Huss & Dalton Guitar Co., Inc.

April 2015

HiThis is Steve again, and this issue is the first of three in which I hope to broadly describe the
creation of Huss & Dalton guitars. The process is intricate and deep and there is much, much,
more to know, but I think I've spent enough time in the shop to articulate the broad strokes.

Part One: The Milling Room

The milling room, which occupies the top floor of Huss & Dalton's Staunton
headquarters, is where builders shape raw wood and materials into guitars that
will be finished, fretted, and set up downstairs. There's generally quite a lot
going on up here as Dean Jones and John Calkin transform thin "plates" of
wood into the back, top, and sides of a guitar body.

Backs and Tops

These thin cuts of wood are as consistently immaculate as you might expect
from the shop's eagle-eyed staff, but Jeff and Mark developed their own unique
procedure to ensure their tops are as durable as they are beautiful. This
preliminary "deflection test" is Huss & Dalton's take on the tap-tuning
techniques used by many luthiers.

Tap-tuning ideally allows a practiced

luthier to listen for resonant qualities
and weak spots in a given piece of
wood as they systematically "tap" its
surface. But the art of tap-tuning is
somewhat subjective by nature, as
standards will vary based a listener's
previous experience and assumptions.
Huss & Dalton's deflection test was
designed to take some of the mystery
out of this process with a relatively
simple fixture (pictured). After loading a
top plate, the builder applies a
predetermined amount of pressure to a plate's bridge region, imposing the
same pressure and tension conditions created by the strings on the finished
product. By measuring the resulting relief (or sag) of the cut, staff can easily tell
if it will be able to hold up to everyday playing. After a top plate "passes" the
deflection test, it moves on to Dean Jones for bracing.

Bracing

Huss & Dalton haven't done much to the triedand-true formula as far as back bracing is
concerned. They stick to the traditional ladder
bracing technique, pictured above, which has
been keeping acoustic guitars together for a
very long time. The company's staple red
spruce braces are individually sculpted by
Dean Jones before he glues them to the back
plate. Red spruce is known for being
incredibly light in spite of its rigidity, and Huss
& Dalton guitars are exceptionally light as a
result.

If an acoustic guitar isn't braced properly, normal string tension could cause the
guitar's top to become arched over time. The company has two distinct
approaches when it comes to the construction of their cross-braced tops (see
below). Their Traditional (or flat) tops adhere, as their name suggests, to
established cross-bracing techniques that haven't changed significantly in
some time. For their Signature series tops, on the other hand, the bracing is
shaped into a slight arch that translates into a subtly dome-shaped (or radius)
top. Signature tops are designed to arch along a 25-foot radius, which means
that the inner surface will align perfectly with any point on the surface of a 50foot ball. This creates a slight arch under the bridge that tends to boost the
guitar's mid-range response and punch.

The Sides
While Dean braces the top and back, John uses the Fox bender (pictured
below) to prepare the sides. This fixture, named after its creator Charles Fox,
molds the side plates into shape using a combination of water, heat and
glycerine. The raw wood is protected by a damp paper shield as the builder
slowly applies more heat and pressure -a thin sheet of spring steel conducts
heat and the glycerine keeps the wood from burning as the steam slowly softens
it. After they have been given time to cool off and harden, the raw sides are
almost ready to accept the back and top.

After the sides come out of the Fox bender, John trims the excess length so
they will fit into a mobile jig similar to the one pictured below. After using this
disc jig to sand the edges to spec, he's ready to glue on the kerfed lining. This
lining is cut from mahogany and "notched" so that it can will bend with the

guitar's sides. Once both strips of kerfed lining are flush with the rim, they act
as the surface upon which John can glue the top and back. For guitars with
Signature tops, John uses a disc mill (fondly referred to as "The Beast") to
shape the lining's surface along a radius that can make full contact with the
arched top plate. It's nice to look at, but the kerfed lining is also structurally
crucial -it provides consistent wood-to-glue contact all around the body, which
helps keep natural string tension from pulling the instrument apart.

Binding and Purfling

Now that the glue is set and the body is structurally sound, it's time for John to
prepare it for binding. Using a binding router, pictured, he cuts thin squared
channels around the edges of the body. After he perfects them with a small
chisel, these channels are ready to accept binding and purfling strips.

John glues these long, thin strips into place by hand, using tape to secure them
until the adhesive dries. Softer materials like ivoroid are flexible enough to bind
a body without breaking. Wood binding like maple or cocobolo, however, is
more challenging to work with and needs to be shaped on the Fox bender
before it will conform to an instrument's curves. John can do it all, and his work
literally ties the body together. When the glue is dry and the tape comes off, the
body finally looks like part of a guitar.

Now that the body is in one piece, the guitar is ready to move along to the next
transformative step in the Huss & Dalton build process. Stay tuned for the
coming issue, in which I'll be taking a look at the neck, bridge, inlays, and finish.

Part II: right around the corner!

Thanks for readingSteve Goodrick