Posted on June 6, 2024January 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Primitive Motifs in Lutherie and Music Letter: Primitive Motifs in Lutherie and Music by Clive Titmuss Originally published in American Lutherie #72, 2002 Dear Tim, It was great to read Fred Carlson’s evaluation of the synthetic nut material TUSQ in AL#70. I felt a great sympathy with his ethical viewpoint regarding the apparent inconsistency between an animal-considerate view and the luthier’s traditional materials. I don’t know how many of us share his qualms about the use of animal products, even shellac, for “industrial” use, but as a sometime lecture-demonstrator of the playing and building of both period guitars and lutes, and as a luthier and longtime vegetarian, I have had to consider the idea from the layman’s point of view. How shall I show thousands of years of musical and instrumental evolution simply and effectively to the audience? Out of my little bag, I pull a “gembrae,” a Moroccan/Algerian folk instrument that my mother bought in the ’70s, while touring ruins in North Africa. It is a small (bowed or plucked) rebec with three strings, made from a sea-turtle shell about 8CM long. Calf-skin is stretched over its former belly, and what looks like a length of broom handle comes out of its former head hole. The strings are held by pegs carved with a penknife. Then I pull out a Baroque lute. “Same instrument!” I exclaim, with a seraphic smile and a wink. 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 Questions: Ossifying Wood Questions: Ossifying Wood by Rick Rubin Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 see also, Questions: Ossification of Guitar Soundboards by Benz Tschannen Rick Rubin from Spokane, Washington responds to Benz Tschannen’s question in AL #89 and AL #93 on the use of sodium silicate, aka water glass, for ossifying wood: I’d refer you to the article I wrote in 1990 (Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 362). Save yourself the grief: sodium silicate is very destructive to your tops. I was glad to hear that you’d just been experimenting on samples and not on an instrument yet.
Posted on June 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Google Calculator and the Guitar’s Magic Number Google Calculator and the Guitar’s Magic Number by William Leirer Originally published in American Lutherie #96, 2008 Since the frequency of the octave note at fret 12 is two times the frequency of the open string, the fret positions can be determined by finding a number that can be multiplied by itself 12 times to get 2. That’s the guitar’s magic number: the 12th root of 2. In one form or another, it is a part of every calculation related to scales, fret placement, intonation, compensation, and much more. When Google perceives an entry in its search field to be math, it switches from search mode to calculator mode and displays the answer. Any calculator can solve a math problem, and there are plenty of online fret calculators. But with Google Calculator we can view the entire equation at once and see the effect of substituting one part at a time, helping us to understand the “why” behind the numbers. 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 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Regarding Alex Willis Book and Fretboard Tapering Method Letter: Regarding Alex Willis Book and Fretboard Tapering Method by John Mello Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 Dear Tim, While going over a section of Alex Willis’ Step By Step Guitar Making with a student, I came across a tip on p. 109 regarding cutting slots in a tapered fingerboard blank and realized I had unfairly criticized the suggestion in my review of the book in AL#94. It may be a little ambitious for a student to make the precise wedge necessary on a tapered board of finished dimensions since a line scribed from the temporary reference face would need to coincide exactly with the centerline of the original taper to insure perpendicular slots, but it’s certainly doable. On an oversized board, the wedge would be less critical as a new centerline could be scribed referencing the temporary square face and the final taper cut based on this line. In either case, Alex’s suggestion was sound and my criticism unwarranted. I apologize. ◆
Posted on May 30, 2024June 3, 2024 by Dale Phillips It Worked for Me It Worked for Me by Spiros Mamais, Steven Kennel, and Mike Doolin Originally published in American Lutherie #151, 2024 ■ Here is a double press for joining soundboard halves. It’s a real time saver because it allows you to glue two soundboards at the same time, quickly and easily. I used hollow profile tubes of […] This post is only available to members.
