Posted on June 17, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo Hellfire! or How Not To Build A Banjo by Harold Turner Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 My grandfather came down from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in the year of 1907. He was a jack-of-all-trades like most of the original settlers in the area, but living was hard so he pursued a career in a textile plant south of the border in South Carolina, where he became locally famous for building fine furniture and musical instruments, especially violins. He died in 1927 from influenza. My father was only one year old when his father passed away, and this specter of a wonderful man always hung over him. Dad was a great carpenter and cabinet maker, and became a well-known woodcarver, but those musical instruments just wouldn’t go together right for him. 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 June 10, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Roy Smeck: Wizard of the Strings Roy Smeck: Wizard of the Strings by James Garber previously published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Roy Smeck is one of the treasures of American popular music. For nearly seventy years now he has entertained millions with his virtuosity on fretted instruments and his warm sense of humor. He has also been mentor, teacher, and friend to dozens of fretted instrument enthusiasts, and has been the inspiration for countless others through his numerous instruction books. Roy was born on February 6, 1900 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His musical development closely parallels that of the dawning 20th-century American popular culture. The birth and adolescence of the recording industry, radio, film, television, and the golden era of American instrument making all occurred during his rise to stardom. In the vaudeville circuit he made his name solely as an instrumentalist. He also achieved prominence as a recording artist under his own name and as a backup studio musician for a number of other well-known stars in the early days of recording. 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 June 1, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota Antonius Stradivarius in South Dakota by Joseph R. Johnson Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2000 When the name Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737) is mentioned, images of fine quality violins, master craftsmanship, and exorbitantly large price tags come to mind. Stradivari is known to the world primarily as an excellent violin maker. However, the members of the violin family were not the only stringed instruments that he made. Stradivari’s output also included a harp, three known guitars, and patterns for lutes, mandolins, mandolas, and violas da gamba. The Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota, is home to the “Rawlins,” one of three extant guitars made by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy, between 1680 and 1700. The second is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University in England. The third, much altered and in need of restoration, is privately owned in Italy. 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 June 1, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Indian Import and Export Indian Import and Export by Gulab Gidwani from his 1986 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The reason I’m up here talking about importing and exporting woods is that I’m one of the few people who have had the fortune, or you could say misfortune, of being on both sides. I have been an exporter in India, I have been an importer over here. So I can give you some idea of the problems involved. This whole thing started when I was living in the USA and I went to India on a vacation from my regular job. My younger brother sent me a cable telling me that the Gibson Company over here had problems getting a reliable supply of ebony. I said to myself, “That’s no big deal. I’ll go to the market and tell them please send some wood to the Gibson Company. Ebony is just like any other wood.” 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 June 1, 2020March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Birth of the Packaxe Birth of the Packaxe by Francis Kosheleff Previously published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 9 #2, 1981, updated 1994 and Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1998 The Need. Several years ago after reading an article in Guitar Player about the hassles of traveling with a guitar and remembering my own camping trips in Europe and the United States, it dawned on me that the answer was a folding guitar. That night I went to work on that idea with pencil and paper, slept over it, dreamt about it, and the next morning started work in the shop. The following Saturday I went to the flea market and bought several cheap, broken acoustic guitars to experiment with. Later on that month I started the actual construction of the first folding guitar and named it the Packaxe. The name Packaxe is now trademarked. The idea of a hinged neck on a guitar is not new. It must have occurred to many luthiers before me, yet I had never seen a folding guitar, nor read or heard of one. Knowledgeable people usually told me that such an instrument could not possibly work for a hundred reasons. I went ahead anyway building several types of guitars with folding necks, and sure enough, there were problems, lots of them. But for an inventor, this is a challenge to be enjoyed. 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.
