Posted on March 3, 2026March 3, 2026 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Wade Lowe Meet the Maker: Wade Lowe by Kent Everett Originally published in American Lutherie #118, 2014 Yahoo! Today I am going to the center of the known universe. You will find it on a leafy, quiet street in Decatur, Georgia. Wade Lowe, the purveyor of The Atelier awaits, sporting a big smile as always. Your shop always reminds me of the “find the hidden picture” game we used to play as kids. When you stop and look, all kinds of magical things emerge from the background. It has taken me only forty-six years and eleven months to get my shop in such beautiful shape! (laughs) What happened to start you along this life as a craftsman? How far back can we go? We lived in Hartwell, South Carolina, across the street from a lumber mill. When I was five years old, a big black man who worked there took a favor to me. He would nail scraps of lumber together to make cars and trucks and airplanes, and that fascinated me to no end. When I was about six, I somehow got hold of a pocket knife, and my folks let me keep it. My big brother Charlie and I would spit on the curb stone and sharpen my knife in the spit. I carved little race cars out of the insides of corn stalks, where the pith is soft, almost like balsa. Daddy set me up with a little workshop space in our garage, and I would always ask for tools and stuff at Christmas. 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 October 10, 2025October 10, 2025 by Dale Phillips Workshop Evolution Workshop Evolution by Kent Everett from his 2011 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #108, 2011 Evolution doesn’t necessarily mean that you get better and better. It can mean that you evolve to fit the situation you find yourself in, such as changes in the market or your living conditions. One basic way to set up a workshop is to have a master work bench in the middle of the room and the power tools around the edges. It’s basically a circular idea. This is very common in Spain and I think most of our small garage workshops are set up this way. In a bigger workshop, you might want to set it up so the wood goes in one end, it goes through the various operations, and it comes out the other end as a guitar. This is a more linear plan. For five years prior to getting into the first shop I’m going to show you, I went everywhere trying to find a job as a guitar builder. I built my first guitar in Victoria, BC in a little workshop right down the street from Larrivée. I walked into his place one day and I was blown away. He had eleven employees and I could not believe it. I wanted to be part of that. I stayed in Victoria for a year trying to get on with Jean, but that was around 1980 and the acoustic guitar market was dying and he was shrinking his shop. I built four guitars in a cabinet shop while I was in Victoria. I would bring them to Jean and he would encourage me and I’d go back and do it over again. 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.
