The Hub

Rodrigo Gomes pulls a dead truss rod out of a Fender bass, coves a new fretboard to fit the neck, and refrets it — in Dan's shop, 2017. Out with the old rod A new fretboard, coved to fit Routing the c…

Scanning a broken headstock with the Creality Raptor, CNC-cutting a mahogany patch to the exact topology of the missing wedge, and finishing it back to Cherry Red. I've had the Creality Raptor 3D scan…

An Ibanez Musician came in missing one of its custom humbucker covers. Here's how I molded the original in silicone and cast a replacement pickup cover in pigmented epoxy resin. I have a client with a…

Part one of a 1955 Gretsch Roundup restoration — a played-to-death cowboy guitar with a loose, up-bowed neck and a truss rod frozen solid. Reprinted with permission from Vintage Guitar Magazine. Origi…

Splinting a crack in an old Epiphone archtop — with spruce borrowed from the guitar’s own fretboard extension, and a sliver of old piano soundboard.

Repairing damaged binding and purfling points and replacing mismatched ivoroid point caps on an F5 mandolin — with 3D-scanned, CNC-milled cast-resin binding, color-matched and tinted to disappear. Thi…

B.K. Vaught walked in with a heavily modified, refinished '57 Strat. We put a three-person team on it — strip the paint, replace the decal, narrow the bridge spacing, and bring it back to playable. Re…

Stepping down a half-dozen Strat and Tele necks from 7¼" to 9.5" — with no fretboard to hide behind. In 2018/2019 we made a half-dozen Strat and Tele necks from what, to me, was special wood: some ver…

Mentors and Olson Routing Rings Mentors, molds, and the Olson routing rings that replaced "driving the bus." Hello again, welcome to episode 2. I’m pumped! Last time I did my best to say hello and upd…

On February 18th, 2026, The Looth Group presented “Misconceptions in Lutherie” featuring Martino Quintavalla, Simone Bonanomi, and Andrea Corsini of H

DMV Local Looth Trip To Beard Guitars and Rockwell Brewery Today, some of the DMV Local Looths were treated to a really special day. They were very gracious and gave us a very detailed tour of their c…

Recently a 1941 Martin D-18 that had seen better days dropped in for some bridge work — the bridge was splitting on both treble and bass sides in fron

Taking the tang off of mandolin fretwire without butchering it. Taking the tang off of mandolin fretwire without butchering it.

Dan Erlewine using TJ Thompson's crack repair system.