Posted on July 1, 2024May 30, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Wenge Questions: Wenge by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 See also, Questions: African Wenge by Jeffrey R. Elliott John Calkin of Greenville, Virginia responds to Milan Sabljic’s question regarding wenge and Willy Ware’s questions regarding superglue’s interaction with finishes. Wenge is hard, yet very brittle. Splinters are a constant threat. There’s also a striking difference in hardness between the wood from different seasons. I recently made a copy of a Gibson L-00 with wenge sides that were sort of quartered and a back that was flatsawn. Keeping the back free of ripples was a nasty task involving a lot of block sanding. It’s almost as bad as softwood in this respect. Wenge is also one of those surprise woods that attack some people. The man who gave me my first piece of wenge said it gave him an intense headache when he resawed it. The exact same board had no affect on me. Superglue drop fills: At Huss & Dalton we do drop fills on conversion varnish all the time, and they are invisible. In my own shop I’ve found that with lacquer and Crystalac it should be used between coats so that it can be aggressively sanded flat, otherwise the fills are devilishly hard to hide. Fills used on the surface usually leave a witness mark around the perimeter. Even when the feather-out is perfect and the surface looks and feels dead-on after flat sanding, the fill is often visible after buffing. Finish repairs done in superglue look much better than the ding or scratch, but they are seldom perfectly invisible. Awhile back I resurrected a much-abused mahogany parlor guitar of low value. The back was cracked and dented, and I did all the repair work with dozens of puddles of superglue. The back stabilized wonderfully and looked perfectly flat after sanding. After French polishing it looked like a new guitar, but after a couple days every fill telegraphed through the shellac. More wetsanding and polishing followed, but the fills kept coming through. I finally had to tone down the gloss to make the work acceptable. My customer was thrilled, but I wasn’t happy at all. I’ve decided that the smallest amounts of CA glue possible should be used on instruments, and if possible it should be mixed with sanding dust to stabilize it. The stuff is a life saver, but it’s not quite God’s gift to lutherie. ◆
Posted on July 1, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Instrument Resurrection Stories Letter: Instrument Resurrection Stories by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #96, 2008 Hello Tim and Everyone in GAL Land — I’ve been receiving some interesting e-mails lately having to do with the instrument resurrection stories I wrote. They’re not so much about the repair issues, but about work ethics and dealing with customers, as well as the stresses of overwork and handling burnout. Anyone busy enough to feel overworked at this point in time should only feel grateful. During the fifteen years I ran my own shop in New Jersey I serviced most of a county and four music stores and drew customers from both the NYC and Philly metropolitan areas, but forty hours of work in a week was a rarity. I had good uses for the down time, but more work would have been nice. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Price of Vintage Instruments Letter: Price of Vintage Instruments by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000 Tim, Chris Foss isn’t the only one baffled by the cost of vintage instruments. I’ve wanted to believe right from the start that the vintage scene was a shuck created by a few knowledgeable dealers who spread their gospel from regular columns in the music rags. The truth, no doubt, is that any old thing you can point to is interesting to someone, and that once enough people show an interest that thing becomes collectible and the price shoots up. Some objects are life enhancing, and different people find different objects. Folks who collect old porcelain don’t eat off their collection. Antique chairs may never be allowed to perch a human. There are no doubt instrument collectors who never play their guitars. It’s not a shame, it’s just the way it is. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 30, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Dulcimer 101 Dulcimer 101 by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009 There's a good reason why dulcimers get no respect. They are most often judged by their worst players. No one faced with a no-talent, beginner guitarist says, “That instrument isn’t worth a damn.” But when confronted by someone trying to strum the dulcimer and warble through “Amazing Grace,” that’s exactly the attitude that most of us adopt — “That instrument isn’t worth my time.” But if you’ve ever heard the likes of Marks Biggs, Leo Kretzner, Harvey Reid, or Janita Baker, just to name a few, you know that the instrument is only limited by the ability and imagination of the player. So please leave your attitude at the door. I quit building dulcimers after about eighty pieces. When I ran out of market I moved on to other instruments. Guitars and banjos may be more complicated, but I never felt that I had outgrown dulcimers. Recently I met dulcimer teacher Dinah Ansley. Teachers of obscure instruments often become hubs of like-minded people. After examining and playing a couple pieces I had left after a decade of nonbuilding, Dinah told me that if I would make dulcimers again she would recommend them to her students. 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. Members also receive 3 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. MEMBERS: login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006 Robin Walke of Kent, England, UK asks: I am looking for construction plans for a 12-string acoustic guitar. The style of instrument I like is either a Guild F Series or the Martin D-12-28. I have looked all over the net without any luck. Any help you can offer will be appreciated. John Calkin responds: A couple sources of 12-string plans are: Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com/books/cats/611.htm) and International Luthiers Supply (www.internationalluthiers.com/instrumentplans.php). However, you could always get a 6-string plan and beef it up a little. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account. Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006 Robin Walke of Kent, England, UK asks: I am looking for construction plans for a 12-string acoustic guitar. The style of instrument I like is either a Guild F Series or the Martin D-12-28. I have looked all over the net without any luck. Any help you can offer will be appreciated. John Calkin responds: A couple sources of 12-string plans are: Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com/books/cats/611.htm) and International Luthiers Supply (www.internationalluthiers.com/instrumentplans.php). However, you could always get a 6-string plan and beef it up a little. Strings for 12-string guitars have gotten so light that I don't believe much beefing up is necessary. Forty years ago everyone knew not to tune their 12-strings up to pitch, but so many players have insisted on it that string sets have gotten very light. It's probably enough to use a standard brace pattern, but not scallop any braces. It's common practice to build 12-strings with a shorter scale length and twelve-fret necks, both intended to keep the guitar from torquing out of shape. Huss & Dalton follows both practices. And lest anyone worry about underbracing their 12-string, the steel-string books by Sloane and Young both contain material on morphing their dreadnoughts into 12-string models. At H&D we've made only a few 12-strings and they were on the smaller CM body but without a cutaway. We made everything heavier on the first one, and I knew before I put it together that it would be way overbuilt. Fortunately it sounded OK, though it was quiet. Succeeding instruments have each gotten lighter until we reached the above formula. The red spruce bracing we use is often very stiff, which might make some difference, but I've also seen some brutally stiff Sitka brace stock. I think I'd use the stiffest stock I could find and use a normal pattern rather than use some random stock and try some extra braces with unknown tonal characteristics. We also left the top a bit thicker, and we left that factor consistent while we varied the size of the braces. There's also the Leo Kottke school where heavy strings are used but tuned way down, perhaps all the way to C. I have no experience with this but would guess that detuned heavy strings would have about the same tension as light gauges tuned to standard pitch. ◆ [/wcm_restrict]
