Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Luthiers Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers Review: The Luthiers Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers Reviewed by Cyndy Burton Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The Luthiers Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers Luthiers Mercantile, 1990. 216 pp. At our 1990 GAL Convention in Tacoma, the word was floating around that the much anticipated new Luthiers Mercantile Catalog would soon be out. A prototype version lay on the exhibit table along with some great wood bargains. I remember I was particularly interested in the cutaway modification for the Universal Wood-Bending Machine, having recently built mine from the kit and thinking how great it would be to be able to do cutaways with the ease of just “normal” bending. So I peeked at Mark Campellone’s description and drawings for modifying the machine to do cutaways. This expanded information on the Universal Wood-Bending Machine (along with several other tips/improvements for the machine) is typical of how the “new” catalog is different from the old one. It’s better. Most of the old photographs are still there and many new ones have been added. The old catalog is simply used as a core for updating and expanding based at least partly on feedback from the people who buy and use LM tools and woods. (It has the feel of a GAL publication in that regard.) Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Lutes, Viols and Temperaments by Mark Lindley Review: Lutes, Viols and Temperaments by Mark Lindley Reviewed by Edward L. Kottick Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Lutes, Viols and Temperaments Mark Lindley Cambridge University Press, 1984 Out of print (1999) This book represents a landmark of scholarship that cannot be ignored by those who deal with fretted string instruments, whether scholar, maker, or player. Mark Lindley, one of the world’s experts on this complex subject, summarizes everything that can at present be said about the ways in which theorists and performers viewed the problem of temperament on fretted string instruments between ca. 1520 and ca. 1740. He does a brilliant job of sorting out the writers. He explains how some of them misunderstood the mathematical principles involved in reckoning temperament, and he shows how many of them, in turn, have been misinterpreted by modern scholars. The information is laid out clearly. Quotations from original sources have the English translation in parallel columns: thus, if Lindley draws an inference from the primary material, you are free to disagree and draw your own. The mathematics of temperament are presented clearly and, in many cases, masterfully, as in his explication of the distinction between the ratio of 18:17 and 12th root of 2. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: 1996 & 1997 Luthier’s Art Review: 1996 The Luthier’s Art & 1997 The Luthier’s Art Reviewed by Woody Vernice Originally published in American Lutherie #55, 1998 1996 The Luthier’s Art & 1997 The Luthier’s Art String Letter Publishing 1996: 111 pages 1997: 141 pages, ISBN 1-890490-01-6 $19.95 per volume Available from Acoustic Guitar magazine These two lovely collections of instrument photos represent the participants of the Healdsburg Guitar Festivals of their respective years. Since the books came out well before the events, it’s obvious that the photos were submitted by the luthiers and weren’t taken at the shows. I’m sure the photos are better for it, but these aren’t necessarily the guitars you would have seen at the festivals. As one of the sponsors of the festivals, Acoustic Guitar magazine has tried hard to make the guitar a cultural icon and the festivals a matter of artistic importance. These books are compiled to look like gallery or auction catalogs. The layout is formal and the photographic reproduction very good. If the collection is biased towards Left Coastians, the books are more interesting for it. The progressives and weirdoes lend an air of excitement and airiness to the pages, though they may send some staid readers on a quick search for a Martin copy just to regain their balance. All in all, however, there seems to be a lot more luthiers happily chugging away within the tradition than pushing the envelope. This is a pretty bunch of instruments with enough ideas in either volume to keep any builder thinking for a long time. The photo spread is followed by a short biography of each luthier. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations by Robert Carl Hartman Review: Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations by Robert Carl Hartman Reviewed by John Bromka Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Guitars and Mandolins in America Featuring the Larsons’ Creations Robert Carl Hartman Maurer & Co., 1984 $39.95 from amazon.com (1999) Every fine luthier of creative and abundant output should be so lucky as to have a memory book devoted to preserving his art and times. Robert Carl Hartman has done a thorough job of this for his grandfather Carl Larson and Carl’s brother August, who together maintained a lutherie business from the 1880s to 1944. A great portion of the Larsons’ output was built to order to receive the manufacturers’ and distributors’ labels of Maurer, Prairie State, Dyer, and Stahl. If you are not yet familiar with the Larson brothers or their instruments (am I too far east of Midwest?), you’re in for a treat. The Larsons built beautiful and highly original instruments, and a large sample of designs are given here among the book’s 150 photographs and drawings. Included are mandolins, mandolas, mandocello and bass, flattop and archtop guitars, acoustic bass guitar, and harp mandolins and guitars. A chart of measurements is given with each instrument. Reprints of the guitar patents give very thorough drawings, descriptions, theory, and reasoning behind such innovations as laminated braces, further developed X bracing, through-the-body truss rods, and building under tension. Testimonials from Stefan Grossman, George Gruhn, and Johnny Cash, and a humorous reminiscence from Les Paul give further incentive to look into the Larsons’ designs. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Constructing the Mountain Dulcimer by Dean Kimball Review: Constructing the Mountain Dulcimer by Dean Kimball Reviewed by Peter M. Estes Originally published in American Lutherie #1, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Constructing the Mountain Dulcimer Dean Kimball David McKay Company, Inc., 1975 $14 from Luthiers Mercantile International (1999) This last Christmas my wife Lynn asked me to help her build a mountain dulcimer for an old friend of ours. I had bought and read Constructing the Mountain Dulcimer when it was first published, but this was the first opportunity I had to use it. The pictures and diagrams in this book are so well done that I ended up skimming the text, reading in detail only when I needed clarification. We used his “Standard Dulcimer” pattern. Lynn did all the measuring and laid out the lines for cutting. I built a simpler version of his elaborate production assembly fixture to hold the sides in position during assembly. We used some dust-covered bargain mahogany guitar sets for the back, sides, and top (the backs from the guitar sets made excellent stock for recipe boxes for gifts). I did not attempt his rotary planer method for thinning stock. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
