Posted on June 6, 2024January 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Replying to Binding Cutter Review Letter: Replying to Binding Cutter Review by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Dear Tim, et al., I must compliment you on the beautiful cover photos (AL#89). I couldn’t love it more if they were pictures of my own instrument. Seriously, thanks to Jon Peterson for making me look good. Things got even better once I stopped admiring my own work and opened the issue... but not until I got through the very sad news of more luthiers we have lost. It’s simply hard to believe that these vital, generous people are gone, whom we saw and heard, learned from, played with, and shared with so recently. 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 6, 2024January 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: B-String Compensation Questions: B-String Compensation by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Tom from Ohio asks: I built a parlor guitar for a buddy of mine and it really turned out nice... except. The B string is really sharp. This is a 12-fret guitar with a 24.9" scale length. I added 2.5MM compensation and the action is very low. I further compensated the B string as far as it would go by lengthening its point on the saddle. I’ve really never had this problem before. Is it because of the 12-fret configuration? What’s the fix? John Calkin from Greenville, Virginia replies: Cut a bit of saddle material (bone, or whatever you used) and glue it to the back of the current saddle, but only behind the B string. Let the new piece rest right on the bridge so the saddle won’t be torqued, but don’t glue it to the bridge. Level the new piece with the real saddle, then use a piece of .010" wire under the B string to find the intonation point. Mark the intonation point with a really sharp pencil, then take the saddle out of the bridge, file the bone to the correct intonation point, and use needle files to blend the new bone into the old to make it pretty. This sounds kind of strange but it works fine. In fact, I’ve used this trick to correct intonation on a whole saddle, rather than to fill the slot and recut it to a more accurate position. It’s sort of an emergency measure, but in your case it should be perfectly acceptable if you make it pretty enough. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024January 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Dulcimer Gluing Jig Dulcimer Gluing Jig by Tony Pizzo Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #70, 1978 and Lutherie Tools, 1990 This is a fairly easy-to-make jig for gluing dulcimer sides to bottoms, end blocks, and scrolls. It is adjustable in three planes (length, width, and with minor changes, depth) and adjustments can be made to adapt it for gluing psalteries, scheitholts, or any other type of non-necked chordophone. The jig consists of a sheet of 1/2" plywood fitted with movable dowels running along a series of parallel channels. Shafts of 1/4" threaded rod running through the dowel centers allow the dowels to be tightened in a prearranged pattern. Angle iron brackets which rest on the top of the dowels can be tightened down to hold the sides down against the bottom during gluing while at the same time ensuring that the sides are held in the pattern already set for them. 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 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Nontropical Fingerboard Materials Questions: Nontropical Fingerboard Materials by Tom Theil Originally published in American Lutherie #96, 2008 See also, Questions: North American Wood by Mark French, Ned Steinberger, and Alan Carruth Tom Theil from Northwind Tonewood in Upper Sandwich, New Hampshire responds to Larry L.’s question in AL#94 about nontropical materials for fingerboards: As high quality exotic woods are becoming more precious, domestic alternatives become more viable. Fingerboard/bridge material must be hard, abrasion resistant, stable, and of similar pore structure, density, and (usually) color to traditional materials. Since every element of the instrument imparts its sonic signature, and the fingerboard and bridge are close to the vibrating string, their structural and resonance characteristics are quite important. These characteristics are measurable, but very subtle and include stiffness in all three grain directions, mass, and damping factor, plus stability and machinability for frets and inlay. You can select materials which mimic ebony, rosewood, or maple, the traditional woods of preference. Tests might include weight, feel under sandpaper, and the sound when knuckled, scratched, and bounced on its endgrain. Although only marginally scientific, these tests are amazingly accurate due to the ear-brain system’s ability to differentiate subtle information contained in the early onset transient of the sound. If it rings cleanly, it is clean. If it knocks like papier mâché, it’s dead. These characteristics become part of the instrument’s tone. 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 6, 2024January 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Another Method for Calculating the Area of a Plate Another Method for Calculating the Area of a Plate by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #70, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 There are a number of reasons to calculate the area of the plate of a stringed instrument. The area of a flat plate can be used to determine the volume of the instrument by simply multiplying the area by the depth. This value is useful in the design of electric guitars and basses to determine the weight of the body of the instrument before it is built. This info can aid in the design of an instrument that balances well when hanging from a strap or sitting on the leg. In the design of acoustic instruments, the volume can be used to calculate the nominal Helmholtz resonance of the soundbox, which may be useful in the tuning of the resonance characteristics of the instrument. The technique specified here will work for any arbitrary shape and is both simple and relatively quick. It is the essential algorithm of a CAD script I use, and is based on a computer graphics rasterization technique. Modified and simplified for use with pencil and paper, it yields a good enough approximation of the area of a plate for the purposes outlined above. 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.
