Posted on January 10, 2010May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Acoustech Dynamic Field Pickup Product Reviews: Acoustech Dynamic Field Pickup by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #29, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Acoustech Dynamic Field Pickup Acoustech Orangeburg, NY My first attempt at guitar amplification was an early ’60s DeArmond pickup on my f-hole Gibson acoustic. It attached with little difficulty or damage and sounded great to me at the time. That was 1962 and my expectations were not terribly high. I plugged straight into a portable Wollensak tape recorder and used it as an amp until I got a used Gibson Falcon as a Christmas gift. A few years later, I installed a roundhole DeArmond in my Gibson J-45. Again, it sounded pretty good, all things considered. But all the things I considered didn’t amount to much. What choices did I really have, after all? Those little contact mikes, which stuck on the face of a guitar, weren’t very good; I learned that soon enough. And the good-sounding microphones were expensive, unwieldy, and restricting. Like many guitarists, I wanted the freedom of movement that a pickup could give. When the first piezo transducer came out, I stuck one on and boogied. By that time, however, I was more sophisticated, more discerning, more caught up in the folk boom, and wanting a pickup that sounded like an acoustic guitar, only louder. The first I tried was the Barcus-Berry. Not too bad if you didn’t mind sounding like you were inside a bucket. The similar piezos weren’t much better. The Hot Dot sounded great to me when it came out. Like many technological improvements, its refinements masked its shortcomings for a while. I probably installed a hundred of them while continuing my search for a better sounding, easier installing pickup for myself and the customers I was attracting to my repair and building business. 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 January 6, 2010May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Steel-String Guitar Construction by Irving R. Sloane Review: Steel-String Guitar Construction by Irving R. Sloane Reviewed by David Riggs Originally published in American Lutherie #26, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Steel-String Guitar Construction Irving R. Sloane Bold Strummer, 1990 ISBN 0-933224-19-2 This is a reissue of a book which was originally published in 1975 and was, at that time, just about the only widely available assistance for those aspiring to build a steel string guitar. In its new edition, it is virtually unchanged from its original incarnation and thus is as good or as bad as it used to be. Although some of the book’s information might appear a bit dated to our information-saturated eyes, it does contain at least one essential feature available nowhere else. The purpose of this book is to give a person with a few woodworking skills the information needed to build a first guitar, and Mr. Sloane successfully covers all aspects of this commission. Good, solid advice is given concerning selection of materials, design requirements, and the processes which will result in a satisfactory effort, whilst avoiding great expense for materials and special tools. 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 January 6, 2010May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar by Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Review: Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar by Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Reviewed by Dave Maize Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar Don MacRostie and Dan Erlewine Stewart-MacDonald Guitar Supply Shop Video tape, 90 minutes Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar is a 90-minute video sold by Stewart-MacDonald originally to accompany their Herringbone Guitar Kit. The kit has since been discontinued but individual parts are still available. The video guides the beginning luthier through the process of building a rosewood and spruce Herringbone dreadnaught. The video is well-organized, dividing its time between constructing the body, finishing and fitting the neck to the body, sanding and finishing and setup. The producers of the video have realized that the viewer may be building their one and only guitar. Therefore, they have successfully attempted to demonstrate the process using a fairly modest array of tools (razor knife, straightedge, chisel, coping saw, router, and a few clamps). In addition, the video avoids requiring the novice to build elaborate jigs just to get their first taste of lutherie. A clever heavy-cardboard inside form and outside U-shaped holder keep the rim in the correct shape until top and back are attached, avoiding having to build a more time-consuming outside mold. A nice feature of the tape is the use of a simply built, versatile workboard which is used in a variety of configurations throughout the process. 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 January 6, 2010May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock by Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Review: Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock by Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Reviewed by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Guitars: From the Renaissance to Rock Tom Evans and Mary Ann Evans Paddington Press Ltd. 1977 Out of print (1999) Of all the popular (as opposed to strictly scholarly) histories of the guitar, this is in my opinion by far the best. Laid out in five broad sections (classical guitar, at 150 pages the longest; flamenco guitar; the guitar in Latin America; steel string acoustic guitar; and electric guitar), the book goes into considerable detail on the musical styles, composers and performers, social background, and styles of construction of the instrument. Regarding this last, luthiers will be especially interested in the “Gallery” section of each chapter, consisting of photographs, measurements, and very thorough descriptions of typical and exceptional instruments from each phase of the guitar’s history. In addition, there are visits to the workshop of classical guitar maker José Romanillos and the factory of the Gibson company. 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 January 6, 2010May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) by Ian C. Bishop Review: The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) by Ian C. Bishop Reviewed by Gary Frisbie Originally published in American Lutherie #28, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The Gibson Guitar (Volumes 1 & 2) Ian C. Bishop The Bold Strummer, 1990 ISBN 0-933224-46-X (Volume 1) ISBN 0-933224-47-8 (Volume 2) These are books from the ’70s, written by an Englishman and intended to provide a wealth of information on the Gibson guitars built from 1950 to the end of the ’70s when the second volume was published. Volume 1 would appear to be the more essential of the two because it covers the major lines of solidbody and hollowbody electrics, plus the jazz and flattop acoustics. However, Volume 2 is really just as important, because the author discusses omissions and inaccuracies which occurred in Volume 1, and also because he covers the Epiphone guitars produced under Gibson auspices, as well as Japanese Epiphones. Also discussed are some off-brand peculiarities such as Kalamazoos and Dwights. Because there are so many myths and assumed facts regarding these instruments, it is hard to believe that everything written in these books is true. However, a great majority of the material seems to be accurate, and one could do worse than to consult these books as a reference to the authenticity of a given guitar. The author even states that one of his main goals is to provide enough information for a reader to accurately assess a guitar and thereby avoid paying more than is warranted if the guitar is being misrepresented as older and more collectible than it really is. 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.
