Posted on July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Technical Qualm with Jim Blilie’s Article in AL#100 Letter: Technical qualm with Jim Blilie’s article in AL #100 by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 Tim — I really enjoyed AL#100. It’s a nice mix of “technoid,” “art,” and “craft” articles. Lots of good info, but I did see a couple of things I wanted to respond to. First, in Jim Blilie’s article, which was excellent overall, I have a disagreement that rises above the level of minor. He says, on p. 31: “The fact that the relationship between stiffness (Young’s modulus) and density is inherently linear shows that just changing wood species doesn’t affect the stiffness-to-weight ratio very much.” The problem with that is, while the lengthwise Young’s modulus (E) values for both hardwoods and softwoods tend to fall on straight lines, they are different lines, owing to differences in basic structure in the woods. I’ve been measuring the properties of wood samples for several years. I’m enclosing a graph of long grain E vs. density for most of the pieces I’ve measured so far (147 samples), with eyeballed “average” lines drawn in. The softwoods include all of the usual-suspect top woods, as well as white pine and Mediterranean cypress. As you can see, the points fall very close to a straight line toward the left side of the chart. The hardwoods include a lot of lutherie woods (most of the samples are Indian rosewood), and some others, with balsa and blackwood being the end points. As you can see, the scatter of the points is greater, but they do at least suggest a line. One could, of course, draw a single line that took in all of the data points, but at the cost of accepting quite a lot more scatter in the softwood data. Given the relative homogeneity of softwood structure, this seems unwarranted. Besides, the resulting line would not approach the origin at all closely, which would be illogical. As is, the hardwood line is in no way an extension of the softwood line. Balsa, and yew, ’way down on the left, overlap the softwood area, as do a few of the softer hardwoods, such as butternut. Still, compared with the softwoods, hardwoods tend to have higher density for the equivalent E value. 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 July 1, 2024July 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: C.F. Martin Stories Letter: C.F. Martin Stories by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 Dear Tim, Deb, and Bon, Your recent article about Chris Martin interested me because I used to hang out at the Martin company when I was just getting started. They had a celebrated scrap pile which was a great source of less-than-perfect wood (but not by much — they had very high standards). I learned a lot from their designer at the time, John Huber. He knew a lot and served as a public relations person to deal with the constant stream of admiring visitors, like me. In those days their old original factory was used mostly for storage. The three stories were laden with wonderful highly figured rosewood blanks. One day in 1972 they just said “OK, come and get it. We need the space.” People came and literally trucked it all away. The hard part was schlepping it down the stairs. About that same time the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Classic Guitar Society sponsored a classic guitar recital by Oscar Ghiglia at Muhlenberg College. I sat there with a name tag on my lapel, and in the next seat was an elderly gentleman. It was clear that he had been partaking of fine vintages with his dinner. He looked at my name tag and his own and he just could not get over the similarity. “You are Frederick C. Lyman and I am C. Frederick Martin!” He said this over and over, as if dumbstruck, unable to articulate the coincidence. The one lesson I should have taken away from C.F. Martin, but didn’t, was to place paramount importance on dust control and removal. They knew that sooner or later everyone who breathes that stuff gets sick. As always, congratulations on the quality and consistency of American Lutherie magazine.
Posted on July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Instrument Plan #33 Questions: Instrument Plan #33 by R.E. Bruné Originally published in American Lutherie #101, 2010 Joe Franklin of Whitesburg, Tennessee asks: Regarding GAL Instrument Plan #33 (1937 Hauser by R.E. Bruné): Are the depth dimensions as annotated on the back view the inside or outside dimensions? Plan author R.E. Bruné of Evanston, Illinois answers: The side measurements given around the circumference of the instrument are the measurements I took of the total outside dimensions at those points, so one would have to subtract the specific top and back thicknesses at those points to arrive at the actual side dimensions prior to cutting the purfling/banding channels. For those making replicas, getting this correct within ±1MM would suffice in my opinion, but I know the favorite pastime of luthiers is splitting hairs and arguing over which is the bigger half. Actually, I suspect the original dimensions may have been slightly bigger by about .25MM to .5MM but have retracted due to shrinkage. There is nothing in the side assembly that would prevent the sides from shrinking from dryness, and they are just about crack-free because of this. It seemed to me that the instrument was originally built under fairly high humidity conditions, or at least part of it. The back has no arch left in it, probably because of shrinkage; this is also a question I have been frequently asked. I drew the instrument as is, where is, with no attempt to “correct” what I thought might have been the original state. I leave this to other scholars.
Posted on July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Learning From D’Aquisto and Maccaferri Letter: Learning From D’Aquisto and Maccaferri by John Monteleone Originally published in American Lutherie #63, 2000 Tim – My earliest influence must have been my father, a Renaissance man before I understood what the term meant. He was a classically-trained sculptor, a trade which was falling out of favor by the 1950s, when he had to support and raise four children. His resourcefulness led him to run his own pattern making company. As a little kid I watched him for hours on end as he worked in clay and plaster. I paid close attention to his hands. I was tuned in to people’s hands at a young age. I couldn’t help but notice what creative hands were capable of doing. Some of my dad’s friends were also artists, so I was in this interesting atmosphere of paint, clay, glass, ceramics, pottery, and sculpture. And then I learned the craft of pattern making in my father’s shop. I soaked up everything like a camera and a sponge. 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 July 1, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Single String That is Too Sharp Questions: Single String That is Too Sharp by Neil Kok Originally published in American Lutherie #102, 2010 Neil Kok from Finland adds his answer to the question in AL #100 about problems with a single string that is too sharp: I was interested in John Calkin’s answer about modifying the saddle to remedy a guitar string that is too sharp. I have an example from one of my own guitars that may complement John’s answer with another solution. If the nut is not made exactly correctly, the string may not rest on the front edge of the nut but farther back, or even on its back edge. If the gap between nut and string is small enough, this may cause a sitar-like clatter and call our attention to the nut. But if there’s no clatter we may not notice this at all, and wonder why the string is sharp. I just filed a bit at the groove for the B string, giving it the right form, and the guitar plays beautifully in tune now.
