American Lutherie #88 cover shows a double top guitar made by Randy Reynolds, illuminated from inside by an inspection light
American Lutherie #88
Winter 2006

No, it's not a Jack-o-lantern, it is a double-top guitar made by Randy Reynolds. An inspection light is shining through the spruce top, revealing the soundboard construction and the bracing pattern.
Select Price:

Ted Beringer memoriam In Memoriam: Ted Beringer by Bruce Harvie
Long-time GAL member Ted Beringer recently passed away. He was making guitars when we baby boomers were in diapers. We offer a fond remembrance by wood dealer Bruce Harvie. Read his memoriam.

The assembly with adhesive applied is taped to a shaped hollow form Double Top Guitars by Randy Reynolds
Randy Reynolds shows us step-by-step how he builds a double-top guitar soundboard out of layers of spruce and Nomex honeycomb.

Front and back view of the "Imperator" lyra guitar The Imperator: Revisiting the Lyra Guitar by Alain Bieber
Alain Bieber looks at the history of the lyra guitar and places it in the context of the neoclassical fad of Napoleonic Europe. He built a lyra guitar of his own design, and he reports encouraging results.

The vacuum chuck on front of the island holds the guitar body so that the sides can be worked on The Universal Vacuum Island by Charles Fox
Lutherie legend and jigmeister supremo Charles Fox is a true believer in vacuum for holding guitar bodies and gluing things together. He describes his vacuum island, a self contained unit that can function in even a tiny lutherie shop.

Benoit Meulle Stef Meet the Maker: Benoit Meulle-Stef by Jonathon Peterson
Jon Peterson interviews French harp-guitar maker and scholar Benoit Meulle-Stef.

A trapezoid flattop guitar built by R.M. Mottola Rapid Prototypes of the Flattop Guitar by R.M. Mottola
Would you believe that you could slap together a quadrangular guitar with a screwed-on back and a Formica top, and actually learn something about what a spruce-topped, curvaceous guitar of that size would sound like? R.M. Mottola says that you can, and that it is an efficient and effective R+D technique.

Jose "Pepito" Reyes Zamora Meet the Maker: Jose “Pepito” Reyes Zamora by Fred Casey
Jose “Pepito” Reyes Zamora is a leader in the movement to restore the Puerto Rican tiple to its former level of cultural prominence. Fred Casey travels to Puerto Rico to meet him.

Polar coordinates for A-style mandolin A Different Way of Defining Body Shapes by Mark French
If you are a big, powerful CNC milling machine, “numerical” is your middle name. And those numbers have to come from somewhere. Math prof Mark French shows us how they might profitably come from equations graphed on polar coordinates.

John Mello reviews Klumper tools Product Review: Klumper tools by John Mello
John Mello reviews the edge vise, head slotter, and rosette cutter from Chris Klumper's Luthier Tool Company.

A window display of the construction of a guitar Lutherie Under Glass by Ervin Somogyi
A group of luthiers in Northern California were invited to mount an informative display in a public art gallery space consisting of a long set of windows on a city street. Ervin Somogyi tells us all about it.

A custom made sanding block by Marco Del Pozzo is ready to use It Worked for Me by Paul Hill and Marco Del Pozzo
Make your own sanding blocks to any radius. Marco Del Pozzo shows us how in this time's “It Worked for Me” column.

Web Extras
Top of Page