The Joint Was Flat Until The Glue Went On
Two flat blocks of mahogany weren’t flat anymore once the hide glue went on. How anticipating what wood does with water makes a better glue joint, and a better guitar.
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What The Hygrometer Can’t Tell You
Most humidity advice stops at 50%. What’s actually moving a guitar is the water in the wood’s cell walls, and learning to know the wood is where the craft begins.
Read MoreI Lost Three Guitar Backs In One Night
Three braced guitar backs cracked overnight while my hygrometer said 50%. The humidity where your wood sits can be very different from the number on the wall.
Read MoreThe Two Battles Every Guitar Builder Fights
Every builder fights two battles. The first I can trace to a ceramic rooster in a 1993 drawing class. The second took me years to even see.
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Why Do Guitar Headstocks Break? (One Little Scratch Explains Everything)
A strip of maple veneer, one little scratch, and it breaks right there. That’s why headstocks break, and most of it isn’t bad luck.
Read MoreThe Guitar Is An Energy System (Not A Wooden Box)
The biggest shift in thirty years of building happened pushing a lawn mower: I stopped seeing a wooden box and started seeing an energy system.
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Why I Put The Same Strings On Every Guitar
I put the same strings on every guitar I build, the way a studio uses the same monitors. I need to hear the guitar, not the strings.
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Should You Level Frets Straight, or With Relief?
A shop in Italy put my guitar on their PLEK machine and it came back needing nothing. What decides that isn’t the leveling. It’s the shape of the neck’s bow.
Read MoreIs Wood Dust Dangerous in a Small Shop?
For twenty years I told myself a one-man shop didn’t make enough dust to worry about. One line of research took that story apart.
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The Room Inside the Guitar
Yesterday I was carving the top of an archtop guitar I’ve been working on, and somewhere in...
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The Invisible Rules Holding You Back (And How to Erase Them)
I’ve been thinking about constraints lately. Not the real ones — the ones we don’t...
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Guitar Playability: Why It Matters More Than You Think
I just received a letter from one of my mentors that gave me a much-needed reminder that I think...
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Best Guitar Nut & Saddle Materials & How To Choose
In this article, I’m going to show you how to select the perfect guitar nut and saddle...
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Dust Extractor Vs Shop Vac (How To Choose)
Today, I’m going to talk some common questions about a confusing but very important tool...
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How To Transform Your Guitar Building With The Art of Story
Today, I’m going to show you a powerful technique for elevating your guitars and your guitar...
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Accu-Burr Scraper Burnisher & How To Use It
In this article, I’m going to show you an amazing tool that will make it way faster and...
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The Secret To Better Guitar Inlay Design
Today, I’m going to share what I believe is the secret to creating elegant and beautiful...
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The Fret Barber (And How To Use It)
Today, I’m going to show you a great fretwork tool called the Fret Barber and a four-step...
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How To Find The Best Guitar Building Tools
Finding the “best” tools for guitar making can be tricky. We’re all unique. We...
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Why I Switched To French Polishing My Guitars
Does a French polished guitar sound better than a guitar finished with synthetic guitar finishes?...
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How To Optimize Your Workbench Height
In this Article, I’m going to show you how to find the perfect workbench height and why...
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4 Steps To Perfect Side Purfling Miter Joints
In today’s article, I’m going to show you my simple system for creating beautiful...
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How To Use A Fret Crowning File
Flawless fretwork is a vital component of a great playing guitar, and in this article we’re...
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How To Get Perfect Guitar String Spacing (Tools & Technique)
In this article, I’ll show you how to perfect your string spacing for a more professional...
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