Category: Articles and Blog
Articles and Blog Index
STOP – READ THIS FIRST! We’ve created this list in alphabetical order to help you navigate through our articles and blogs and find items of interest to you. In addition, you can use the search box to the left to search by words or phrases. Our articles and videos are an accumulation of data covering years.…
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Vacuum Pump and Fixtures
Having the use of vacuum in your shop is immensely helpful. Whether you’re using it for clamping or for holding a workpiece, it can greatly improve efficiency and make many tasks easier. We offer excellent vacuum solutions that are perfect for your shop. In this article, we will review the tools and set-up options so…
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Defining and Photographing Bearclaw Figured Spruce
What we call ‘bearclaw figure’ is a rare phenomenon among woods as a whole, but is not too uncommon in Spruce. The source of this nickname is obvious; the wood appears to have been scratched by the claws of a bear. Of course, the behaviors of our Ursidae family friends have no real impact on…
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Why Buy Bone from Luthiers Mercantile?
Bone is the standard material used for acoustic stringed instrument nuts and saddles. It replaces the traditional elephant ivory, the use of which is both illegal and reprehensible. Bone is also used to replace the plastic nuts and saddles used on many inexpensive instruments. The hardness of bone supports great sustain and strong tonality in…
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Ukulele Sizes
Our ukulele wood offerings reflect the four main ukulele sizes. Unlike many of the guitar size designations, the uke sizes do not refer to specific factory models —such as the Martin Dreadnought. For this reason, you will find small variations in what one person and another call a ‘soprano’, for example. This goes for the…
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Repair Shop’s Bread & Butter
Tonally and structurally, the guitar’s bridge is a delicate and critical fulcrum. The bridge of a standard acoustic guitar with medium gauge strings is being pulled by about 200 pounds of tension! Obviously, for a luthier striving to build a guitar with a light, responsive top, this is a fact that can not be tip-toed…
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Tuner No-Nos
Your body is built, the neck is on and now it’s time to install your tuners. Beginners beware! What should be an easy enough procedure can turn into a nightmare if you don’t take steps to make sure things go well. Here are a few tips to guarantee success and move you effortlessly towards the…
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Tuning Machine Ratios and Gotoh’s Innovations
Until recently, the tuners for steel string guitars came with only a narrow range of options with regard to the gear ratios. Typically, you would find them somewhere between 12:1 and 16:1. This meant you had to turn the button 12 times (or 16, as the case may be) to get the post to rotate…
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Peghead Design
Traditionally, a luthier’s peghead shape remains consistent from one instrument to the next. It is his or her thumbprint, a marker that can be seen and identified from a far-away seat in the concert hall. Keep in mind that this tradition took root in the classical milieu where a brand or name is not typically…
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Headplates—Do they affect the tone of the guitar?
Some might find it far-fetched, but there are many established luthiers who give serious credence to the idea the headstock is an important part of…tone production! The idea is, if there is significant mass and weight, and if the peghead is constructed solidly (usually this means laminated), then it will not move too much. Too…
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