Posted on January 12, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Dan Erlewine Lutherie Videos Review: Dan Erlewine Lutherie Videos Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Dan Erlewine’s Lutherie Videos and DVDs Dan Erlewine’s Guitar Shop, 2001 Dan Erlewine’s Guitar Shop has introduced a new series of lutherie videos that will likely set the standard for such work for some time to come. The most basic volume will help the tyro evaluate a guitar before and after purchase, explain how repairs are dealt with, and give the guitarist a sense of whether he truly wants to enter lutherie or not. It’s easy to conjure up a desire to fix or improve instruments, but it’s much harder to do the actual work. It seems contradictory, but some very fine guitarists are too fumble fingered to cleanly complete even the most basic repair or setup work. The sooner they learn that commercial lutherie is not for them, the better off they’ll be. Which doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy the rest of the series. Any guitar freak might like to watch fine luthiers in action. But any decisions that are potentially life altering ought to be informed and then honestly considered. Once the jump into lutherie has been made — for better or for worse — acquiring the best instruction only makes sense. I’m so book oriented that it’s a hard confession to make, but as a visual learner I believe that video has made books obsolete for many applications. 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 January 12, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Archtop Guitar Master Class Series Part 1: Focusing on Bridges and Tailpieces by Bob Benedetto Review: Archtop Guitar Master Class Series Part 1: Focusing on Bridges and Tailpieces by Bob Benedetto Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #64, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Video: Archtop Guitar Master Class Series Part 1: Focusing on Bridges and Tailpieces Bob Benedetto, 1999 As a hard-core advocate of video learning, I wish I could give this tape the hearty recommendation I gave to Benedetto’s multi-tape series about archtop construction. I’d like to confess that I’m not a builder of archtops, nor do I intend to become one, so it’s likely that I’m not the best judge of advanced information about the subject. It seems to me, however, that there just isn’t $40 worth of information here. There’s an unwritten rule that a reviewer should never divulge so much that the reader feels justified in not making a purchase, but just for one time I’m going to violate that rule. Here’s the gist of this video: First, the break angle of the strings as they pass over the bridge has nothing to do with the tension of the playing length of the string, nor does the length of the string between the bridge and the tailpiece. Second, the standard Gibson-style adjustable bridge is the appropriate one for the archtop guitar, and any change to its footprint or the adjustment mechanism is bound to have an adverse effect upon the tone and/or volume of the guitar. Third, metal tailpieces by their very nature damage the tone of archtop guitars. Why are these things true? They just are, that’s all. The video isn’t much more specific than that. 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 January 12, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Custom Knifemaking by Tim McCreight Review: Custom Knifemaking by Tim McCreight Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Custom Knifemaking Tim McCreight Stackpole Books, 1985 ISBN 978-0811721752 “So what’s this book doing in AL?” I hear you ask. Well, books directly pertaining to lutherie don’t come along every day, so I’ve been scouting the terrain for volumes that overlap our favorite subject. Toolmaking is a tantalizing excuse to delay any of the less-appetizing aspects of instrument building, and knives certainly qualify as tools. What’s more, once you can make a knife, you are prepared to make specialty plane irons, spokeshave blades, and perhaps small flat chisels. The steel-shaping and tempering processes described in this book will work for any project involving flat stock. There are two basic methods of making a knife: forging, and stock removal. Forging involves heating the steel chunk of your choice to red hot and beating it into the shape of your desire. Stock removal begins with flat steel the thickness of the finished blade. The blade is cut to shape with a torch or saw and then ground to a knife edge. If this sounds like work beyond the scope of your ambitions, please hang in there. McCreight will make this work for you. 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 January 12, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar by Darcy Kuronen Review: Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar by Darcy Kuronen Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #67, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Dangerous Curves: The Art of the Guitar Darcy Kuronen MFA Publications, 2000 ISBN 978-0878464784 It’s getting harder to write reviews of guitar picture books. I’ve nearly passed through my third decade of playing, building, and heavy reading about guitars, and I have seen the elephant and heard the owl. When confronted by yet another hip coffee-table volume, my first thought is, “Go ahead, impress me. I dare you.” Dangerous Curves is sort of up to the challenge. Photos of 110 guitars (from an exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) illustrate the evolution of the guitar as objet d’art while the text attempts — succinctly and entertainingly — to track the changes to the instrument as cultural phenomena. The book is a good thumbnail refresher course in the history of the guitar with a new twist. Guitar nuts tend to think of a few guitars as important and the rest as also-rans. Within the context of art there are no important guitars, only artistically interesting guitars. Art is dynamic. The strongest art has led its culture. With the possible exception of the Stratocaster (my own judgment), no guitar has been artistically that important. Guitar art has followed cultural trends, not led them. 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 January 11, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Shoptalk 5 by Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Review: Shoptalk 5 by Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Video: Shoptalk 5 Todd Sams, Don MacRostie, Dan Erlewine Stewart-MacDonald At the ’99 Merlefest in North Carolina I had the good fortune to find myself manning a booth next to Stew-Mac. It was a pleasure to meet Todd Sams and get to know Jay Hostetler better. It was also astonishing to hear so many self-proclaimed luthiers confess that they had never heard of Stewart-MacDonald. Where do these luthiers buy their tools? My guess is that they aren’t buying them at all, that what they can’t find at Ace Hardware or cobble together in the shop they are doing without; that they don’t even know about the tools that could make their work better and their lives easier. 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.
