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Curtis Daily is a double bassist specializing in historical performance. He performs regularly with Portland Baroque Orchestra and Seattle Baroque Orchestra, as well as with other early music groups and festivals across North America. His interest in historical bass strings led him to Aquila Corde, whose gut strings he has used and vended for a number of years. He enjoys playing the classical guitar for diversion and has several stacks of fine tone wood in his basement that will someday become classical guitars if he ever comes up with enough free time. this info updated 2011 |
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Antoine Coupal Dalgleish builds and repairs electric and acoustic guitars under the name Dalgleish Guitars. this info updated 2012 |
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Olivier Fanton d’Andon comes from a family of musicians. He learned the flute at an early age and later the classical guitar. He pursued medical studies, but decided to make musical instruments instead. He has received many awards for his lutherie work, culminating in his designation as “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur,” the highest national distinction in France. this info updated 2014 |
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James L. D'Aquisto is a maker of archtop guitars who has achieved world-wide fame since he bagan his lutherie career as an apprentice over forty years ago. this info updated 1994 James passed away in 1995, read his memoriam. |
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During his sixteen-year association with Bein & Fushi in Chicago, violin maker Michael Darnton had the opportunity to examine, photograph, and measure hundreds of Classical-period violins. He’s been a Guild member for twenty-seven of the last twenty-nine years, and is a past GAL columnist and convention speaker. this info updated 2010 |
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Eight-year GAL member Michael DaSilva makes high-quality, handcrafted ukuleles. After falling in love with all things ukulele, he escaped the high-tech business world and began building instruments in 2004 and has built over 350 instruments to date. He continues to single-handedly build four or five instruments a month for ukulele enthusiasts around the globe. this info updated 2015 |
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Herb David has been a Guild member for twenty-three consecutive years. Only nine people can say that! this info updated 1991 |
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Evan Davis joined the Catgut Acoustical Society in 1976, earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from the U. of Washington with his work on the structural acoustics design of guitar soundboards in 1990. He has been a faculty member of the VSA’s Oberlin Violin acoustics workshop since 2006, and is currently employed as a Technical Fellow of the Boeing Company, directing research in structural acoustics, noise control, and sound quality engineering. this info updated 2011 |
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After closing down the Michigan shop that he ran for nineteen years, twenty-year Guild member Keith Davis and his family moved on to Hammond, Louisiana where he reopened in mid-July. Then hurricane Katrina hit the area with devastating results. That changed everything. this info updated 2005 |
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Mervyn Davis made his first "real" guitar at age sixteen in 1971, and has been a full-time instrument maker since 1978. He has built a wide variety of instruments, including his innovative Smoothtalker guitar. Mervyn is currently working on a design made of invasive alien wood from South Africa as an attempt to review perceptions about tonewoods and help avoid exploitation of species in African rainforests for mass production. He will exhibit his prototype at the 2007 Healdsburg Guitar Festival. this info updated 2007 |
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After fifteen years of building, twelve-year GAL member Rick Davis has produced over 160 guitars. He was executive director of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans (ASIA) and editor of Guitarmaker magazine from 1999 to 2005. He moved to Seattle in 2006 to create a shared shop and lutherie center with wife Cat. this info updated 2009 |
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Ted Davis was a GAL member for twenty-eight consecutive years. He was a frequent author and plan draftsman in our early days, spoke at GAL conventions, and was elected to the Guild's Board of Directors in the '80s. Ted passed away in late 2008. He will be missed by luthiers who knew him, and he should be thanked by those who did not; he helped to lay the foundations for the Golden Age of American Lutherie. this info updated 2008 Ted passed away in 2008 |
Six-year Guild member Bob Deacon has been working wood for thirty years. As a young classical guitarist he discovered Irving Sloane's book and decided to have a go at building a classical guitar. The guitar turned out to be successful, and the process proved addictive. homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.deacon/robert.deacon/ this info updated 2004 |
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Bringing along a strong engineering and science background, Randy DeBey found his way to making and fixing violins by learning woodworking and making furniture for himself and others. He finished his first violin in 1991, spent a few years working in a violin shop in the late '90s, and has had the good fortune of being his own boss ever since.
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First-time GAL author Jim DeCava started at Liberty Banjo in the '70's but now focuses on archtop guitars along with some specialty flattops and mandolins. this info updated 2008 |
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John Decker trained as an aeronautical engineer at MIT and holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Cambridge University. He spent most of his career in the semiconductor and aerospace industries and briefly managed the Air Force's optical observatory on Haleakala, Hawaii. While running a business making automated marine sextants, he started a back-burner project to make a stable and waterproof guitar of composite materials. This led to the development of the successful RainSong guitar. He retired from day-to-day operations at RainSong in 1998, and is now making classical guitars from exotic woods. www.guitarmasterworks.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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Joshia de Jonge began building guitars in 1992 at the age of 13. She learned from her father (Sergei de Jonge) and later learned french polishing from Géza Burghardt. She spends her days sharing time in the shop with her husband Patrick Hodgins (also a guitar maker) and raising their two sons. this info updated 2008 |
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Sergei de Jonge apprenticed with Jean Larrivée in the early ’70s and has been a guitar maker and lutherie teacher ever since. He makes steel string guitars, classical guitars, and other guitar makers. Literally. A number of his kids have followed him into the family business. this info updated 2015 |
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Two-year GAL member Michael De Luca completed an electronics engineering diploma at age thirty-five, then worked on fiberoptic laser transmission systems for eighteen years. On his 50th birthday, his eldest daughter, Elena, gave him a book on how to make an electric guitar, and he built guitars for both daughters as a legacy. He now makes carved archtop and custom electric guitars and winds his own pickups. In 2010, his younger daughter, Deanna, registered him for GAL membership as a surprise gift, and in 2011, his wife Luisa convinced him to attend the 2011 GAL Convention. He owes his family for the passion he now has for making guitars and for their continuous inspiration and support. He names his guitars using their initials; the letters of the DELM logo represent Deanna, Elena, Luisa, and Michael. this info updated 2012 |
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Martin de Witte was a construction worker until he taught himself to be a luthier and machinist. He now makes lutes and early guitars on a scenic street in the international city of peace and justice. this info updated 2013 |
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Marco Del Pozzo moved to Spain from his native Italy over twenty years ago to teach Italian in a private school. He spent five years as a finish carpenter in London and also imported handmade Spanish pottery. While there he found Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide and he has been a full-time luthier for ten years, specializing in electric guitars and basses. Now back in Spain, he reports that bulls run past his shop on the main street of town each June, chasing people, during the local fiesta. this info updated 2006 |
Cliff Dennis is an about-to-retire professor of college biology and a maker of fretted dulcimers. this info updated 1988 |
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Steve Denvir has been an advertising copywriter for over thirty years. Seven years ago, he took up guitar making in a well-meaning, if ultimately futile, attempt to balance his karmic debt. this info updated 2015 |
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Lutherie-scene perennial Andy DePaule has been a GAL member for fifteen of the last twenty-nine years. this info updated 2003 |
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First-time author Greg Descoteaux has been a Guild member sixteen out of the last nineteen years. He is an art teacher by day, a luthier by afternoon, and a performer by evening. gregdecoteau.com/Greg_Decoteau.html this info updated 2008 |
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Four-year GAL member Ethan Deutsch has really been there, done that. He spent a year in Spain studying flamenco at age fifteen, and since then has worked as a musician, research chemist, custom cabinet maker, and production cabinet maker. And he has made a few guitars. this info updated 2000 |
New York based film sound recording engineer Stuart Deutsch is a ten-year GAL member who collects and plays archtops, classicals, and flattops. He met François Pistoius while working on a film in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2000 and has a small flattop, an archtop, a 12-string, and a classical made by him. this info updated 2003 |
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Three-year member Tom DeVeau is a first-time GAL author. this info updated 2005 |
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Lester DeVoe has been a runner, a school teacher, and a flamenco guitarist at different stages of his life, but we know him best as a maker of fine classic and flamenco guitars. this info updated 2004 |
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As a teenager in Granada, Manuel Díaz apprenticed with Eduardo Ferrer and later in the 1960s learned from Manuel de la Chica. He is also an accomplished flamenco player. this info updated 2015 |
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Edward Victor Dick's life journey has taken him from growing up on a Canadian Mennonite farm, to stalking the wild asparagus, to lutherie. this info updated 2002 |
We welcome ten-year member and first-time author George Dietz to our pages. this info updated 1994 |
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Long time GAL member Dave Dillman operated Experienced Instruments repairing, restoring, and reselling instruments in the Chicago area for several years. Most of his lutherie since 2005 has been keeping his personal fleet of Kay basses alive, while concentrating on his day job managing audio and video systems and production and playing in bluegrass jams around Santa Fe, New Mexico. this info updated 2008 |
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John Doan is a music historian, and Emmy-nominated composer/performer known for his pioneering efforts to revive the harp guitar. His latest CD The Lost Music Of Fernando Sor is the first recording of Sor's music for the three-necked harpolyre. He is professor of music at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. this info updated 2009 |
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After sixteen years of full-time guitar making, twenty-two-year Guild member Mike Doolin has retired from professional lutherie to play music full time. This doesn’t mean he has quit building guitars, it just means now he gets to keep them all. this info updated 2014 |
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Located in Phoenix, Arizona, Mike Dotson has been a part-time builder now for about eight years. He started making metal-body resonators and now concentrates on wood-body resonators, electric guitars, and lap steels. this info updated 2006 |
Danièle Dubois is an emeritus psycholinguist in the Lutherie-Acoustics-Music team at University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. Her work aims at identifying how cognitive categories for different sensory modalities (mainly vision, olfaction, and audition) are coupled to the diversity of the linguistic resources of languages and their uses in discourse by ordinary people as well as professionals and scientists, in a conceptual framework that can be qualified as situated cognitive semantics. this info updated 2015 |
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Guitar and mandolin maker Rion Dudley is a twenty-nine-year Guild member this info updated 1990 |
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Do Viet Dung is the GAL's first member in Vietnam. Welcome! this info updated 2003 |
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Nineteen-year GAL member Christopher Dungey is an award-winning maker of cellos. He graduated from The Newark School of Violin Making in 1982, then returned to the USA to work for Hans Weisshaar and Thomas Metzler leaming the fine art of restoration. Chris has a degree in double bass performance from the University of Oregon. He has been cutting and collecting cello wood since his student days in England. this info updated 2007 |
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Canadian luthier Michael Dunn hasn't had a nonguitar-oriented job since he quit the B.C. ferry system in 1965. He is a builder extraordinaire, a skilled player, and over the years he has taught the craft to scores of students. this info updated 2009 |
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Maurice Dupont makes Selmer copies and many other kinds of guitars at his shop on the river La Charente. this info updated 1992 |
Long-time member Tim Earls is a professional jewelry mold and model maker, and a nonprofessinal luthier, actor, and musician. this info updated 1992 |
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Doug Eaton is a full-time luthier and repairer of stringed acoustic instruments based in Maleny, Queensland, Australia, and president of the Australian Association of Musical Instrument Makers (AAMIM). this info updated 2011 |
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William Eaton may be the Guild’s definitive Renaissance man. He has successfully melded together lutherie, musical composition, musical performance, teaching, and sports into one lifetime, achieving world class results in all the categories. On top of all that, he’s a nice guy. this info updated 2013 |
Gila Eban is a longtime GAL member, past Board of Directors member and convention lecturer. Apprenticed with Richard Schneider and studied with James D'Aquisto. Worked with Michael Kasha on guitar design. Was a member of the Catgut Acoustical Society. Is a member of the Acoustical Society of America. Participated and /or presented papers at conferences of these organizations and presented and authored/co-authored papers for their publications. Devised novel designs and methods for guitar soundhole decoration. handmadeguitars.tripod.com/3.html this info updated 2015 |
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Twenty-eight-year Guild member Richard Echeverria attended the Roberto-Venn school in 1980 and has run his own repair shop since 1984. He also builds guitars, but he does that at home. He mentions that Echeverria is a Basque name, not Spanish. this info updated 1992 |
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Eight-year GAL member Rob Edelstein is a urologist by profession. Raised in the Pacific Northwest and transplanted to New England, he has been building instruments in his spare time for the past ten years. He recently completed a long-scale mandola, although he was trying to build a short-scale octave mandolin. He is an avid reader of American Lutherie, and greatly appreciates all of the informative articles. this info updated 2006 |
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Eddy Efendy received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University in 2006. He is currently an M.S. student in MET at Purdue. He has been responsible for the design and manufacturing process for the Purdue Guitar Process. He doesn’t yet play the guitar, but nobody is perfect. this info updated 2010 |
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Six-year GAL member Frans Elferink was born in the Netherlands in 1961, started playing guitar at age eleven, and built his first solidbody guitar at the age of eighteen. He has a degree in electronic engineering, and now builds archtop guitars as well as working part time in acoustical and electrical engineering. this info updated 2008 |
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Soldier, world traveler, hair-and-makeup designer, and luthier Boaz Elkayam's current project is building Kasha-design baritone guitars. this info updated 1999 |
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Forty-three-year member Jeffrey R. Elliott has frequently contributed both to American Lutherie and GAL Conventions. When he’s not building guitars, he can be found constructing leaning towers of Legos with his grandkids, spotting the International Space Station, or listening to music of all sorts. this info updated 2018 |
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Four-year GAL member Sjaak Elmendorp has made guitars off-and-on for thirty years from Martin kits as well as old table tops. He has recently gone back in time, building a Baroque guitar, then René Lacôte copies, and is now into the early Martins. Although currently based in the Netherlands, he has lived in the USA several times in the past, including Houston and Cleveland. this info updated 2010 |
Nicholas Emery makes classic guitars and has a day job as head of the quarantine service at a major airport. this info updated 1996 |
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Joseph Ennis had a background in electronics and woodworking when he decided to restore a mandolin. He has now made several mandolins, beginning with a kit from Musicmakers. Joe also made a harp to prove a point about the notes of different musical scales: almost all of them are pitches that cannot occur on a piano. this info updated 2002 |
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Chuck Erikson, known as the Duke of Pearl, is a familiar and elaborate sight at GAL Conventions and other lutherie confabulations. He a former gold miner, and is currently helping luthiers and others understand the Lacey Act. He’s been a GAL member for a total of twenty-five years. this info updated 2011 |
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Long-time GAL member Dan Erlewine is a frequent writer and convention speaker for the Guild. If you repair guitars he is your superstar. this info updated 2008 |
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Fifteen-year GAL member Mónica Esparza commutes easily between her two jobs: her family’s soft drink company and her guitar shop on the second floor of the same building. Besides being a passionate, intrepid traveler, she finds time for guitar lessons, long bike rides, and guitar shows and conventions. this info updated 2018 |
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Verónica Estevez was born in Argentina in 1969 and has lived in The Netherlands since 1995. She specializes in decorating harpsichords and in making lute and guitar rosettes for many Dutch makers, including Nico van der Waals. www.earlymusicalinstruments.info this info updated 2006 |
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Taffy Evans — The Lone Luthier — Spent 30 years building and repairing guitars a thousand miles from anywhere, in Central Australia. Now works and lives in the small gold mining town of Charters Towers in North Queensland, for the past 10 years. Taffy builds guitars: Flat tops, Resonators, Hollow Neck Lap Steels, solid body electric guitars as well as Mandolins. Much of the time he is doing repairs for players up and down the North Queensland coast and hinterland. He plays in The Venus Blues Band. He's been a Guild member for twenty-six of the last thirty years. this info updated 2008 |
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Kent Everett has been building guitars since 1977, first on weekends while he did repair work on the weekdays. In the ’90s he was a one-man operation building fifty steel string guitars a year. In the ’00s he ramped down production and began offering a line of imported guitars. Now, after thirty-eight years in lutherie, his emphasis is shifting to teaching. this info updated 2014 |
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Patrick Fanning came to GAL and lutherie in 2009, by way of his hobby of building harpsichords and clavichords and restoring pianos. He prefers guitars now because the woods are more varied and interesting, and the instruments are much easier to store and move around. Patrick is also a watercolorist, writer, and publisher. this info updated 2009 |
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Ren Ferguson has had a long, varied, and distinguished lutherie career. He currently heads the acoustic division of Gibson. We toured that shop in AL#32. this info updated 1996 |
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Twenty-two-year Guild member Ron Fernández repairs and imports Spanish and Portuguese guitars. He has made a video on classical guitar construction with Benito Huipe and another on French polishing. this info updated 2008 |
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Amateur luthier Dave Fifield started to make guitars in, and has been a GAL member since, 2008. His impetus was finding a potentially higher-end substrate for his marquetry and inlay efforts, with which he has been engaged with since 1999. Quickly realizing the limited space available on great-sounding musical instruments for such art, he turned his efforts to finding a good mix between traditional and more modern building techniques and uses CNC and laser engraving machines judiciously to create one-of-a-kind instruments for friends and family. He makes his real money as an RF Engineer in the high-tech industry. He has been a meeting/web/email administrator for the Norcal Association of Luthiers (NCAL) for about 2 years. this info updated 2017 |
Eighteen-year GAL member Michael Finnerty entered the army as an apprentice carpenter in 1963, and soon built his first guitar. Since leaving the army in 1972 he has gained a degree in legal studies; studied industrial relations, industrial law, and economics; taught commercial law; and run a business building and repairing guitars. this info updated 2005 |
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Paul Fischer began his instrument making career fifty years ago. After military service in the Royal Armoured Corps (11th Hussars) he joined David Rubio and was appointed manager of the fast-developing workshops. He remained in that position for six years before establishing his own workshop in 1975. this info updated 2008 |
Gary Fish is a past author and a twenty-five-year Guild member. this info updated 1991 |
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Gary Clayton Fisher attended Pepperdine University in Malibu. He did his Masters work in Public Health at University of Hawaii Manoa and at University of California Berkeley. Gary also did some post graduate work in physical chemistry at UC Northridge, where he got the opportunity to see Andres Segovia, of whom he has always been a huge fan, when Segovia received his honorary Doctoral degree in 1982. He was a High school Biology and Chemistry teacher before starting Wahoo International, Inc in 1985. Primarily a water sports company, they have expanded greatly on the development and utilization of UV-Cure resins since 1987. this info updated 2017 |
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Brian Flaherty is a reference librarian at the New England School of Law library. He is not a lawyer — he doesn't even play one on TV — and so nothing he says carries the weight of “legal advice.” this info updated 2009 |
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Harry Fleishman designed and built his first electric upright bass forty-nine years ago. He’s a luthier, a lutherie teacher, and a designer to guitar factories. He has been a GAL member since 1985 and is a frequent author and convention presenter. this info updated 2018 |
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Andrea Florinett was born in Thusis, Switzerland, and served his forestry apprenticeship in Filisur from 1985—1988. In 1992 and 1993 he attended the Intercantonal School of Forestry in Maienfeld. His hobbies include family, fishing, and ice hockey. this info updated 2008 |
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Fifteen-year member Jim Flynn is a past author and an active member of the Balalaika and Domra Association of America. He is an Honorary Life member of the International Wood Collectors Society (IWCS). As an Associate Editor of that Society for many years he has edited and published several well accepted books in the "Useful Woods of the World" series. He is in the process of preparing a paper, long in the making, titled "Exploring the Science of the Sound of Wood." Jim promises some provocative views on the role of wood in the quality of stringed instrument sound. www.bdaa.com/ this info updated 2008 |
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Six-year GAL member Dan Fobert is a self-taught luthier who has been building traditional and nontraditional instruments since 1995. He enjoys traveling, camping, cooking, and winery hunting and has been spotted at BBQ cookoffs. this info updated 2008 |
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Frank Ford is a guru for guitar repair people, and his website is a treasure trove of guitar repair info. this info updated 2013 |
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No stranger to the GAL, Jim Forderer and his wonderful collection of historical guitars have been a powerful presence at our last several conventions. Jim's large family of children and his instrument collection keep him occupied, but he's always on the lookout for the next great guitar or violin find. www.laguitarracalifornia.com/Default.asp?Page=139 this info updated 2008 |
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Twelve-year Guild member Alastair Fordyce is a retired Scottish orthopedic and hand surgeon, and a member of the NCAL luthier's group. He took to lutherie on the advice of his wife Moira, who "received" the suggestion while musing in Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire, England. When she looked up she was standing in front of the tome of 18th-century English cello builder Benjamin Banks. He has just beaten his age (73) for the first time, with a round of 72 (gross) at San Clemente Goldf Course. this info updated 2006 |
Welcome four-year member and first-time author Carl Formoso! this info updated 2004 |
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George Thomas Fortune, Jr., has been many things in his long life, but most people know him now as The Fiddle Man, a maker and fixer of violins. He is self-taught, and has completed thirty-five violins and a small clutch of other stringed instruments. this info updated 1998 photo by Dwain Brister |
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Twenty-two-year member Chris Foss used to be a carpenter and cabinet maker. Then he made guitars, fiddles, and mandolins. Now he builds hammered dulcimers full time, and says he tries not to starve. this info updated 2008 |
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First-time Guild author Eric Fouilhé began in the '70s as a self-taught maker of hurdy-gurdies, flutes, bag pipes, and Baroque guitars. He now specializes in violin family fittings, and over thirty Stradivarius violins are now fitted with his parts. this info updated 1999 |
Ten-year GAL member Mike Foulger is an amateur instrument builder and musician. He was a full-time cabinet maker and wood carver for fifteen years prior to his current ``real'' job as a full-time software consultant. He loves to create new and useful tools for instrument making and has a steady repair business. this info updated 2008 |
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Seven-year GAL member and registered architect Eric Foulke has lived at the four corners: born in California, raised in south Florida, and lived in Massachusetts before moving to Seattle with his wife Molly in 1999. He built his first mandolin in 1996 at Tom and Al's Luthier's Workshop and recently made the leap into the wild world of ukuleles. He hopes to build full-size instruments some day. this info updated 2003 |
Cat Fox has long been a central figure in the Seattle guitar-making and repair scene, as well as a stalwart of the Seattle Luthiers Group. this info updated 2017 |
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Nineteen-year GAL member Charles Fox was present at the creation. His lutherie schools, beginning in Vermont in the early 1970s and continuing to California in the ’90s and Oregon today, have set scores of luthiers on the right track to creative and efficient guitar making. this info updated 2013 |
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Mark Frazier is a software engineer specializing in open-source software platforms. By night, he vents his frustrations by building “real” things like Arts and Crafts furniture and acoustic guitars. He also built his solar-powered straw bale house. For the past four years he has been building guitars for the local high-school band’s fundraising efforts, yielding nearly $10,000 to date. this info updated 2015 |
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Charles Freeborn builds unique and innovative instruments while desperately trying to hold on to his 4.0 rating on the tennis court. this info updated 2014 |
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Thirty-three year GAL member David Freeman builds guitars, teaches lutherie at his school Timeless Instruments, and sells wood and supplies. He is also a sculptor in various media. this info updated 2017 |
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Fifteen-year GAL member Mark French has been making guitars since about 1991. He started while a civilian engineer working for the US Air Force, where he also was able to start doing dynamic structural tests on instruments. Tiring of secure employment, he went to the auto industry, where he had access to even cooler gear. In 2004, he decided to make his living by professing and went to Purdue University, where he started a guitar lab, wrote some books, and starting teaching instrument design and manufacturing. Like all of us, he looks forward to starting his next guitar. this info updated 2018 |
Past author and convention attendee Gary Frisbie is an eleven-year Guild member. this info updated 1991 |
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Five-year Guild member Stephen Frith has been making all kinds of guitars since 1979. Back in the day, he attended and graduated from the London College of Furniture and played in a rock band. vzone.virgin.net/marc_g_ashly-salter.guitars_cool_guitars/frith/frith.html this info updated 2004 |
Claudia Fritz is a CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) researcher in the Lutherie-Acoustics-Music team at the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. Following her post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge (UK), she has been investigating the correlations between player and listener perceptions and measured acoustical properties. Her recent work with double-blind studies involving new and old violins has gained widespread international attention. www.lam.jussieu.fr/Membres/Fritz/HomePage/index.html this info updated 2015 |
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Swiss archetier Pierre-Yves Fuchs followed his father into cabinet making. He then worked for years in the violin-making trade, before moving on to bow making, where he has been rocking the competitions. pierre-yves-fuchs.e-monsite.com/ this info updated 2005 |
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Bryan Galloup has racked up thirteen years of GAL membership across the last quarter century. He began his career with Dan Erlewine in the early ’80, and he has since become one of the country’s premier repair and restoration specialists as well as a builder of flattop guitars. He also operates the Galloup School of Guitar Building and Repair. this info updated 2015 |
First time author and four-year Guild member James Garber is an amateur builder with a special interest in mandolin orchestras. this info updated 1987 |
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Bill Garofalo makes steel rule dies for a living. A steel rule die is the thing with which greeting cards, paper boxes, and jigsaw puzzles are punched out of flat paper stock. this info updated 1993 |
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After obtaining his PhD in photochemistry from Manchester University in 1978, Brian Garston embarked on a thirty-five year career with Procter and Gamble and worked in the UK, Turkey, and Belgium. Following his retirement in 2012, he has focused on his passion for guitars and guitar making. He is currently a member of the Board of the Centre for Musical Instrument Building (Cmb) in Puurs, Belgium. this info updated 2015 |
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Topher Gayle claims to be the world's slowest luthier, with three instruments built over the last twenty-five years. He just started an acoustic bass guitar from GAL Plan #13 and expects to finish it in the next millenium. But all is forgiven, because he is a twenty-year member! this info updated 1998 |
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Ed Geesman started violin making in 1972 in Portland, Oregon. In 1975 he got a repair job at Jecklin Violin Haus in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1978 he opened a violin shop in San Diego. Bow maker Robert Schallock came to work in that shop in 1980, and Ed picked up bow making. He moved to Zigzag, Oregon, in the foothills of Mt. Hood, in 1987 to concentrate on making instruments and bows. In 1998 he opened a full-service violin shop in downtown Portland, where he is today. this info updated 2011 |
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Meet twelve-year Guild member Bob Gernandt in this issue. this info updated 1999 |
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Wood dealer Gulab Gidwani is an twenty-nine-year Guild member. He has advertised in our publications for years, attended conventions and donated wood to our auctions. this info updated 1987 |
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John Gilbert is a living legend of lutherie. The former aircraft and computer engineer has long since retired and been succeeded by his son Bill. this info updated 2009 |
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Wood dealer Myles Gilmer is a twenty-seven-year GAL member and a bicycle enthusiast. this info updated 1991 |
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Nine-year GAL member Michael Giltzow has been building flattop acoustic guitars for the last nine years. He graduated from Boise State University with a B.S. in Biology in 1971 and was CEO of Boise Vault for twenty-five years. He’s a pilot, PADI Dive Master, and collector and diver of old hard-hat diving gear. Michael builds guitars in his home shop every day — unless he is on the golf course. this info updated 2011 |
Peter Giolitto is an twelve-year GAL member and frequent contributor to the "Worked for Me" column. He informs us that he has recently completed his apprenticeship. this info updated 2003 |
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Max Girouard has been building mandolins and mandolin family instruments full time since 2010. He works alongside his wife, Lauri, building custom instruments as well as doing repairs and setups on all things fretted. this info updated 2017 |
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Dave Giulietti is a professional engraver who does work for National Resophonic, Fender, Deering Banjo, Tim Scheerhorn, First Quality, Stewart MacDonald, Resophonic Outfitters, Ome Banjo and many others. He holds a BFA in sculpture from the Atlanta College of Art and has an extensive background in metal working. Dave has been known to chase building contractors with a shovel on occasion. this info updated 2001 |
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Seven-year Guild member and repeat convention presenter Alex Glasser repairs guitars. He worked for years with Jeff Traugott and then at Gryphon Stringed Instruments. Now he has his own shop, Iron Horse Instruments, a full-service repair shop specializing in vintage restoration. Once in a while he may even have time to build a uke or a guitar! this info updated 2015 |
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Bob Gleason has been a Guild member for thirty-eight consecutive years. He’s a past repeat GAL Convention presenter and his Guild author credits go back decades. Bob has been making ukes and other instruments in Hawaii forever. this info updated 2015 |
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Thirteen-year GAL member Evan Gluck says he is not the world’s best guitar repairman, but Google says he is. Like many luthiers, he made models as a kid, then got into a rock band. His shop is in his New York City apartment. Evan was a popular presenter at the 2011 and 2014 GAL Conventions and is on deck for the 2017 Convention. newyorkguitarrepair.com/index.html this info updated 2017 |
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David Goen has been very fortunate to meet a lot of people who are much more talented than he could ever hope to be. This does not depress him; rather, it inspires. When he was ten he read a book by James Blish that offered the following epitaph for mankind: “We did not have the time to learn everything that we wanted to know.” He has been asking questions ever since. this info updated 2016 |
Fifteen-year member Juergen Goering is a luthier and piano technician who serve a three-year apprenticeship in Germany under a master who scorned guitars. Imagine the torture! this info updated 1992 |
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Twenty-eight year Guild member Dave Golber has degrees in mathematics. He taught math, did computer stuff, and now makes and repairs violins, with a special interest in Norwegian Hardanger fiddles. this info updated 2013 |
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Barbara Goldowsky is a freelance writer who contributes regularly to the Southampton Press Group Newspapers, and has published poems, fiction, and nonfiction in numerous journals including the VSA Journal and Papers, and American Lutherie Journal. Her latest book is “Peace of the Hamptons,” a collection of short stories. Barbara and Norman Pickering have been married since 1979. www.goldowsky.com/barbara/index.html this info updated 2008 |
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It makes sense to ask a Brazilian luthier, like Robert Gomes for instance, about Brazilian lutherie woods. this info updated 1993 |
Greek classical guitarist Antigoni Goni began to study guitar seriously at age twelve and won the Guitar Foundation of America’s competition in 1995. Today she concertizes worldwide, teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, records, and directs the Volterra project in Italy each summer (www.volterraguitar.org). She was given her Romanillos guitar to play while studying with John Mills and Julian Bream at the Royal Academy of Music in London when she was eighteen, and it’s been her faithful companion ever since. this info update 2018 |
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Four-year member and first-time author Jorge Gonzalez, Jr., is on an endless quest for unusual and/or Hispanic string instruments. this info updated 1994 |
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J. Elon Goodman is a professional photographer living in Maine, specializing in musicians and performance. Appropriately, he has an ’80s Westfalia camper van. this info updated 2015 |
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Christopher Goodwin studied history at Cambridge University, England. He is secretary of the (English) Lute Society, and editor of Lute News and The Lute. this info updated 2008 |
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Six-year Guild member Ken Goodwin lives in Denver, Colorado, where he makes fancy cutting boards. Lutherie is currently on the back burner, but who knows what the future will bring? Ken passed away in 2013 read his memoriam |
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From an early age, five-year GAL member Trevor Gore was fascinated by guitar music, woodworking, engineering, and innovation. Dissatisfied with “store bought” instruments, he used his disparate experiences as a researcher, boat builder, engineer, and guitarist to produce Contemporary Acoustic Guitar, Design and Build, in conjunction with veteran luthier Gerard Gilet. Trevor builds high-performance classical and steel string guitars. this info updated 2014 |
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Welcome first-time author and guitar repairman Jim Grainger! this info updated 1992 |
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A member since 1999, Bob Gramann built his first guitar from a kit in 1992. The resulting obsession now produces several guitars each year. He quit his computer job in 2000 and loves life, family, whitewater, and music. this info updated 2008 |
Six-year GAL member, Gordon Gray is a Vancouver accountant who pursues his lutherie hobby for a break from "the books." this info updated 2000 |
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Aaron Green began his lutherie career as an apprentice to Alan Carruth beginning in 1991 when he was a teenager. While his primary focus is building classical and flamenco guitars, he also repairs and has partnered with luthier Karl Franks for high-end restoration. He deals in vintage classical and flamenco guitars, and has started a company called Westland Music Group with three partners involved in handmade solid and laminated archtop jazz guitars and concert promotion. this info updated 2012 |
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With a history as a working guitarist, a vintage and antique instrument restorer, and a former consultant to the international hospitality industry, Montréal native and fifteen-year GAL member Michael Greenfield has handcrafted fifteen or so acoustic guitars each year since the early ’90s. While his guitars employ modern elements and a lot of physics, he still handcrafts them in a traditional manner with a goal to not merely to satisfy, but to thrill his clients. this info updated 2010 |
Four-year Guild member Bill Greenwood is a physics professor at Pacific Lutheran University. And now, he is a GAL author. this info updated 2009 |
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Long ago, John Greven began his lutherie career by doing repair and restoration in George Gruhn’s shop. He now makes about forty guitars a year by himself. this info updated 2014 |
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David Grey is the senior partner of a law firm in Beverly Hills. He has been involved with woodworking for twenty-five years, and with guitar making for two. He attended the American School of Lutherie, and says that the binding jig he discusses in this issue "is a direct result of the influence of Charles Fox, jig meister par excellence." this info updated 1997 |
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Steve Grimes has been a GAL member for thirty out of the last thirty-four years. He’s a world-renowned maker of archtop guitars and a past GAL author and convention presenter. this info updated 2011 |
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Classical guitarist Stefano Grondona’s career includes concertizing worldwide, recording, co-authoring with luthier Luca Waldner La Chitarra Di Luiteria (Masterpieces of Guitar Making), and teaching guitar at the State Conservatory of Vicenza. He’s fortunate to own more guitars than he can possibly play daily, but is always finding ways to share with his audiences the bounty he discovers. this info updated 2018 |
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Michael Grossman has finally finished his third and last guitar, leaving the field to those who know what they are doing. He is thinking of trying a piano next. this info updated 2012 |
Seven-year Guild member Willis Groth is a luthier, fiddler, and auctioneer. this info updated 1994 |
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George Gruhn, a universally recognized expert in new and vintage instruments, has recently relocated his shop to Nashville’s 8th Avenue South corridor. this info updated 2013 |
Aaron Grumbacher received his diploma from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts in 1987 where he discovered David Russell Young’s book, The Steel String Guitar: Construction & Repair. He dropped out of UC Santa Cruz with aspirations of pursuing an apprenticeship in sustainable agriculture. Returning to his hometown of York, Pennsylvania, he served an eighteen month apprenticeship with local violin maker Mark K. Bluett. An intermittent Guild member since the late ’80s, Aaron has been building parlor guitars since 2007. this info updated 2013 |
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The late Paul Gudelsky was guitar maker and collector, as well as a wood merchant. He was a GAL convention exhibitor and lecturer, and a Guild member for ten years. this info updated 1998 Paul passed away in 1996 |
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David Gusset is an early graduate of the School of Violin Making in Salt Lake City and a member of The American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. In 1985 he won the gold medal for violin making at the Stradivari Triennial Competition in Cremona, the only American to ever receive this honor. www.gussetviolins.com/newhome.htm this info updated 2010 |
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