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 addicted to e-mail, so feel free to contact him. He's been a Guild member for twenty-three of the last twenty-five years, and is a past GAL columnist and convention speaker.

www.darntonviolins.com/

this info updated 2006

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

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.

www.mervyndavis.com/

this info updated 2007

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.

this info updated 2004

Randy DeBey came to violin making by combining his woodworking experience with his science and engineering education as he approached middle age. He is primarily self-taught, though he did work at a commercial violin shop for a couple of years. For the last five years, he has been earnestly working alone in his home workshop while doing his part to resist the tide of conservatism.

this info updated 2005

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.

www.decava.com/

this info updated 2008

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.

www.joshiadejonge.com/

this info updated 2008

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.

www.marcodelpozzo.com/

this info updated 2006

Lutherie-scene perennial Andy DePaule has been a GAL member for fifteen of the last twenty-nine years.

www.luthiersupply.com/

this info updated 2008

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

Three-year member Tom DeVeau is a first-time GAL author.

this info updated 2005

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.

www.devoeguitars.com/

this info updated 2004

Edward Victor Dick's life journey has taken him from growing up on a Canadian Mennonite farm, to stalking the wild asparagus, to lutherie.

www.victorguitars.com/about.htm

this info updated 2002

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

Sixteen-year Guild member Mike Doolin squandered his first college education as a music major and made a marginal living playing music through the '80s. Now he combines skills acquired from several former pursuits to make a marginal living as a full-time luthier. He still plays funk, rock, and jazz in the Portland area.

www.doolinguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

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.

www.maricopaguitarco.com/

this info updated 2006

Do Viet Dung is the GAL's first member in Vietnam. Welcome!

this info updated 2003

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.

www.dungeycello.com/

this info updated 2007

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

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.

www.elferinkguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

Soldier, world traveler, hair-and-makeup designer, and luthier Boaz Elkayam's current project is building Kasha-design baritone guitars.

www.boazguitars.com/

this info updated 1999

Thirty-three-year member Jeff Elliott has frequently contributed both to American Lutherie and GAL Conventions. When he's not building guitars, he can be found caring for and playing with his grandchildren, tending his bamboo, or listening to live music of all sorts while sampling the local fermented potables.

www.elliottguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

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

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

Long-time GAL member Kent Everett initially built guitars in his "spare time" after putting in forty hours at his instrument repair shop. Since 1991 he has built acoustic guitars full time, cranking out fifty guitars a year by himself, lacquer work and all, which are sold only to dealers. He has been a luthier since 1977.

www.everettguitars.com/

this info updated 2002

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.

www.fernandezmusic.com/

this info updated 2001

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

Paul Fischer began his instrument making career 50 years ago, as a pupil of the renowned harpsichord maker, Robert Goble.  After military service in the Royal Armoured Corps (11th Hussars) he joined David Rubio and was appointed manager of the fast developing workshops, making harpsichords, guitars, lutes, vihuelas and other early plucked instruments.    He remained in that position for 6 years before establising his own workshop in 1975.

www.paulfischerguitars.com/

this info updated 2008

Harry Fleishman designed and built his first electric upright bass in 1969; thirty-eight years and hundreds of guitars later, he's working with a small Chinese factory to make a very different EUB.  He teaches classes at Luthiers School International and has been a GAL member since 1985.

www.fleishmaninstruments.com/

this info updated 2007

Andrea Florinett was born in Thusis, Switzerland, and served his forestry apprenticeship in Filisur from 1985å1988. In 1992 and 1993 he attended the Intercantonal School of Forestry in Maienfeld. His hobbies include family, fishing, and ice hockey.

www.tonewood.ch

this info updated 2008

Frank Ford and his partner, Richard Johnston, own Gryphon Stringed Instruments. Frank's sensible approach to repair has kept Bay Area instruments in top condition for the past thirty plus years. Through teaching at seminars around the country, writing journal articles, and developing his website, Frank consistently gives sound advice to aspiring guitar repairers. He is a frequent writer and convention speaker for the Good Ol' Guild. His website is a treasure trove of guitar repair info.

www.frets.com

this info updated 2008

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

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

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.

www.harmonie.net/

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

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

In 1975 Charles Fox began bending guitar sides sandwiched between thin metal slats, pressing them over easily made heated forms. Since then, his Universal Side Bender has become a standard tool for luthiers and factories all over the world. Today's new, more ambitiously sculptural guitar design sensibility calls for new approaches to shaping the surfaces of the instrument. In this workshop Charles will highlight new guitar design features that require new forming techniques, he'll recommend and explain appropriate wood bending processes, including laminating, and he'll introduce an improved, simplified version of the Universal Side Bender.

www.charlesfoxguitars.com/

this info updated 2006

Twenty-two-year Guild member David Freeman of Timeless Instruments is a long-time lutherie teacher and GAL supporter. David Freeman has custom-built fretted instruments for 28 years. His business, Timeless Instruments offers extensive lutherie training & lutherie supplies. David custom designs unique instruments, skillfully handcrafting all procedures, including inlays. He builds in traditional wood and explores alternative wood in his research of new sound concepts. His designs draw from many traditions & masters. David’s lutherie education program has influenced a number of present day luthiers around the world. He also instructs & consults in New Zealand & Malaysia. David builds Timeless Instruments.

www.timelessinstruments.com/

this info updated 2008

Mark French was trained as an aerospace engineer and worked for the US Air Force and in the automotive industry before joining the faculty of Purdue University in 2004.  He has been making guitars since 1990 and has investigated technical questions involving guitars off and on since 1993.  He has started METAL, the Mechanical Engineering Technology Acoustic Lab, to bring guitar making and the associated technology to Purdue students.

Check out the website at:  www.metalsound.org.

this info updated 2007

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

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.

this info updated 2005

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!

www.tophergayle.com/

this info updated 1998

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

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

Twenty-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.

www.dgviolins.com/

this info updated 2008

Barbara Goldowsky holds a B.A. in Political Science, and is the author of three books of poetry and a collection of short stories on musical themes.  Barbara’s knowledge of instrument making and musical history is constantly being augmented by her husband, Norman Pickering.

www.goldowsky.com/barbara/index.html

this info updated 2007

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

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

Before moving to the Pacific Northwest, John Greven built guitars in Indiana for twenty years.  Before that, he specialized in repair and restoration at George Gruhn's shop in Nashville.  He makes about fifty guitars a year by himself, adorning many with carvings, inlays, and engravings.

www.grevenguitars.com/

this info updated 2007

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.

Paul passed away in 1996

this info updated 1998

Award-winning violin maker David Gusset makes his first appearence in American Lutherie.

www.gussetviolins.com/newhome.htm

this info updated 1998