Posted on June 12, 2026June 12, 2026 by Dale Phillips The “Mysteries” of Panormo The “Mysteries” of Panormo by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #132, 2017 One of the classics of lutherie literature is the book, The “Secrets” of Stradivari by violin historian Simone F. Sacconi. This thick book contains much detailed information on the instruments of the Cremonese master violin maker, enough so that, for some readers, what may have once been considered to be true secrets of design and construction are revealed. The title of this article is a takeoff on that of Sacconi’s book. Sacconi spent a lifetime researching the instruments detailed in his tome and so the information imparted there can be considered to be definitive. Having recently completed a single long construction project of a replica instrument by 19th century guitar maker Louis Panormo (Photo 1), I am in nowhere near a position to assume expertise in the “secrets” of Panormo’s guitars. But that project did introduce me to a number of features typical of instruments of that time and, in particular, of the instruments of that maker. 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 May 20, 2026May 20, 2026 by Dale Phillips Testing Threaded Inserts Testing Threaded Inserts by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 Threaded inserts are used in bolt-on acoustic guitar necks, in the style of neck joint popularized by Taylor guitars. An example of a butt-joint neck heel with threaded inserts is shown in Photo 1. I have posted instructions for constructing this style of neck joint on my lutherie info website and not long ago received an e‑mail message from someone taking me to task for the type of threaded inserts specified there. For years I have used self-tapping machine screw threaded inserts and have had good success. But the writer pointed out that these inserts were “not for wood” and so I thought a test of these and other types of threaded inserts would be an appropriate thing to do. There may be better inserts than the ones I was using, and testing is the only way to find out. What I wanted to discover was how strong the hold of the insert was on the wood into which it is inserted. 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 April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Garrett Wade Versatile Vise Product Reviews: Garrett Wade Versatile Vise by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #119, 2014 Garrett Wade Versatile Vise #05R10.10, $84.70 garrettwade.com The item reviewed in the following paragraphs was provided to American Lutherie for review. A draft of this review was sent to the supplier prior to publication so that any factual errors in the review could be corrected. A long time ago, before I started doing any serious woodworking, I had the pleasure of visiting the shop of a local woodcarver. In addition to a bewildering collection of gouges and mallets, he had a cool work-holding vise which could be positioned to hold the work in just about any position. I had forgotten most of the details of that visit soon after, but when it came time to begin equipping my own lutherie shop, I remembered that vise and considered it would be just the thing as the primary work-holding device. With only a description of what it could do, I rooted around for information and finally found that it was called a Versa Vise and was American made. That was the good news. 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 April 28, 2026April 28, 2026 by Dale Phillips That Fine Fake-Old Finish That Fine Fake-Old Finish by R.M. Motola Originally published in American Lutherie #117, 2014 I received an interesting question a while back from someone asking about ways to build a guitar so that it would have a darker tone or how to retrofit an existing instrument for darker tone. Although the term “darker” is fairly ambiguous and certainly open to personal interpretation, if I were to attempt to make an instrument sound darker myself, the first thing I would do to that end is give it a dark-colored finish. From a strictly sonic perspective, this advice is utterly foolish — the color of the paint is not going to affect the sound even a little bit. This is both intuitively obvious and could easily be confirmed using either measurement of the instrument’s sonic output or by blind listening evaluation. But although such techniques are useful for research purposes, they do not necessarily emulate the conditions under which instruments are “heard” in the real world. 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 April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 by Dale Phillips About Alcohols Used as Solvents in French Polishing About Alcohols Used as Solvents in French Polishing by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #105, 2011 Most any kind of pure or nearly pure simple alcohol can be used as a solvent for shellac, because shellac will dissolve completely in any of them. But the choice of what kind of alcohol to use gets complicated pretty fast when issues of application, availability, price, and safety are considered. The two most common choices for shellac solvents for use in French polishing are ethanol and denatured alcohol, which is nominally ethanol to which some poisonous substance(s) has been added to make it undrinkable. Both of these are discussed here in terms of all of the qualities listed above. The research behind this article is one of those good examples of one thing leading to another. We were discussing the general availability of ethanol around the American Lutherie cyber water cooler one day, and this led to the realization that both Contributing Editor Cyndy Burton and I suffered from burning eyes when we have used denatured alcohol. This seemed odd, given the generally accepted belief of what is used to denature alcohol (methanol) and how little of it (5%) we believe there is in the mix. This in turn led to a detailed look at denatured alcohols, in terms of chemistry and safety, and this turned up information which I thought fascinating enough to share. 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.
