| American Lutherie Authors | |
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Nicolò Alessi is a guitarist, lutenist, and retired industrial designer who lives along beautiful Lago Maggiore in Northern Italy. Nicolo’s innovative tuning machines, which he makes in both historical copies and modern designs, are known for their precise workmanship and hand engraving. He is very proud of his region, his work, and his family. www.alessituningmachines.it/ this info updated 2010 |
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Bill Allen is an engineer in his other life. He's a past Guild author and a fourteen-year member, too. this info updated 1988 Bill has since passed away |
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Randy Allen is a supplier of cast mandolin tail pieces, inlay materials, and tonewoods, and provides a fret-slotting service to the luthier community. He is also the new owner of the ClimateCase company. Allen currently builds resophonic guitars, mandolins, and acoustic guitars in several models. www.allenguitar.com/mandolin.htm this info updated 1999 |
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Twelve-year GAL member Ken Altman began his lutherie career in 1975, working in a violin shop in Berkeley, California. He began making bows in 1993, and has been a full time bow maker for eighteen years. www.altmanbows.com this info updated 2015 |
| Andrea Andalò is a guitarist, clarinetist, and surgeon who made a plywood balalaika at age eight with, as he says, "disgusting results." After years of making furniture for family and friends, he "realized that a table did not sound well" and so returned to lutherie. He has made classic and steel string guitars and a true balalaika, and current projects include two lutes. this info updated 1999 |
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Steve Andersen began his guitar building under the tutelage of steel string builder Nick Kukich, but moved on to specialize in archtop guitars and mandolins. He has been a GAL member twenty-seven of the last thirty-two years. www.andersenguitars.com this info updated 2007 |
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Fifteen-year GAL member Jay Anderson met his mentor Jim Olson in 2003 and subsequently built ten instruments that closely followed tradition in form, finish, and wood choice. He then made a conscious hard-left turn and began building instruments that are distinctly nontraditional, especially in their visual aspect. He hopes they will inspire the music of players and the imagination of collectors. this info updated 2018 |
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Ten-year GAL member, Convention lecturer, and American Lutherie contributor Kevin Aram lives and works with his wife Alison in lovely rural North Devon. His fine traditional classical guitars find homes all over the globe. For fun, he enjoys restoring old Land Rovers and making music with his friends. www.aramguitars.co.uk/ this info updated 2014 |
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John Armstrong is a guitarist, a model maker, a math teacher, and an IT professional. He made his first guitar in school, way back when woodshop was an actual subject. this info updated 2018 |
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Long-time GAL member Mike Ashley, exercising his Purdue pharmacy degree, “dealt drugs” to work his way through seminary, whereupon he awoke to find himself commissioned an Air Force chaplain for a twenty-six-year stint. Very early on, a Mississippi luthier evangelized him. Since the 1969 first instrument baptism, he’s balanced lutherie and other callings, recently retiring as Episcopal-Lutheran campus minister at Ball State University. |
| First-time American Lutherie author Andrew Atkinson is doing postgraduate work at London Guildhall University to recreate an authentic Elizabethan luthier's workshop. This gives him a legitimate reason to poke around in old breweries. this info updated 2002 |
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Sixteen-year GAL member Pierre Audinet believes his love for wood is hereditary, passed down from centuries of woodworking ancestors. In his day job he travels to places as varied as Vietnam, Brazil, Yemen, and Djibouti to convince governments that investing in renewable energy is probably a good idea. He has been steadily building less than one classical guitar a year in Washington, DC, practicing lutherie skills acquired with masters in Sigüenza, Paris, Granada, and Firenze. He now pretends to be an enlightened amateur. this info updated 2014 |
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After almost thirty years of making music, Andy Avera has developed a deep appreciation for the fine art of lutherie. A technical systems engineer by day, most of Andy’s nights and weekends are filled raising kids and playing music with his wife Audrey, a florist by trade. this info updated 2008 |
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Filippo Avignonesi has been making, repairing and restoring guitars professionally since 1992. Studied with David Freeman, Mike Jarvis, Rossco Wright, Tom Ribbecke and Jose Romanillos. www.filippoavignonesi.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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Twenty-one-year GAL member Juan Oscar Azaret is a native of Cuba who immigrated to the USA in the early ’60s. He holds degrees in electrical engineering and worked for over three decades for Bell Labs (and subsequent spin-offs and acquisitions). He has built and played classical guitars and is now a professional luthier and part-time teacher of electrical engineering. He serves on the board of the Boston Classical Guitar Society. this info updated 2018 |
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Dutch-born Rene Baarslag now lives and works in Granada. www.renebaarslag.es/biography.html this info updated 1997 |
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Besides being a painter and sculptor, Joseph Bacon is a guitarist and lutenist with three albums to his credit. He lives in San Francisco. this info updated 1987 |
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Larry Baeder has been a studio musician and recording artist for almost three decades. He has played guitar for artists as diverse as Carly Simon, Bo Diddley, The Temptations, Chuck Jackson, Ben E. King, Isaac Hayes, Jay McShann, Henry Butler, Jane Sibery, and The Staple Singers. Larry resides in New York City. this info updated 2003 |
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Geary Baese is a violinmaker, and author of the book Classic Italian Violin Varnish. this info updated 1993 |
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Welcome first-time author Gavin Baird! www.sheba.ca/ this info updated 2008 |
| Steven Banchero runs a violin making shop along with hsi wife, Patty Powloski. this info updated 1991 |
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Bob Banghart is a twenty-four-year Guild member. this info updated 1990 |
| I don't know much about Phill Banks other than what he says in his article; he's an engineer who move from Australia to England. this info updated 1989 |
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Roman Barnas is the Head Instructor of the Violin Department at the North Bennet Street School, Boston. He was born in Zakopane, Poland and entered the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Zakopane at the age of 14, when he first began making violins. He went on to the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland, where he studied music and violinmaking for five more years. Roman came to the U.S. in 1996 to work at Psariano’s Violins in Troy, Michigan. He studied violin making in with Boyd Poulsen and violin restoration with Hans Nebel. He plays violin, accordian and double bass. www.nbss.org this info updated 2007 |
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When 19-year GAL member Sean Barry was 12 he was offered the choice of learning to play bluegrass banjo and guitar or becoming a herpetologist to study snakes and lizards. Since both involved scales, he saw little difference between them and he pursued them both with equal fervor. He spent ten of the next fifty-four years as a professional road musician and much of the rest as a professional herpetologist, not to mention as a bus driver and diesel mechanic for his traveling band. Along the way he developed an interest in the way wooden instruments were made and repaired and he has pursued lutherie tenaciously since the late 1960s. His lutherie focus is the F-5 mandolin but he also builds flat top guitars and even the occasional solid body electric. He hopes to write more for American Lutherie, especially during the winter when the snakes are hibernating. this info updated 2016 |
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Seven-year GAL member Pete Barthell trained as a mechanical engineer at Michigan State, Northwestern, and University of Michigan, then spent forty-one years in electrical manufacturing. He built his first guitar in 1976. It flew apart. He's now working on classical #140 in the rural wilds of the Olympic Peninsula. www.barthellguitars.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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John Bartlett retired from the U.S. Navy in 1984, then retired from public accounting in 2010. He started playing guitar back in the Jurassic Period (1960 or thereabout) but didn’t become interested in guitar construction until around 1989. A luthier friend suggested he try building one. Since then, he’s built around forty guitars, an F-style mandolin, and four banjos. “I’ll keep doing it until I get it right,” he says. this info updated 2013 |
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Before becoming a full-time luthier, eighteen-year Guild member Michael Bashkin was a soil scientist for the U.S. Forest Service. Before that he hiked the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada, for no apparent reason. www.bashkinguitars.com/ this info updated 2018 |
| Mark Bass is a freelance writer living in Atlanta whose forty-hour-a-week hobby is building Bouchet-braced classic guitars. this info updated 1998 |
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Alexander Batov is an established maker and restorer of early plucked and bowed instruments. www.vihuelademano.com/ this info updated 2006 |
| Fred Battershell makes a great variety of instruments including dulcimers, viols, psalteries, hurdy gurdies, and crwths. He has been a member for twenty-five of the last twenty-eight years, and has written a number of reviews for our pages. this info updated 1987 |
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Scott Baxendale has been there, done that, picked himself up and done it again. He currently builds and repairs guitars with his son John. baxendaleguitar.com/ this info updated 2007 |
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Thomas Bazzolo began building classical guitars in 1983. Tom’s teacher the late Frank Haselbacher who is known for his “Augustine” guitars. After Haselbacher’s death, Tom inherited many of his clients. Tom built and repaired classical guitars in Connecticut for many years until relocating to Sullivan, Maine. He has retired from guitarmaking and now is a casual bladesmith. this info updated 2017 |
| Four-year GAL member Bill Beadie spends most of his days figuring out how to make it safe to breathe the air in industrial settings. On the side, he studies guitar making with John Greven, :the best guitar maker ever." this info updated 2005 |
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Ten-year GAL member Allan Beardsell is a former student of Sergei DeJonge who builds steel string, nylon string, and electric guitars, plus the odd mandolin. And the even odder historical guitar. He wasted his teens and twenties as a musician, and turned to guitar making as a way to get guitars cheap. Realizing his mistake, he started selling them to support the habit. He is the current provincial fencing champion in mens Epee, and plays in a kick-ass rock band, the DeadBeatles. www.beardsellguitars.com/ |
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After training in Mittenwald and New York, Charles Beare returned to London to work for, and later run the family violin business, J&A Beare Ltd. Charles has become one of the world's foremost violin experts. He recently attended the Violin Society of America's 32nd Annual Convention in Portland, Oregon to lecture and to serve as a judge at their 16th International Competition. It was his fourth time serving as a VSA competition judge. www.beares.com/ this info updated 2005 |
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Ed Beaver attended Guitar Research and Design in 1980, learning from George Morris and Charles Fox. He has since opened Ed Beaver Guitars in Nashville, TN where he does repairs and is developing a line of instruments designed for the working musician. He has been a Guild member on and off since 1980. www.edbeaver.com/ this info updated 2003 |
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Five-year member Richard Beck has been luthing for thirty years. www.richbeckguitars.com/. this info updated 2008 |
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Thomas Bednark was one of the Guild’s earliest members. Today he focuses on making baseball bats. this info updated 2017 |
| Alexandre Belevich is a retired aeronautical engineer and one of the early balalaika luthiers. He also makes precision stainless steel wire models of cars and aircraft. this info updated 1989 |
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Bob Benedetto has been making archtop guitars since 1968 and violins since 1983. In 1994 he authored Making an Archtop Guitar. He’s a past GAL author and convention lecturer... www.benedettoguitars.com/ this info updated 2011 |
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Seventeen-year GAL member Brent Benfield has been making wooden boxes to play music since 1972, if you count high quality loudspeakers. Too much school and highly educated parents are part of the recipe. Millwright, cabinet builder, painter, maintenance tech, solder tech, model builder, audiophile, orchardist, luthier.... Built a 50 cal rifle, a canoe, a bicycle, many sets of golf clubs, his shop, a car.... You'd think he could find a real job. this info updated 2009 |
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Dulcimer maker Doug Berch is a ten-year GAL member and a first-time AL author. this info updated 2017 |
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Twelve-year Guild member Tobias Berg built his first guitar in the same year that he joined the GAL. A year later he left his native country of Sweden to study classical guitar making in Canada, England, and the USA, finally settling in Germany. When he is not building guitars, he enjoys a walk in the woods with his wife and tending his Bonsai trees outside the workshop. www.berg-guitars.de/ this info updated 2006 |
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Twenty-eight-year member and retired electrician Ted Beringer saw a Fender being played in 1950, decided he could build that, and kept doing it. In 1982 Johnny Smith came to Billings, and his music inspired Ted to build archtops. He also builds flattops, nylon strings, and mandolins, all with an unconventional flair. this info updated 2003 Ted passed away in 2006, read his memoriam. |
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Ten-year GAL member Mark Berry has been making furniture for over thirty years, and guitars for twelve. Mark has trained with Harry Fleishman as well as a number of other fine luthiers. www.markberryguitars.com/ this info updated 2013 |
| Seven-year member and first-time author Manny Bettencourt is a full-time electric guitar and amplifier repairman with degrees in music an delectronics. this info updated 1991 |
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| We welcome firt time author Ed Beylerian! this info updated 1990 |
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Fourteen-year GAL member Alain Bieber was born in Paris and worked on large transportation projects in Europe as a civil engineer for forty years. He worked on a PhD in Berkeley, California for three years in spite of musical (and other) distractions. A lifelong committed and ungifted guitar player, he started lutherie in 1996 at his retirement, as a consolation. He says that it works. this info updated 2013 |
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Welcome first-time author Åke Björnstad! this info updated 1992 |
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Tom Blackshear started building guitars 50 years ago along with playing the flamenco guitar, and he has never lost his love for the romantic charms of Spain. He takes a leadership role in Internet chat groups, and shares his knowledge freely, along with his guitar building schedule. Tom has been a GAL member for twenty-four of the last twenty-nine years. tomblackshearguitarbuilder.weebly.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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Mark Blanchard has been a full-time luthier since 1998. He currently builds custom flattop, archtop, and nylon string instruments. this info updated 2015 |
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Formerly employed as a colonial Williamsburg gunsmith, Nicholas Blanton has been building and playing hammered dulcimers since 1977, full time since '81. he founded the short-lived Trapezoid Instruments in '83 with Sam Rizzetta and Paul Reisler. blantoninstruments.com/ this info updated 1992 |
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Twenty-one-year GAL member James Blilie builds steel string and classical guitars, plus a few violins, resonator guitars, ukuleles, and Weissenborn-style lap steel guitars. He enjoys playing fingerstyle guitar and playing/singing folk and rock music. He has been a structural/mechanical engineer for over thirty-one years, working for Boeing, the FAA, Northwest Airlines, and Boston Scientific Corporation. He also enjoys muscle-powered fun in the outdoors with his family, and good food, wine, and beer. www.barbarossa-guitars.com/ this info updated 2018 |
| First time author Roberto Blinder is a twenty-seven-year Guild member and a master watchmaker. this info updated 1990 |
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Five-year GAL member Brian Boedigheimer teaches guitar repair at Minnesota State College - Southeast Technical in Red Wing, MN. Unusual among guitar makers, he loves instrument finishing Ä all kinds. He also plays terrible golf, but loves it, too. www.redwingmusicrepair.org this info updated 2006 |
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Five-year GAL member John Bogdanovich is a luthier, author, guitarist, lutherie supplier, and teacher. He authored Classical Guitar Making: A Modern Approach to a Traditional Design and produced the 10-DVD set, Making a Concert Classical Guitar. He has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, worked at AT&T Bell Labs designing hardware, and completed the two-year fine woodworking program with James Krenov. this info updated 2014 |
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Don Boivin is a member of the GAL and of the New England Luthiers. A carpenter by trade, a musician by tenacity, and a stringed-instrument repairman by default, his lifelong love of wood has finally brought him to the onerous, yet thoroughly rewarding, pursuit of lutherie. this info updated 2013 |
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Twelve-year GAL member Ralph Bonte was born and is still living in Bruges (Belgium) where he formerly worked in a psychiatric hospital. Since 2010 he has been teaching at the CMB (center for building musical instruments) in Puurs Belgim. He is involved in the Leonardo guitar research project. He builds and repairs guitars and ukes, is the lead singer of the Belgian blues band Hideaway, and is the founder of the gospel choir Soul Spirit. In June 2010 Ralph won the coveted lutherie prize “de Gouden bootschaaf” (“the Golden fingerplane”.) www.arrenbieguitars.be/ this info updated 2016 |
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Fourteen-year GAL member Paul Bordeaux got his start in lutherie in 1981 with only a Les Paul guitar and his dad's tools, then worked at Carruthers Guitars in the late '80s. He specializes in custom inlays and designs for builders, but also for players around the world. That's his son Josh in the photo. www.bordeauxinlay.com/ this info updated 2008 |
Joao Jose de Santana Borges is a professor of comparative communication, legislation, and ethics in public relations with a master's degree in communication and contemporary culture. He is a Yoga instructor and loves to sing Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) and compose poetry. this info update 2001 |
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Ten-year member Julius Borges is a sometime employee at Bourgeois Guitars, and is currently building guitars for Schoenburg. He likes to fly fish and has a wife and two kids and no time for anything else. www.borgesguitars.com/ this info updated 1997 |
| Eight-year member Brett Borton is a first-time authro, although you have seen his cartoons in past issues of American Lutherie. this info updated 1989 Brett passed away in 1993 |
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Violinmaker George Borun is a central figure in the Southern California Association of Violin Makers. www.scavm.com/ this info updated 1993 |
| Welcome three-year member and first-time author J.E. Boser! this info updated 1993 |
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Longtime Guild member Dana Bourgeois has been building, repairing, designing, and manufacturing acoustic guitars since 1974. As part of Pantheon Guitars, Dana runs one of the premier small-production guitar shops in the country. www.pantheonguitars.com/ this info updated 2013 |
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Jayson Bowerman discovered woodworking while studying manufacturing in college. He went on to be the head of R&D at Breedlove, as well as a musician and a professional athlete. These days he runs a one-man shop and stays active in the many outdoor opportunities of beautiful Central Oregon. this info updated 2014 |
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Don Bradley got involved with the GAL way back in 1977 as a logical consequence of his fascination with all types of musical instruments. He is a professional electrical engineer and is well known in the lutherie community for the signal generators that he has developed and sold for instrument analysis. Don also applies his engineering abilities to electric vehicle research, studies sustainable gardening, and takes care of his two llamas. As if that’s not enough, he can also be spotted at folk dance gatherings. this info updated 2012 Don passed away in 2016, read his memoriam. |
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Chris Brandt is the owner/operator of Portland's long-running guitar repair shop, The Twelfth Fret. the12thfret.com/The_Twelfth_Fret_Custom_Guitar_And_Reapir_Shop/Welcome.html this info updated 1991 |
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Twenty-two-year GAL member Wes Brandt makes and repairs guitars, gambas and mandolins in Portland, Oregon. www.wesbrandtluthier.com/ this info updated 2008 |
| Welcome first-time author Mark Brantley! this info updated 2004 |
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After studying German literature and journalism in college, Tobias Braun soon turned his attention to making classical guitars. A three-week course with José Luis Romanillos in 1984 was a turning point, and he studied with Romanillos three more times over the next eight years. He lives and works in the Vienna Woods. this info updated 2008 |
Gary Bray retired from the real world in 2003 and has been making guitars ever since. He began playing bluegrass guitar for his dad’s band in 1965 at age ten. this info updated 2013 |
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Michael Breid, a Guild member thirteen of the last twenty-four years, lives in the Ozark mountains where he has been repairing stringed instruments since 1968. He's been a staff musician at a local musical stage show for the last twenty years, and likes to fly fish and feed the wild deer, foxes, and raccoons that visit him frequently. this info updated 2004 |
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Mark Brenner has been working in the Milwaukee tool and die Industry since 1977. His firm Brenner Industries specializes in die-sinking and engraving for the trade. The Brenner Guitar Products Division was established in 2015 to develop and market the company’s guitar-related innovations. this info updated 2017 |
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Longtime GAL member Larry Breslin caught the guitar bug in the early ’60s at a concert featuring Carlos Montoya and Sabicas. Soon realizing he could not sing or even tune a guitar, he decided to make one. Eventually help arrived in the form of the very first GAL publication. Nearly forty years later, he’s still making guitars. this info updated 2012 |
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Violin builder, Irish music and dance enthusiast, and backpacker Duane Brewer was among the first students in the violin-building program at Boston's North Bennet Street School. After six years in Paul Schuback's shop he is on his own, living and building near the beautiful Blue Mountains in northeast Oregon. this info updated 2001 |
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Mike Brittain began working with wood in 1970. He was a GAL member from 1978 through 1984, during which time he built guitars late into the night as a hobby while running a cabinet shop and raising a family. After selling the growing cabinet panel processing business in 2000, he happily returned to guitar making and GAL membership with a more relaxed feeling of devotion. this info updated 2008 |
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John Bromka and his wife Sondra are minstrels going by the name of Bells & Motley Consort. this info updated 1992 |
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Welcome first-time author and new member Bob Brook! www.rnbrookwoodworking.com/Luthier/Luthier%20home.htm this info updated 2008 |
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The loves of thirty-six-year member Todd Brotherton’s life are his wife Peg, their dogs, fine woodwork (furniture making and lutherie), great Northern Italian espresso, vintage BMW motorcycles and woodworking machinery, rural life in the mountains... and the Guild, of course. this info updated 2013 |
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Twenty-one-year member Lawrence K. Brown has been a full-time professional maker of lutes and guitars since 1978, and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Lute Society of America. Don't confuse him with Lawrence D. Brown, a longtime GAL member and author and also, by odd coincidence, a lute maker. this info updated 1997 |
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Kendall Brubaker just graduated from Purdue with a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology. He learned to make classical guitars in Mark French's class and is interested in making thin body acoustic-electrics. Apparently fearing commitment, he has accepted a job with an investment fund and hopes to continue making guitars as a hobby. this info updated 2007 |
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R.E. Bruné was on the Guild’s very first membership list in 1972. He’s a GAL founding member, a former Guild president and board member, the organizer of our 1975 convention, and a frequent author and lecturer. He’s a classic guitar maker and dealer, flamenco artist, and father of a luthier. And a grandpa, perhaps of a luthier. We’ll see. this info updated 2017 |
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A luthier since 1970 and a teacher since 1973, André Brunet is founder and director of École-atelier Lutherie-Guitare Bruand, a private lutherie school affiliated with l’Institut des Métiers d’Art, of the college du Vieux-Montréal, based in Montréal. this info updated 2012 |
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Erstwhile GAL member G. Howard Bryan restores harps at H. Bryan & Co. Harpmakers. He's also a retired Marine officer and engineer who worked in the pharmaceutical and nuclear power industries. this info updated 2004 |
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Since completing his doctorate in classical guitar performance, twenty-five-year GAL member James Buckland has become happily married, a homeowner, and a naturalized U.S. citizen. He’s immersed in guitar as a performer, professor, and luthier. Jim also runs, makes guns and beer, and attempts to improve his Olympic free-pistol technique. www.presby.edu/academics/academic-departments-programs/music-department/faculty/ this info updated 2018 |
Frank Bulgar is a member of BASSIC and a maker of electric and archtop guitars. this info updated 1994 |
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When not making guitars and museum-quality jigs, seventeen-year GAL member Géza Burghardt and his wife Tini like to canoe the wild Canadian waters. Géza used to build canoes back in Hungary. this info updated 2011 |
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Brian Burns came under the influence of engineers at a tender age. He does a lot of number crunching during the building process, but insists that it's the player's Thrill-O-Meter reading that determines the success of an instrument. He makes classical and flamenco guitars and teaches guitar making in scenic Fort Bragg, California. this info updated 2006 |
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Chris Burt lives, works, and plays on the North Olympic Peninsula, where he's serious about taking life less seriously. When he's not enjoying the beauty of making and playing mandolins, he's hanging out with his wife, cat, horses, or the neighbors' dogs. He can often be found riding Mai, his Icelandic mare, somewhere along the Straits of Juan de Fuca. this info updated 2006 |
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Twenty-eight-year member Cyndy Burton is a classic guitar maker, a contributing editor for American Lutherie, and a past convention lecturer. She's especially interested in French polish and other environmentally-friendly finishes. this info update 2007 |
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As a teenager, Ron Bushman built an object that looked like a guitar from 1/8” mahogany plywood and a 4x4 from his dad’s garage. He went on to build a number of legitimate classical and flamenco guitars during the 60’s. For the next 25 years he put aside building to pursue career and family. During his successful mechanical engineering career, Ron was awarded over 125 patents for machinery and processes in the food processing industry. In the mid 90’s, he attended several ASL classes to refresh and refine his skills. Last year, he retired from the engineering career to devote much more time to his passion for building. this info updated 2007 |
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Thirty-four-year GAL member Greg Byers has been wrestling with lutherie since 1981, and his long-suffering wife and sons have tolerated and supported his affliction. He has built well over 350 classical guitars along the way, but it never gets old because it is so hard to meet his own expectations. this info updated 2018 |
Nine-year GAL member Bruce Calder unfortunately lets his day job get in the way of making guitars. He is hoping to increase his output from one every two years to two every one year. this info updated 2005 |
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Graham Caldersmith started out studying the reentry dynamics of spacecraft, but ended up studying the acoustic dynamics of guitars and violins. He has been a member of GAL since 1982, and lectured at the 1982 and 1998 conventions. His recent focus has been on developing a classical guitar family and refining the sound of violins made in Australian tonewoods. this info updated 2010 |
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American Lutherie contributing editor John Calkin continues to search for life's meaning in rural Virginia. "I thought I had it figured out, but the Tao backtracked on me and got away," he roports. www.jcalkinguitars.net/index.html this info updated 2007 |
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Fred Campbell is a familiar face a GAL conventions, and has been a member for over fourteen years. With over 35 years experience in lutherie, Fred is considered a Master Finisher and Luthier. Doing business as F.W. Campbell & Sons in San Jose, California, Fred had clients from around the globe seeking his guitar finishing services and consultation. He is currently working with Tom Ribbecke at RGC in Healdsburg, California. this info updated 2009 |
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Mark Campellone has been involved with repairing, designing and building guitars since 1978. He has been building traditional style acoustic archtop guitars exclusively since 1991 and has earned a reputation as one the prominent builders in his field. this info updated 2007 |
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The child of immigrants from Jalisco, Mexico, Jose Cano holds a degree in mechanical engineering but has dedicated himself to music full time. Sustainable living, the Dharma, and swimming in the ocean are among his passions. this info updated 2017 |
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Dutch luthier Jan van Cappelle began making instruments at fourteen, during a dull family vacation. After dropping out of high school he went to Belgium and graduated from the International Lutherie School Antwerp (ILSA), then worked for a Dutch guitar company. Burned out at age twenty-five, he decided to follow his true passion of making historical lutes and guitars, as well as contemporary guitars. His work combines theory and practice, arts and technology, historical research and modern design. He recently published Making Masonite Guitars, a twenty-five page book, entirely written and drawn by hand, that helps you to make Danelectro-style guitars. thedutchluthier.wordpress.com/ this info updated 2017 |
Like The Duke in the movie The Shootist, Steve Card is willin’. He’s willin’ to try things others will not, so he’s willin’ to make musical instruments. He succeeds more often than not, through persistence and blissful ignorance. He loves and thanks his teachers, but is not attached to their methods. He has no Facebook page (he’s in the Witless Protection Program), so an e-mail address will have to do. www.jandove.com/wildcardguitars/ this info updated 2010 |
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Fernando Cardoso makes guitars and violins in a beautiful, centuries-old section of Brazil's original capital city, Salvador. this info updated 2001 |
Seven-year Guild member Dorothy Carlson is a maker and repairer of violin family instruments with Hammond Ashley Associates. this info updated 1992 |
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Thirty-two-year GAL member Fred Carlson grew up in rural Vermont, living for twenty years on a commune of woodworkers and musicians; making instruments seemed like the thing to do. Thirty-five years later on the other side of the continent, it still does. He's currently building 39-string Harp Sympitars, and grafting fruit trees in his copious free time. this info updated 2009 |
Steve Carmody has been repairing guitars full time since 1990. this info updated 2012 |
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Bonnie Carol has built, written about, and performed upon mountain and hammered dulcimers for three and a half decades. She has recently teamed up with luthier Max Krimmel (www.MaxKrimmel.com) to expand her dulcimer building work. One of her choice gigs is as organizer of Moons and Tunes wilderness rafting trips where all participants bring instruments and jam down the river. She and Max also play African marimba and Max built their set of eight marimbas from the small sopranino to the huge fan bass (www.maxkrimmel.com/Marimba/MarimbaMain.htm) www.bonniecarol.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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Please welcome first-time author Curt Carpenter, a maker of solidbody guitars and he has been a Guild member for eighteen of the last twenty years. this info updated 1992 |
Randal Carr is a two-year Guild member. this info updated 1994 |
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Thirty-six-year GAL member Alan Carruth has many GAL writing and speaking credits. He is a lutherie teacher and a maker of many types of instruments. this info updated 2013 |
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Walter Carter is the former historian for the Gibson Company and author of seven books on vintage guitars and guitar companies. He operates Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. this info updated 2015 |
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Keith Cary is a six-year Guild Member. this info updated 1994 |
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Forty-one-year Guild member C.F. Casey built his first dulcimer back in 1978, and studied with Božo Podunovac in 1980. Fred has lately been building a lot of ukuleles and has become an enthusiastic practitioner of Hawaiian slack-key guitar. this info updated 2018 |
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Twenty-year GAL member Kerry Char repairs and restores fine acoustic instruments and still finds time to build classical, flamenco, and steel string guitars, not to mention Weissenborns and ukes. He has a special interest in and reputation for his work on harp guitars Ä restoring them, and building replicas of wonderful old Dyers and Knutsons. this info updated 2008 |
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French guitar expert François Charle is a new Guild member. this info updated 1992 |
Sixteen-year GAL member Ralph S. Charles III has devoted his career to forestry. this info updated 2014 |
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Sergio Huerta Chávez began formal study of guitar, cello, and vocal music at a young age. He then entered the Escuela de Lauderia and studied the construction of viola, cello, and viola da gamba there for five years, graduating in 1992 and opening his own shop in 1993. this info updated 2001 |
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Swiss luthier Ermanno Chiavi, a guitar maker since 1985 and a Guild member since 1995, has developed unconventional guitars in various sizes, tunings, and string counts. With the Zurich University for Technology, he is researching the acoustics of classical guitars. Ermanno has been teaching classes for many years, including repair and construction courses. this info updated 2005 |
Ten-year Guild member John Chipura is a first time author. this info updated 1990 |
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Bradley Clark was once an art student with a strong interest in science and engineering. He found himself re-engineering Australia's Maton Guitar's production and indeed their business. He feels that many aspects of guitar making can be simplified, given advances in technology. His late father would have said "Give it a go, you mug." At Cole Clark Guitars, he has. this info updated 2005 |
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With a few major interruptions, old-school Spanish guitar maker Eugene Clark has been building fine instruments since the early ’60s. He has many credits as a GAL author and GAL Convention presenter. this info updated 2014 |
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Nate Clark repairs guitars under the name Finger Lakes Guitar Repair. He lives in upstate NY with his wife, two daughters and their dog. Nate spends his free time doing woodworking projects, gardening, and working on his house. this info updated 2013 |
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Six-year GAL member Jim Clay has been building on a hobby level since 1978 when his wife Susan gave him a plank of padouk and Irving Sloane's book for a wedding present. A self-confessed "tool junkie," Jim runs a custom cabinet shop at the University of Calgary, plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, and dulcimer. He has two wonderful kids, Julia, age seven, and Thomas age two. this info updated 2000 |
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Vincent Cléroux worked post-graducation for Stephen Marchione in Texas. He builds and repairs steel string acoustic guitars and archtop guitars. this info updated 2012 |
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Bishop Cochran, a ten year Guild member, is now a guitarist and songwriter living in Spain. He has been a designer of guitars and amps, and he is the designer and manufacturer of the first plunge router base for the Dremel tools. He has designed many tools for both Allied Lutherie and LMI. His router bases are currently listed at Allied Lutherie and sold through the shop in Portland, Oregon and Bishop's website. this info updated 2008 |
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Lutenist, amateur luthier, and ten-year GAL member Ben Cohen started building wind and percussion instruments from plumbing supplies while in college, inspired by Bart Hopkin’s brilliant quarterly journal Experimental Musical Instruments (www.windworld.com). Ben runs a klezmer band, plays in a Jewgrass band and a Baroque trio, and keeps his day job. this info updated 2010 |
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Twenty-year GAL member Dave Cohen built his first mandolin in 1973 while a graduate student at Florida State U. He taught college chemistry and did research in Richmond, Virginia, from 1974 to 2003. He returned to lutherie in 1997, and in 1999 began a collaboration with Dr. Tom Rossing, researching the physics of mandolin-family instruments. this info updated 2015 |
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Brent Cole is founder of Alaska Specialty Woods Inc. in Craig, Alaska, which produces soundboard products from the forest of southeast Alaska. this info updated 2013 |
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Erick Coleman has been repairing guitars for over 25 years, working by appointment only out of his home shop in Athens, Ohio. As senior technical advisor at Stewart-MacDonald, Erick participates in the research and development of new tools, writes product instructions, and educates the staff. He has conducted numerous guitar repair workshops at the Guild of American Luthiers and Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans conventions as well as at the Northwoods Seminar and Purdue University. A guitarist for nearly 4 decades, Erick performs regularly with his band the D-Rays. this info updated 2017 |
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The elusive Bill Collings is a shy and gentle creature of the Texas desert. He was spotted at GAL conventions in 1977 and 1978, although the astute luthiologist will note that at that time he was wearing the longer plumage of the starving artist/craftsman. www.collingsguitars.com/home.htm this info updated 2008 |
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Arianna Colombo was born in Italy and became familiar with GAL while attending the Civica Scuola di Liuteria in Milan, where she learned how to build guitars, lutes, and Italian mandolins for four years. After graduating cum laude, she is gaining experience in some workshops and laboratories, and is also working for the Italian authorized “support and repair departments” of Martin, Taylor and Bourgeois. Fond of custom steel string guitars, she specializes in highly detailed decorations and inlays. this info updated 2017 |
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Mandolin Magazine columnist, Fine Woodworking author, regular AL contributor, and a GAL member for a total of fourteen years, James Condino has been building instruments for over thirty years. He’s also a serious outdoorsman who guides whitewater expeditions and takes fine guitars and mandolins to volcanic summits. jazzmando.com/field_testing.shtml this info updated 2015 |
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Michael Cone built his first classical guitar forty-two years ago and became a member of the Guild at its inception. He is currently engaged in the development of analysis systems that optimize structures that vibrate, including musical instruments, though vuvuzelas may prove too challenging. this info updated 2010 |
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Nine-year Guild member Marc Connelly is an amateur luthier who has built about five guitars a year since 1998 with the help of GAL reference materials and the network of kindred spirits that is the GAL membership. Marc is a thirty-year veteran advertising agency art director, sits on the Board of Directors for the Hydroplane & Raceboat Museum, and is a principal member of the deck crew/restoration crew of the 1982 Atlas Van Lines and the Slo Mo V. this info 2005 |
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Thirteen-year member and established classical guitar maker Stephan Connor recalls that when he first got the fever to build a guitar, Richard Brune recommended he join the GAL. He soon received a back issue reviewing lutherie schools which led him to study with David Freeman of Timeless instruments. Seems the Guild was “instrumental” to his career. this info updated 2008 |
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Ray Cowell, sixty-two, started his working life in the coal mines and retired after twenty-five years of running his own paint-industry business. He made his first electric guitar in the early ’70s, and in retirement he discovered the ukulele. He asked for uke-building help via the Internet. Luthier Tom Johnson lives close by, and answered. Now they are firm friends. www.theukesofnorthumberland.com/ this info updated 2011 |
Richard Craven is a eleven-year Guild Member. this info updated 1994 |
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Twelve-year GAL member Bruce Creps started his tonewood business in 1999, incidental to what he thought would be a new career in lutherie. He still hopes to dabble when he and his wife finish building their small passive-solar house. Bruce transports shipments under 100 lbs. via bicycle trailer, and deducts bicycle costs as a business expense. this info updated 2007 |
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Twenty-year GAL member Kjell Croce is a graduate of the Red Wing School in Minnesota. He worked for Ron Pinkham at Woodsound Studios in Maine for five years before moving to Michigan, where he has worked in the repair department at Elderly Instruments for thirteen years. He also builds guitars under his own name. this info updated 2014 |
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Eleven-year GAL member John Cross started building in 2003 when he decided foolishly he could save money building a guitar over buying one. Other hobbies include boomerangs and reorganizing his shop at least once every guitar (sometimes more).By day he is a manager for a team of oilfield chemists and engineers in Alberta, where he lives with his wife Katy and two sons. He builds guitars and the occasional ukulele at a pace that makes snails feel good about themselves. this info updated 2016 |
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William R. Cumpiano, a professional luthier for forty years, coauthored the bestselling textbook Guitarmaking: Tradition & Technology. He is a founder of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans and the Puerto Rican Cuatro Project, and a contributor to Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Player magazines as well as the defunct Journal of Guitar Acoustics. His current studio, Becker & Cumpiano Stringed Instruments is located in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he makes guitars individually, teaches, and researches Latin American stringed instruments. this info updated 2006 |
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Joseph Curtin completed his first violin in 1978, and has worked as a maker in Toronto, Paris, and Cremona. In 1985 he and Gregg Alf established the firm of Curtin & Alf in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Curtin opened his own studios in 1997. Along with researcher Fan Tao, Curtin is founder and co-director of the VSA Oberlin Acoustics Workshop. He has lectured on violin making at universities and professional associations throughout America and Europe. this info updated 2009 |
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John Curtis is a partner in Luthier's Mercantile, a founding member of WARP, and a world traveler on behalf of the world's dwindling supplies of tropical hardwoods. this info updated 1993 |
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Tom Cussen came to the banjo in the late 1960s and was a founder of the popular band Shaskeen in 1970. While working as an electronics technician at University College Galway he began building banjos and soon expanded into repair, restoration, and manufacturing. Today Clareen Banjos is the premier banjo maker in Ireland. this info updated 2013 |
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