What Is French Polishing? The term French Polishing refers to the art of using what is know as a pad, rubber, or muneca constructed usually of cotton cloth wrapped around some type of core material to apply a finish to a wood surface by rubbing.  So the term French polishing is really talking about the physical act [...]

Many of you may have seen my last blog post where I had the privilege of announcing my new website focused on sharing the wonders of the art of hand crafting guitars with both players and guitar builders interested in understanding more about this wonderful, historical, and inspiring instrument we all love so much; the [...]

Introducing a new guitar building website with video courses online now! Watch the sample video below! One of the greatest parts of my job is the wonderful people I get to meet and talk to everyday. My customers, students, and friends. I feel truly blessed to receive so many emails and phone calls from people [...]

Guitar French polishing with shellac is an ancient craft that has been handed down for many generations. I am very passionate about French polishing; as it pertains to my work, and in the passing on of this important aspect of our craft of lutherie. Last week I had the great pleasure of teaching a Guitar French polishing class which [...]

Welcome to Part 2 of the new web based version of my Archtop Guitar book, “The Creation Of the Natura Elite Archtop Guitar“. To Preview the book in its entirety, Purchase a hard cover or soft cover copy of the book, or Download a free high res PDF eBook version, Click The Button Below: Selecting Tone Woods [...]

Welcome to Part 1 of the new web based version of my Archtop Guitar book, “The Creation Of the Natura Elite Archtop Guitar“. I will be posting a new chapter every week or so from now through the end of the year to allow you to more easily read and enjoy it online and to [...]

The concept of the multi-scale musical instrument (one in which each string has its own scale length) is not new by any means. It is commonly employed in many instruments such as the piano, harp, and others. This multi-scale arrangement applied to a fretted instrument has become known today as “Fanned Frets” or simply “Fan [...]

This is the first of a series of posts I’m planning to write about my favorite tools that I use while making my guitars. Having and using nice hand tools is just one of the many great parts of being a luthier. One of my favorite and most used tools in my guitar shop, is [...]

Most of the time I feel like I am watching someone else do the work, like I’m watching my hands remove the wood thats in the way of the elegant curves that need to be created to bring out the unique voice of the wood.  Its hard work, extremely labor intensive, but rewarding. Click here to see [...]