jay Lichty, Tryon, North Carolina

"Let’s face it. when you become a luthier, you become one of us. This is a family. OK, a family of nuts, but still family. We are a different breed who share our passion and our tricks. The best place to come and benefit from your new family is the Guild of American Luthiers. And talk about quality and bang for the buck: Hands down, the best, most consistent publication of our craft in the world is American Lutherie, which by itself is worth the price of membership. And what a great organization to support. I am proud to be a member and look forward to the next Convention, which is a family reunion of sorts."

Dana Bourgeois, Brunswick, ME

"Back in the mid ’70s, when I first started building guitars, information on the topic of lutherie was not so easy to come by. At that time a few good books were available, but guitar-building wannabes like myself had to make do without such luxuries as guitar schools, local luthier communities, apprenticeships, and the internet. There was a GAL, however, whose publications and conventions quickly became my lifeline to a universe of information. In the interim a lot has changed. Information is now widely available from so many sources that one can spend a lifetime digesting it all. Of all the sources out there, though, GAL is still the deepest, widest, and the one I find most rewarding. If I had to start over again I’d get myself a membership to the Guild of American Luthiers, a workbench, and a Stew-Mac catalogue, in precisely that order."

Stephen Marchione, Houston, Texas

"The GAL is the ultimate worldwide resource for lutherie information; from design to tool skills and technique. The fraternity of the GAL is the bedrock of the institution which has invaluably contributed to the modern stringed instrument as we know it and the success of many prominent members."

R.E. Bruné, Evanston, IL

"After over 40 years of lutherie, I still have a lot to learn, and the GAL is THE source of information, a veritable living encyclopedia of lutherie that eclipses the endeavors of any individual luthier. From the magazine and plans to the conventions, you can't get this information anywhere else, for any price. Why anyone who has even modicum of interest in lutherie is not a member is beyond my comprehension."

Fred Carlson, Santa Cruz, California

“Why join the GAL? Besides the obvious reason of all the knowledge to be shared, I think that for the art to move forward and for us as individual luthiers and humans to evolve, we need each other; we need to be part of a larger community. Having access to knowledge and experience is priceless, but having access to people is the thing. So much that is worthwhile about life comes from human contact. Many of my best friends I've met through the GAL. Many jobs and opportunities have come to me because fellow luthiers have come to know and respect my work enough to send clients, suppliers, and others in my direction. I'm convinced that my long-time membership and participation in the GAL has been one of the most important factors in achieving the level of success and enjoyment I've gotten from being a crazy, self-employed luthier/artist. Join the GAL; it may be the single best thing you can do for yourself as an aspiring or practicing luthier.”

Jeff Elliott, Portland, Oregon

“When I was introduced to the Guild in 1975 it was a fledgling organization with a grand vision. I joined because I believed in that vision: by sharing our collective lutherie experiences we would increase everyone's understanding and raise our own level of craft faster and more fully than any one of us might achieve by working alone. Each of us has something to share and something to learn. Together we're extraordinary. For over 30 years I have witnessed this ideal become an ongoing reality for thousands of luthiers, musicians, and aficionados the world over, and am proud to feel a part of it. Together with the unanticipated but equally satisfying benefit of lifelong friendships and professional camaraderie, my life has been immeasurably enriched. Thank you GAL.”

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Harry Fleishman, Sebastopol, California

“I recommend, with only a hint of threat, that my students join the GAL immediately. I tell them that not only will they learn a lot and support a good group, but also they will have access to some of the best luthiers in the world. The Guild has been instrumental in fostering the idea that we learn together and grow together. Yes, there are too many luthiers; yes, the competition is getting fiercer by the day. But more luthiers has raised the bar for all of us and moved us from emulating the 19th century to creating the 21st. Joining GAL isn't enough, however. I encourage new members, especially younger members, to contribute. This gets fresh ideas into the lutherie community and also helps younger builders get known. Everybody wins.”