Posted on June 13, 2024May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Blackshear/Nagyvary Guitar Blackshear/Nagyvary Guitar by John E. Philpott Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly Volume 12, #2, 1984 Anybody that has heard a guitar built by Thomas Blackshear is already aware that he builds world-class instruments, but this time it was something special. I was asked to be the Master of Ceremonies at a concert that would introduce to the world a guitar built by Tom, in collaboration with Dr. Joseph Nagyvary, a biochemist who had recently gained a great deal of attention by claiming, then demonstrating, that he had rediscovered the processes of the Cremona Masters. This, I was told, would be a Stradivarius guitar! Naturally, I approached the matter with a mixture of enthusiasm and hardboiled scientific skepticism. My introduction to the guitar was over the telephone (yet!) and I was already quite impressed. A subsequent call from guitarist Terry Muska who told me that we would not be needing a microphone at the concert whetted my appetite further, and when I heard a preview of the instrument, all of my reservations were gone. The story really began about a year ago when biochemist, Joseph Nagyvary (Professor of biochemistry and biophysics, Texas A&M University) discovered that the wood from the Stradivari and Guarnari instruments was remarkably different from that of the more modern instruments, in that the tubes that comprise wood (xylem) were not plugged with dried pectin. Furthermore, the chemical composition of the open-tubed Cremona instruments was very different, and that the wood was much stiffer and less elastic than more modern instruments that have been built in the last 350 years. 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 13, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips An Interview with Guitarist George Sakellariou An Interview with Guitarist George Sakellariou by David B. Fisher Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 9, #1, 1981 This issue’s interview, George Sakellariou, brings an uncommonly alive and musical warmth to his performance. He began to show interest in music at the age of four and by six was playing popular and folk music on the guitar. Later he took up classical guitar and at eighteen he graduated with Highest Honors from the Athens Conservatory. In 1964 he took part in the Segovia Master Classes at Berkeley and in the same year began teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Since then he has been teaching and performing throughout the U.S.A., Canada and South America. He currently resides in San Rafael, California, with his wife and four children. When did you first go to a luthier and say “Make me a guitar”? I was very young, a teenager. I went to the Panaghis Brothers in Athens, and got a nice spruce top instrument. It is on loan to a dear friend. I love it when I get the opportunity to play it, usually three or four times a year. 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, 2024May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Zimmerman Company Made Old 7-String Guitars Letter to the Editor: Zimmerman Company Made Old 7-String Guitars by Gerhard J. Oldiges Originally published in American Lutherie #78, 2004 Tim, I enjoyed reading Fred Casey’s article about the 7-string “Russian Guitar” and would like to add some information about “Jul. Heinr. Zimmermann, RIGA.” Zimmermann is originally a German wholesale company from Leipzig specializing in dealing with Russia and Eastern Europe. A reprint of a pre-1900 catalog (published 1984) mentions offices in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, and London, and shows all kinds of instruments, including harps from Lyon & Healy, orchestra instruments, lots of plucked instruments, and “7-string guitars, Russian tuning” (p. 34). The guitar shown in this chapter is quite exactly the instrument Fred Casey is writing about. I am not sure if Zimmermann had their own production in Leipzig. Paul de Wit’s World Directory of the Musical Instrument Industry from 1925/26 lists Jul. Heinr. Zimmermann as wholesaler and exporter in Leipzig and a Zimmerman factory in Markneukirchen/Saxony (founded 1919). Although the catalog also shows two photographs of a violin workshop and a brass workshop it also might be possible that Zimmermann bought other instruments like guitars from the makers in Saxony. Anyway, I think that Fred Casey’s guitar was not made in Russia. After reading the Zimmermann catalog and knowing the style of guitars made in Saxony around the turn of the century, it seems obvious to me that this guitar was also, like the other 7-string guitar (with a Zimmermann label), made somewhere in Germany (Leipzig or Markneukirchen) and brought to Russia by Jul. Heinr. Zimmermann. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 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 October 31, 2022May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Survey of Guitar Making Books A Survey of Guitar Making Books by Graham McDonald Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009 Over the years, I have accumulated quite a few books on building guitars and other stringed instruments, as I’m sure many other instrument builders have. While many of the newer publications get reviewed in American Lutherie and other specialist magazines soon after release, others fly pretty much under the radar and never get much attention or noticed at all. This is a comparative look at most of the books that have been published (at least in English) as instructional manuals over the past fifty years or so. Most have remained in publication over the years and even the ones that are out of print are usually pretty easy to find, especially through such online retailers like AbeBooks (abebooks.com) or Amazon. 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.
