Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Rebec Building Plans Questions: Rebec Building Plans by Cammie Mills Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 Cammie Mills from the Internet asks: I am looking for the building plans for a rebec. Cammie Mills found the plans: Paul Butler offers a plan for the 3-string rebec (also known as a soprano) on his website. His page covers how he built one and gives a mildly detailed history of the instrument. The site in general is very informative. He also provides links to more information as well as a link to some music for the rebec and how it sounds. http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/rebec.html. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Guitar Rib Depth Questions: Guitar Rib Depth by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006 Mark Korsten of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY asks: The article concerning how the rib depth of guitars should be adjusted when plates are domed was clearly written and illustrated (AL#84). I truly appreciate the insights offered by author R.M. Mottola. Being a neophyte luthier, however, I have what is probably a naive question. How does changing the depth of the guitar’s ribs modify the manner in which the bindings are fitted to the binding ledge? It’s a fairly easy operation to bend the binding when the plates are flat. However, when the depth of the ribs are varied, doesn’t that introduce another plane to the geometry? Do you simply use more flexible, thinner bindings or stronger binding tape to keep things tightly apposed in the ledge? R.M. Mottola responds: Although the doming of the plates means that the side depth of the ribs must be varied so the ribs and plates can be glued, this type of construction has little effect on binding. The ledges can be routed using a router resting on the plate or inverted in a router table. In either case the doming is so slight that the routing can be done just as if the plates were flat. And although the bindings must be bent vertically to accommodate the varying rib depth, the amount is so small as to be inconsequential. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Vintage Strings Questions: Vintage Strings by Fan Tao Originally published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 Andrew Lines from the Internet asks: I am looking for information on original string types as fitted to early Orville Gibson archtops as well as 1920s and ’30s instruments such as the L-5, New Yorker, and Master 400. I understand that these were originally metal strung, pure copper or Monel wound, but can’t find any info on gauges or core-to-winding ratios. Fan Tao of D’Addario Strings in Farmingdale, New York, replies: I’ve asked Jim D’Addario and several other guitar players around here, and no one knows. They all say it was long before their time. We have historical information only on modern D’Addario products, (back to the 1950s). However, there is some information in the book D’Addario: The Player’s Choice: 1905–2005 by Baker Rorick commissioned by D’Addario in 2005. Chapter 2 starts: “Before WWII, most steel-core strings had been wrapped with copper, silver-plated copper, or ‘commercial bronze’ (90% copper and 10% tin and other alloys). Monel — the trade name for a nickel-copper alloy — became a popular wrap wire in the 1920s, and its high nickel-steel content also made it viable for use with electromagnetic pickups and amplifiers. John Sr. [he passed away in 2000], searching for a louder, brighter, stronger, and longer-lasting string, experimented with different alloys of copper and tin, and developed a formula using 80/20 bronze (80% copper and 20% tin, also called brass) windings over a steel core. Trying different core-to-wrap ratios, he used a lighter core than other string makers, which ended up being the key to a better sounding string.... One of the first people to recognize [their] superiority was John D’Angelico.... It’s not known when [they met], but it is known that by 1937 C. D’Addario & Son had begun supplying their new 80/20 bronze roundwound strings to D’Angelico....” ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Jig for Oval Rosettes Questions: Jig for Oval Rosettes by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 Greg Pacetti of Fairbanks, Alaska asks: I’m in pursuit of some kind of jig for oval rosettes. The Questions column editor responds: Probably the single best source of info on cutting oval rosette channels appeared in the American Lutherie article “Making Oval Mandolin Rosettes” by Jonathon Peterson, et al. (AL#41 p. 34, BRBAL4 p. 140). In it, seven builders describe their methods. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024January 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Side Soundhole Guitar Letter: Side Soundhole Guitar by Marc Connelly Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 Dear GAL Family, Thank you Cyndy Burton for the exploration of side-ported instruments. It was a terrific affirmation for this most interesting fenestration option. Like Mr. Montelone, at some point I laid my head on the side of my old Martin, strummed, and wondered how to get more of that big wood and bronze sound into my face. I started experimenting with a “side hole” variant, and it changed the way I think about what I am doing — not because it was “better,” but because it was clearly different in a thought-provoking way. In fact, this exercise has finally purged the word “better” from my lutherie vocabulary, and that’s a good thing. My side-hole instruments (which I call “Atlas”) are from the same plantilla as my front-hole models, so I can make some general comparisons. At first, the Atlas models seemed a bit too percussive and weighted toward the bass. So I made some small modifications in the way I tune the box and tamed the bass. The percussive nature of these guitars is simply a component of getting a more direct blast of wavy air into the player’s face. I have come to like this. Several Atlas owners have agreed it has an appeal and have readily adapted to it. But a truly freakazoid experience is to stick your left ear in the hole and play! There isn’t a prewar D-45 on the planet that sounds like that! Until I read Montelone’s article, I never even considered the possibility of weakening the side. What was I (not) thinking! None have folded up, but future Atlas models will have some consideration for this possibility. Fusion jazz player Don Mock owns an Atlas and loves it. Don enjoys having people ask “What’s that?!” Of the folks who play my guitars with some interest in commissioning one, the Atlas is always the first off the rack. But guitar players are an amazingly conservative lot, I find. Selling a side-hole guitar is like selling a blonde guitar. You are either open to them or you are not. It is personally rewarding to watch the tug of war between the conventional and the unconventional. ◆ Photo by Marc Connelly.
