Posted on January 13, 2025May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Makers: Sue and Ray Mooers of Dusty Strings Meet the Makers: Sue and Ray Mooers of Dusty Strings by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #77, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Over the past two decades, Ray and Sue Mooers’ company, Dusty Strings, has become a major player in the folk-music scene in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Their urban-basement store in Seattle has become a regional hub, not only supplying musical tools to beginner and expert alike, but serving as a meeting place for musicians; a place for folk-music aficionados to get information about concerts, festivals, and regional events. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and their expertise, inventory, and reputation has grown over the years. They have probably built and sold more hammered dulcimers than anyone, anywhere, and they have recently moved their folk-harp and hammered dulcimer production into a new, thoroughly modern facility not far from their retail store. I spent an afternoon talking with them and walking through the plant, and was massively impressed not only by the scale and sophistication of what they are doing, but by the two of them. They are warm, welcoming, and down to earth, and they have wonderfully clear and direct attitudes toward their lives and their business. After all these years they are still in love, and despite big changes in the scale of their enterprise and the incumbent responsibilities, they still seem to be having fun. 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 8, 2024May 2, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 How did your lutherie career get started? I started playing cello when I was in 6th grade and immediately got more interested in the instrument than I was in the playing. When I was about twelve years old I got some money for Christmas from my grandmother. The very next day I ran out and bought Heron-Allen’s Violin Making, As It Was and Is, which I had spotted at a local bookstore. I talked to my mother a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she took one look at the book and thought, “This is a waste of money! He’s never going to do anything with it. It’s much too complex.” But she was wrong. I really surprised her. It took awhile to get around to it, though. Five or six years later I bought a piece of wood and some tools. I started a violin, but I didn’t get very far. I just put the whole thing aside. 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 30, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Bernard Millant Meet the Maker: Bernard Millant by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 In 1973 I was a dance student at Juilliard, in New York. One of the best parts of going to school there was walking past the practice rooms and hearing some of the finest student musicians in the world at their work. One day I passed a couple of violin students who were inspecting a bow that one of them had recently acquired. I heard the other student gasp, “How much? $2,400?? I can’t believe it! What a deal!” I was living hand-to-mouth, and I was shocked. I knew that fine violins were expensive, but $2,400 in 1973 dollars for a hank of hair and a stick? Then the blinding light of stupidity hit me, and I realized that without a bow there is no violin, no cello, no viola, no orchestra, and none of the musical literature which relies so heavily on those instruments. I have been curious about bow construction ever since. Paul Schuback hosted the 2004 Violin Society of America Meeting and Competition in Portland, Oregon. When he invited me to attend and gave me the opportunity to meet Bernard Millant, an internationally recognized authority in the field of bow making, I jumped at the chance. Mr. Millant was both lecturing and judging, so he was a very busy man during the conference, but he was kind enough to meet with me one evening in his hotel room and tell me a little about his life in the craft. 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 March 7, 2024May 12, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Byron Will Meet the Maker: Byron Will by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #31, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume Three, 2004 Why are you building harpsichords and how did you get started? I studied climatology for two years at the University of Wisconsin. I was really interested in long-range weather forecasting. However, you cannot be a climatologist and not work with computers. Now I think that computers are great, but this was the dark ages of 1970. I hated key-punch cards, writing programs, rewriting programs, sorting cards, and computer rooms, but a lot of the upper-level classes I was taking required this work. I found myself taking more and more music classes, and I started taking harpsichord lessons with one of the music professors. I really enjoyed it. I love the music of the Baroque Period, and I became more and more interested in the harpsichord. After a semester I switched majors to music history and literature, and I studied harpsichord. During that time I built a small harpsichord from a kit so I’d have something to practice on at home, and I really enjoyed that. It was an early Zuckermann kit. Not a slab – (straight) sided one; this was after David Way took over. It was a Flemish II or something. 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, 2022May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Let’s Get Busy Let’s Get Busy Chris Brandt Says You Can’t Succeed in Business Without Really Trying by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #26, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 When he was eleven, Chris Brandt converted a $13 guitar into a 12-string by installing autoharp pins. He now owns a successful repair shop in the Portland area. I visited him there to find out how he makes it work. Chris, you have almost always worked with other luthiers, either as an employee, in a cooperative shop, or as an employer of several repairmen. You seem to prefer working with others. Why is that? There are a lot of benefits to working in a shop with other repairmen. It’s a rich learning situation. You are exposed to so many more instruments. It enables you to specialize more, and conversely, to not specialize where you don’t need to. There are a lot of jobs which I don’t do anymore simply because I don’t need to and they’re not my preferred jobs. 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.
