Posted on March 3, 2026March 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Ralph Novak Meet the Maker: Ralph Novak by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #70, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Six, 2013 There aren’t a lot of questions in this interview. Ralph’s mind is organized. I made the appointment to interview him during the 2001 GAL Convention, and when the appointed time rolled around his story poured out almost as if he were reading it — an interviewer’s dream. I’ll bet he’s always been that way. We should all be so lucky. The interview was later updated to late April 2002. How were you introduced to music and lutherie? I started with piano lessons in the third grade, and started playing guitar when I was fourteen. By the time I was fifteen I began modifying and customizing my guitars. My dad was helpful in that. He didn’t know anything about instruments, but he was an excellent woodworker, and even when I was a child he made his shop available to me. He’d show me his projects, maybe let me sand something, and answer any questions I came up with about the shop and the work. The shop was never locked up. I’d go down there and do stuff. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on February 1, 2026March 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips Origins of the Mountain Dulcimer Origins of the Mountain Dulcimer by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #34, 1993 Note to readers: The following history was the product of a research grant. However, the granting institution had a falling out with the author and refused to publish the work it had paid for. The author, for his part, had spent all the money and really didn’t care if the paper was every published. Such wastefulness shouldn’t be tolerated in a free country. Since the author is a good friend of mine, I stole it from his care and present it to you here, much condensed and free of bothersome academic footnotes. I hope you find it informative. — John Calkin I was surprised and pleased to receive this grant from the ____ Foundation, since I was on the very verge of looking for a job. At once I moved my headquarters to a bench outside the Hunterdon County Public Library, where I spent the days doing research. Evenings I spent at Frank’s Tavern, ruminating over my days’s work. My Foundation advisor tracked me down there, and, upon learning of my progress, invited me to get out of town to finish my research. In under an hour I was packed and rolling toward the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 16, 2026January 16, 2026 by Dale Phillips Making Kerfed Lining: A Huss & Dalton Shop Story Making Kerfed Lining: A Huss & Dalton Shop Story by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 and Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Six, 2013 The focus of all my early lutherie work was to stay cheap. Prepping locally obtained alternative wood was time consuming, but back-and-side sets of cherry, birch, and walnut cost almost nothing in cash. This was a time when Indian rosewood sets cost in the mid-$20s, and I never bought any. I did allow myself the one-time luxury of a fine set of koa for $45, but otherwise I stayed away from the tonewood market. Being so destitute, there was no way I was going to pay for commercial lining. I forget the price of lining in 1980, but a guitar’s worth cost more than my wood sets, so I made my own. Not that it was a work of art. Nor did I care much that my lining was pretty rough. I had scant prospects of selling my instruments, and I wasn’t worried about impressing myself with the interior of my instruments. This had to change as the market opened up and the expectations of guitarists grew accordingly, but initially all my lining had to do was hold the plates to the sides and leave enough material to support the binding and purfling. My early lining left plenty of material. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Kit Review: Musicmaker’s Irish Bouzouki Kit Review: Musicmaker’s Irish Bouzouki by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Sometime in the 1970s an Irish musician introduced a Greek bouzouki to his band’s lineup, and the seed for a new instrument was planted. As interest spread, the inherent problems with the Greek instrument were addressed by the luthiers who were called upon to make the bouzouki more palatable to contemporary players who were undaunted by a long tradition with the beast. The staved bowl back gave way to a flat back, and the scale length shrank to proportions more manageable for lead work. Still, the light demand for the Irish bouzouki has not tempted the larger instrument companies to gear up for production, with the result that no industry standard has been set. Both flattop and carved-top examples are found, and dimensions and shape vary widely according to the whims of luthiers and the needs of musicians. Even the name of the new hybrid has escaped standardization, and Irish bouzoukis might also be called citterns, octave mandolins, or mandocellos. Some luthiers build variations on the theme and change the names in an attempt to avoid confusion, calling a 4-course instrument a bouzouki and a 5-course instrument a cittern. So far, you can build it as you please and call it what you want. The musicians who want them don’t seem to be all that confused by the matter. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 by Dale Phillips Partial Refrets Partial Refrets by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Partial refrets are a somewhat different matter than a full refret. Full refrets are often done for reasons other than worn frets, such as a compression refret to take excess relief out of a neck with a nonoperative or nonadjustable truss rod, or to allow a fretboard hump at the body joint to be dressed out. Partial refrets are usually performed on an instrument that has been played exclusively on the first few frets. Those frets have been grooved by the strings to the point where the strings buzz on the seldom-used frets. Most of the time I like to replace a couple of the unmarred frets as well just to play it safe. Occasionally a fret in the middle of the fretboard gets damaged and must be replaced. The procedure for this is similar to a partial refret for worn frets. There are other reasons to perform a partial refret, such as installing taller frets by the nut to make a slightly back-bowed neck playable, but these considerations are not covered here. I used to dislike partial refrets and tried to talk the customer into a full refret. This insured that the same fretwire covered the entire fretboard and also put more money in my pocket. After a slight mental adjustment and some practice at partial refrets I have come to look forward to them. The money involved is less, but partial refrets are normally far less complicated than a full refret and take a predictable amount of time. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of the Articles Online featured on our website for Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
