Posted on September 10, 2026October 5, 2026 by Dale Phillips Product Review: SuperMax 16-32 Drum Sander Product Review: SuperMax 16-32 Drum Sander by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 My first thickness sander was a Performax unit that attached to a radial arm saw and was driven by the saw motor. Wood had to be pushed through it by hand and when it jumped the wide, thin push unit it did painful damage to the fingers. Still, it was better than nothing. Eventually, I sold the saw to Huss & Dalton and threw the sanding unit in the trash. H&D had a free-standing, twin-drum Performax that I was allowed to use. A conveyor belt fed the wood to the drums. It was a deluxe item. 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 September 10, 2026September 29, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: R.M. Mottola Meet the Maker: R.M. Mottola by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #109, 2012 R.M. Mottola is one of those rare individuals who can delve into serious matters without taking himself too seriously. The formal nature of his reporting in American Lutherie often keeps this from coming through, so we’re pleased to introduce him to you in a friendlier setting. We think you’ll be surprised. You’re involved in a pile of different lutherie activities. Maybe we can first quickly go through your lutherie history and then probe some areas a bit deeper. How did you get started in lutherie? 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 August 5, 2026August 5, 2026 by Dale Phillips Review: Advanced Ukulele Building with Jay Lichty Review: Advanced Ukulele Building with Jay Lichty by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #142, 2021 Advanced Ukulele Building with Jay Lichty Robert O’Brien Video instruction Download from Obrienguitars.com, $277 I have loved books all my life, but when I began having worrisome visions of my house tipping toward the side containing my library I decided to make a change. As I began to shed books, it became easier to do. Most of my lutherie books disappeared via eBay and I have not missed them. Early on I became a fan of video instruction. But videotape was not especially convenient when it came to finding specific information. DVDs were a huge step forward, but then came the automatic download. YouTube provided a world of free instruction, but too often it was unsatisfying and of doubtful veracity. Nothing beats expert instruction that is professionally recorded and expertly edited. It doesn’t come cheap, but I have never minded investing in quality education. 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 July 23, 2026July 23, 2026 by Dale Phillips Review: Electric Guitar Building with Mike Snider (video download) Review: Electric Guitar Building with Mike Snider (video download) by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021 Electric Guitar Building Mike Snider and Robert O’Brien obrienguitars.com Video download, $237. Running time 14:38:25 Any beginner who has decided to start his building career with electric guitars simply because they are easier to make than acoustics has not thought their decision through very carefully. In the most simplified version of the electric guitar, they may be correct, but at the full-blown, detailed, professional level there are just as many considerations to approach as an acoustic instrument. This video set of 161 lessons teaches the construction of a Telecaster-style guitar with a bolt-on neck and a Les Paul-style guitar with a set-in neck and the full Gibson treatment. 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 June 29, 2026June 29, 2026 by Dale Phillips Review: Michael Bashkin Fretting Course from ObrienGuitars.com Review: Michael Bashkin Fretting Course from ObrienGuitars.com by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #144, 2021 Fretting Course with Michael Bashkin Video download ObrienGuitars.com, $134 Twenty-seven lessons, 4:21:49 run time Viewing Michael Bashkin’s video fretting course strongly reminded me that lutherie is a thinking person’s profession. No matter how we learn an operation, and even if we work in the darkest isolation, the work slowly begins to evolve in technique, first in our minds and then on the bench. The goals of lutherie — to produce and maintain the most playable, best sounding instruments — never change, but the ways we get there change all the time. It is difficult to imagine that a luthier might so slavishly follow a teacher that his methods never develop beyond his initial instruction. Michael Bashkin is certainly one of those thinking men, and this course is not a generic description of applying frets to a guitar neck that we’ve all been exposed to those over the years. It is an in-depth method of discovering problems in a guitar neck/fretboard and solving them in such a way that the frets are perfect once they are installed, no final fret dressing required — just polish and play. 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.
