Official Luthiers Forum!

So much to learn - I'm always looking for new sources of information, processes, and insight into others shops.
Thinking of picking up some more books to read, and these have always caught my eye, but I've yet to pick any up.

How useful are the series of Big Red Book of American Lutherie - a lot of good info that can't be found elsewhere? A useful compilation? Or is most of that available online now?

I've had 2 of them, and found them to be interesting reading. Do you like the articles in the American Lutherie journals? They're just compilations of them. I'm only interested in guitars, not so much other instruments, so that narrows down the reading a bit. Considering $50 isn't much nowadays, not a big investment for just trying out.

I was gifted a couple -- thumbed through them and I also gave them away --- what can I say.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

I own all of them, because I have been buying the compilations as they become available. There are 7 of them now, I think. The most useful one (to me, anyway) is Volume Five. It has articles about Eugene Clark and French Polishing, Frank Ford and hide glue, Charles Fox and jigging up your shop, and a few others that have really taught me a lot. The rest have a few interesting things here and there, but nowhere near the concentration of useful information as Volume Five.

I have all seven, I do not use them as references, but I enjoyed reading them from Volume 1 to volume 7. I found it a fun historical record, as it goes back to an early time, especially in the American small shop steel string revival. I got good ideas, a lot of perspective and got an introduction to some of today's more established luthiers. There were articles I bailed on early but over all I enjoyed them. You need to go to the GAL this July in Tacoma. Then you can thumb through the books as they usually have copies at their sales tables.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I have all 7 also. I think they document things that are not readily found. Particularly when it comes to laying the groundwork for the different models that they are selling prints on. They usually show a history of the documentation with additional pictures and comparing other guitars by the same builder. I still use the finishing schedule from an article they had years ago.. I think there is a ton of information if you are willing to look for it, not all of which applies to guitars. The one thing I wish they had is a way to search for a specific item, process, etc. Lots of info for the $$

Lots of info.,in big red books, depends on what one looks for, or is interested in pursuing. I prefer the quarterly journal. The most recent one was short on technical information, and longer on biographies.Noticed in this issue that the spanish luthiers do not share. their methods or technical info .My 2 cents worth .

Here ya go: New Feature - Search Article Abstracts

I've been wishing for something like this for a while too. I've read books 4 through 7 cover to cover and it's hard to remember which article is in which book when you're looking to review some cool idea or method you read about a long time ago.

I agree with all who say it's a ton of good info for very little cost. Books 5 through 7 are my favorites.

Also + 1 for going to the GAL convention - this will be my third and I'm sorry I didn't know about them many years earlier!

Hope to see some of you there.

Leo

I've got all 7 and I go through each of them at least once a year. The more experience I have, the more I get out of the articles.

I find there's a ton of useful information to be drawn, even from the non-guitar specific articles.

Full disclosure. I'm a contributor.

Steve

Thanks all - sounds like I should at least track down book #5 to get started.