(Mark Lacey is an instructor at Guitar Craft Academy Nashville and the owner of Lacey Guitars.) What Causes a Guitar Neck to Back Bow? Ideally, a guitar neck should have a small amount of forward relief, approximately 0.008 inch, so that the strings won’t buzz on the...
(Dave Johnson is an instructor at Guitar Craft Academy Nashville and the owner of Scale Model Guitars in Nashville.) I’m currently working on a restoration of a 1931 Martin OM-18 for Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville. This job will include a...
(Marty Lanham is an instructor at Guitar Craft Academy Nashville.) As the summer ends and we prepare for cooler weather, it’s important to pay attention to the effect that heat in our homes can have on acoustic instruments, including guitars. Low humidity can...
(Dave Johnson is an instructor at Guitar Craft Academy Nashville and the owner of Scale Model Guitars in Nashville.) Even after more than a decade as a luthier, I still learn new things here and there where I can’t believe I never knew about them...
Most manufacturers and some independent luthiers use CNC machines to build their guitars. The process starts with drawing a design on the computer. My favorite program for doing this is Rhinoceros. Rhino (for short) is a powerful 3-D drafting and rendering program...
One of the first build or repair traits to catch my eye on any steel-stringed instrument is fretwork. Fretwork allows an instrument to look and feel great when it’s played — but it also can make an instrument unplayable if it’s not carried out properly....
