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Frank Ford - Wednesday, July 7th A discussion and demonstration of the traditional, organic and nontoxic woodworking adhesive. Like many of the old time materials and techniques, there are some "tricks" to its use, so it's tempting to think that modern adhesives have left it behind. Not so! Made from rendered animal skins, this stuff may be "old tech" but it is still the best glue for many lutherie applications. We'll talk about the different grades and applications, and have a couple of demos, too. |
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Don MacRostie - Wednesday, July
7th I am going to discuss a method of "tuning" or "voicing" mandolin plates based on their flexibility, the measured deflection they exhibit under load. What most builders currently speak of in regards to tuning plates is "tap" response. I do think that these two are somewhat related and that this method could also apply to other arch-top instruments. The equipment I use is very low-tech, and will be at the discussion for a close-up and hands-on look. |
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Geza Burghardt, Greg
Byers Three methods, three different shellac-based finishes, and three luthiers with well-developed arm muscles. A variety of techniques will be demonstrated or described including, but not limited to: making cooked spirit varnish; traditional pore filling with pumice; untraditional pore filling with epoxy; building up a French polish finish with oil and without oil; and repairing dings. |
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Ken Altman - Wednesday, July 7th |
| Fred Carlson - Thursday,
July 8th Creative Guitar Making: Teaching the Dream to Sing Fred Carlson describes the process he has been evolving for some thirty years that helps him to be open to the wonderful inefficiencies of Creative Inspiration and still produce instruments that are finely functioning musical tools. He'll show pictures of recent, one-of-a-kind creations and of the jigs and fixtures that help him make them. |
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Jeffrey Elliott - Thursday, July
8th A lecture/slide presentation of his recent restoration of the famous 1888 Antonio de Torres (SE 114) originally made for Francisco Tárrega. The restoration report, photos, and full- scale plans will be accessible, and the guitar itself will be present and performed upon. |
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Saul Koll and Tom
Jones - Thursday, July 8th What do these things sound like? What was the builder trying
to achieve? Is the instrument made to excel at a particular style
of music? What effect does the hardware have? How does neck joinery
affect tone? What is the sound relationship between unplugged
and plugged? Will one electric guitar do everything? |
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Frank Ford and Dan
Erlewine - Thursday, July 8th |
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Eugene Clark - Thursday, July 8th Eugene will present an overview of the Spanish approach to building the guitar on a platform or solera, with or without supports. How the solera guitar begins with the action, the plane alignments, and the arching. Demystifying the layout of the Spanish neck and head. The Spanish head block--a simple solution to aligning planes and angles. Bring a notebook and ask questions. |
| Graham McDonald
- Thursday, July 8th Irish Bouzoukis - Mandolins on Steroids A brief history of Irish bouzoukis and citterns, how they relate to other members of the mandolin family and an outline of some of the critical factors involved in building them including scale length, tuning, soundboard construction and neck attachment. Mr. McDonald's new book on the subject will be available at the Convention. |
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Special display of historic classic guitars, presented by Jim Forderer and Jim Westbrook. - Thursday, Friday and Saturday, after lunch. The historic guitar collection of Jim Forderer and Jim Westbrook will include some of the world's rarest guitars from the 18th century to the present. Included will be one of the first six string instruments ever made dating from 1785, one of the first archtop guitars made in 1805 and an example of one of the first tuning machines made in 1752. There will be instruments from the lute family, vihuela family and Baroque family as well as approximately 35 six string guitars made between 1785 and 1996. This is one of the finest collections of classical guitars ever assembled which charts to development of the instrument from its roots 400 years ago to its present state. |
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Michael Darnton - Friday, July 9th My talk will be about the durable aesthetic appeal of traditional Cremonese violin design, and how we can use an understanding of that to make our own work better. This doesn't only apply to violins, but to guitars and similar instruments. I'll be talking a lot about outlines and what types of lines naturally appeal to our eyes, and why, using examples from violins, guitars, architecture, and art. My central point is that from Andrea Amati, in 1570, through to C.F. Martin and Steve Klein, the most aesthetic designs have followed just a couple of simple and consistent (and usually unnoticed by outsiders) principles, sometimes utilized in radically different ways, though. Part of this is going to involve a concise explanation of why designing guitar outlines based on spline curves (usually via computer) results in boring guitar shapes. |
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Kenny Hill - Friday, July 9th The listening session gets right to the essence of of lutherie:
the instrument making music, in public. It's a fascinating flavor
test -- with only three or four minutes for each instrument --
so that first impressions are all there are. Nevertheless, it
is an especially important moment for the emerging luthier, who
may have few opportunities to hear his or her instrument played
in a bona fide performance situation. These quick impressions
can be very important and lasting. |
| Mike Doolin,
Fabio Ragghianti, and Harry
Fleishman - Friday, July 9th Guitar Neck-to-Body Joints: Attachment Issues Mike, Fabio, and Harry will offer several interesting methods for connecting the neck to the body on steel-string as well as classical guitars. Revisit the 19th century, and learn from the wisdom of the ancients, as we look at several approaches to the bolt-on adjustable neck. If you thought splines were only for crustaceans, think again; we will offer a modern method employing a simple technique. Mike will reveal the mechanism behind his Adjustable Neck Angle System, which allows action adjustments from the neck/body joint while under full string tension. Why not just use a dovetail? Well, come see for yourself! Also, one luthier's experience with renecking a familiar guitar, with a few surprises. |
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Charles Fox - Friday, July 9th The vacuum island has become the single most important tool in my lutherie workshop. The impact of this simple, inexpensive device on both the quality of my work and the level of my productivity has been greater than that of any other tool that I've created. All through the guitar making process, from creating the sub-assemblies through body assembly, binding routing and installation, scraping, sanding and final detailing, this versatile holding and clamping devise has made every guitar making operation more convenient and easy. Every student and visitor to my workshop has asked for information on how to build a similar vacuum island for their own workshop. At the Tacoma GAL Convention, I'll demonstrate the many uses of this simple, powerful tool and explain how to create it, as well as offer suggestions for integrating it into your own workspace and using it to upgrade your entire guitar making process in terms of ease, quality and output. |
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Greg Byers - Friday, July 9th Admiration of the rosettes of Antonio de Torres has lead me to develop techniques using modern tools and glues to produce similar motifs. These can be modified and combined to produce thoroughly modern rosettes that pay respect to the past. I hope to show that the creative possibilities of this approach are richly rewarding. To see one of Greg's rosettes click here. |
| Bruce Harvie - Friday,
July 9th Harvesting Tonewoods, or Why My Back is Killing Me Cutting tonewoods happens to be a very photogenic pastime, and Bruce has collected lots of photos over the past 25 years showing the process of cutting instrument woods. He will be discussing the milling of Sitka, Engelmann, and Red Spruce, as well as the various species of Maple. Questions will be entertained as to how to mill your own woods, the do's and don'ts of tonewood milling, and what to look for in a tree that might be a candidate for instrument wood. |
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Steve Kauffman - Friday, July 9th Beginning with some background and philosophy I will attempt to illuminate the reasoning which leads one to depart from traditional guitar design and materials. Next a discussion of the production, properties, and forms of carbon fiber will be followed by a practical guide to fabricating guitar parts in carbon. Finally, the heart of the matter: applications. I’ll have some examples of carbon components and will discuss the design challenges that led to their creation. I hope this will lead to an open discussion of how other applications of carbon fiber might be adopted. |
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Kenny Hill - Saturday, July 10 The obvious elements of a quality guitar are the materials,
the design and the craftsmanship. The less obvious elements are
the climate, weather, and some ineffable spirit, mood or vision
that passes from the maker to the instrument. |
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Geza Burghardt - Saturday, July
10th This workshop grew out of Geza's quest to develop and build a double bass for solo performance. In the session he will show how he created a "model" derived from aspects of numerous classical Italian basses, the making of the templates, and building the instrument. With his thorough knowledge and use of traditional building techniques, Geza will address the many details of creating such a unique instrument as well as display the instrument itself. |
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Harry Fleishman - Saturday, July
10th Because there are so many disparate styles played on steel string guitars, we will try to have several players with widely varying techniques available to play for you. This should allow steel string builders, players, and aficionados to hear steel strung guitars played in the styles for which they have been built and voiced. A delicately-built parlor guitar voiced for maximum subtlety will not be subjected to the indignities of the heavy flat pick, and vice-versa! |
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Rick Turner - Sunday, July 11th I'll be talking about the exciting junction among "traditional" acoustic instruments, "traditional" electric instruments, and the latest technologies for construction and amplification. My work over the past five years has included application of architectural concepts in acoustic guitar building and work with D-TAR (Duncan-Turner Acoustic Research) where we are covering the full range of amplification from pickups to a digital acoustic guitar modeler known as Mama Bear. The process of developing a digital model of acoustic guitars has led me to a greater understanding of what aspects of acoustics we actually control in the making of guitars, and I'd like to share my findings with America's best luthiers. |
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Tom Ribbecke - Sunday, July 11th I will discuss the development of the carved top guitar, symmetrical
and asymmetrical topography, and present information on radical
assymetry in soundboard design,in archtop and flat top instruments.
The discussion and presentation will include information on the
development of the "Halfling" Guitars and Basses I am
currently making., as well as other interpretations of this sort
of topography by other makers. |
