Posted on January 10, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering Robert Bouchet Letter: Remembering Robert Bouchet by Philippe Refig Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Dear Sirs, Coming back to Europe in 1973 from America where I had been working for some years, I had the nasty surprise of opening my guitar case in Paris, to find my Contreras flamenco guitar broken. One of the components of the heel had become unstuck. Cracks were wide open on the ribs on each side of the neck. In those times I used to keep my guitar with me in the cabin without having to pay for an extra seat. But that day they took my guitar just before boarding and put in the hold. I thought I was prepared for all eventualities: I had made a rain cover for the case and put polyurethane under it. I had pieces of foam in strategic places inside the case to keep the guitar steady. Well, apparently that was not enough. I was pretty sad when I saw the damage. 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 10, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering Robert Lundberg Letter: Remembering Robert Lundberg by Clive Titmuss Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 Dear Jonathon: I has been several weeks since Historical Lute Construction by Robert Lundberg arrived. I wanted to really absorb it before showering you with well-deserved praise for your great work of lutherie documentation. I have read the whole book several times. It’s a great work. Bob built my two lutes during his early period, while I was a student in Basel, a time which also saw the beginnings of my attempts at lutherie. I once played my Bach suite program with Susan at Reed College in Portland, partly arranged by Bob’s first wife Ellen. One of the works I played that day was my own Tombeau for Glenn Gould, a piece for lute and harpsichord. Bob liked that, I remember. We had borrowed a Flemish double by Byron Will for Susan to play, and he and Byron seemed to get a real charge out of a couple of very determined musicians trying to play in a cafeteria full of hungry students on a Sunday evening, with the smell of frying fish heavy in the air. The 300 or so students were perfectly behaved, as they listened to a French Suite, Prelude Fugue and Allegro, the Chromatic Fantasy, and works by Weiss and Hagen, played on some of the best early instruments made by American crafters. But they seemed not to notice, as if this were normal, or perhaps such a smoothly executed event that it was no more to them than a violin and piano recital. Bob was happy to hear his own lute played in such demanding circumstances. My last memory of Bob is of his kindness, his gentleness, and his understanding of my struggle with the hardest music anyone could ever write for a lute. 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 9, 2010May 26, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Engelmann Spruce Letter: Engelmann Spruce by Jan E. Callister Previously published in American Lutherie #53, 1998 Dear Tim: Just a few comments on Don Musser’s interesting article, “Rocky Mountain Tonewood Alternatives” in AL#51. Years ago when I was cutting Engelmann spruce and trying to market it for soundboards, I often found large logs of Colorado blue spruce (Picea pungens) in the yards of logging mills. These trees were called “swamp” spruce by the local loggers since the trees apparently grow in high meadows with an abundance of water. I found the annual rings to be much too wide for guitar soundboards. I have since been told that this may not be a problem for luthiers who build cello or bass viol. Don Musser probably has a much better chance of finding ideal blue spruce in Colorado where blue spruce is much more abundant than in Utah. 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 9, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Remembering José Rubio Letter: Remembering José Rubio by Keith Watson Previously published in American Lutherie #79, 2004 Dear Sir or Madam, AL#65 was recently passed on to me by Jack Spira of Melbourne, a builder of guitars and related instruments. For several years I had been attempting to find the whereabouts of David Spinks (aka José Rubio) in order to renew a friendship that we had in London in the mid-’50s. I had come to London from the north to study flamenco and wood carving and had started my classical guitar tuition in with Alexis Chesnicov. I then went to Paco Juanos who gave lessons in Hampstead at a coffee house called El Serrano. It was there I met David. 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 8, 2010May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Ivory Lute: Questions Remain Ivory Lute: Questions Remain by Robert Lundberg Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 See also, 6-Course Ivory Lute labeled Magno dieffopruchar a venetia, ca. 1550 in the collection of J. & A. Beare Ltd. by Ken Sribnick and Gayle Miller Ivory Lute: Picture This by Ken Sribnick and Gayle Miller The paucity of historical 6-course lutes is well known, so lute makers were understandably excited when the beautiful ivory lute labeled Magno dieffoprucher a venetia surfaced at Christie’s auction house for their May sale in 1981. It sold for ₤4500, which was well below the estimate, and ended up in the collection at Charles Beare’s violin shop (J. & A. Beare Ltd., 7 Broadwick Street, London W1) where I was unsuccessful in getting access to examine it on two subsequent occasions. In July of 1982, while the lute was open in the Beare workrooms, the English lute maker Stephen Barber (11a Peacock Yard, London S.E. 17) published a nicely detailed and informative set of measured drawings consisting of two sheets with interior and exterior views plus notes. These were a welcome addition to a very short list of really complete museum-quality lute drawings. We are shown a nine-rib, somewhat shallow ivory body with dark spacers. The body, counter cap, neck block, and neck dimensions and materials conform to expectations. However, there are also depicted many unusual or unexpected features. The construction of the belly, particularly in the thicknessing, is not at all what one would expect. Also some, if not all, of the bars must be replacements. The bridge, pegbox, and nut are certainly not original. I should add that over the years there has been considerable discussion as to whether or not this lute (together with several others sharing the same provenance) is really from the mid-16th century, or whether it is a composite, or a complete fake. 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.
