Posted on June 6, 2024January 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Vihuela Plans Questions: Vihuela Plans by Alexander Batov, Sebastián Núñez, and Verónica Estevez Originally published in American Lutherie #88, 2006 Chris P. from the Internet asks: Can you help me find construction plans for a vihuela? Alexander Batov from the UK replies: Only four instruments can be considered as surviving representatives of the 16th- to early-17th-century vihuela tradition: a rather large, highly decorative instrument in the Jacquemart-André Museum; an anonymous vihuela Inv. No. E 0748 (otherwise known as ‘‘Chambure”) in the Cité de la musique (both in Paris); a vihuela by Belchior Dias, Lisbon 1581 in the Royal College of Music (London); and a relic altarpiece vihuela from the Iglesia de la Compañiz de Jesús de Quito (Equador). Until recently most modern reproductions were flat-back reduced versions of the Jacquemart-André instrument or simply drawn from existing vihuela iconography. Both the ‘‘Chambure” and the Dias vihuelas* have a fluted-rib back construction, where each individual rib is bent simultaneously in two directions — a difficult technique for a first vihuela. However, the construction process can be simplified by substituting a vaulted or flat back. A number of mid-16th- to early-17th-century Iberian sources confirm the existence of vaulted and flat back vihuelas, with the latter seemingly most common and also serving as a trial-piece model in the examination procedure for the beginning violero (vihuela maker). 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 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006 Robin Walke of Kent, England, UK asks: I am looking for construction plans for a 12-string acoustic guitar. The style of instrument I like is either a Guild F Series or the Martin D-12-28. I have looked all over the net without any luck. Any help you can offer will be appreciated. John Calkin responds: A couple sources of 12-string plans are: Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com/books/cats/611.htm) and International Luthiers Supply (www.internationalluthiers.com/instrumentplans.php). However, you could always get a 6-string plan and beef it up a little. 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. Questions: 12 String Acoustic Guitar Plans by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #85, 2006 Robin Walke of Kent, England, UK asks: I am looking for construction plans for a 12-string acoustic guitar. The style of instrument I like is either a Guild F Series or the Martin D-12-28. I have looked all over the net without any luck. Any help you can offer will be appreciated. John Calkin responds: A couple sources of 12-string plans are: Elderly Instruments (www.elderly.com/books/cats/611.htm) and International Luthiers Supply (www.internationalluthiers.com/instrumentplans.php). However, you could always get a 6-string plan and beef it up a little. Strings for 12-string guitars have gotten so light that I don't believe much beefing up is necessary. Forty years ago everyone knew not to tune their 12-strings up to pitch, but so many players have insisted on it that string sets have gotten very light. It's probably enough to use a standard brace pattern, but not scallop any braces. It's common practice to build 12-strings with a shorter scale length and twelve-fret necks, both intended to keep the guitar from torquing out of shape. Huss & Dalton follows both practices. And lest anyone worry about underbracing their 12-string, the steel-string books by Sloane and Young both contain material on morphing their dreadnoughts into 12-string models. At H&D we've made only a few 12-strings and they were on the smaller CM body but without a cutaway. We made everything heavier on the first one, and I knew before I put it together that it would be way overbuilt. Fortunately it sounded OK, though it was quiet. Succeeding instruments have each gotten lighter until we reached the above formula. The red spruce bracing we use is often very stiff, which might make some difference, but I've also seen some brutally stiff Sitka brace stock. I think I'd use the stiffest stock I could find and use a normal pattern rather than use some random stock and try some extra braces with unknown tonal characteristics. We also left the top a bit thicker, and we left that factor consistent while we varied the size of the braces. There's also the Leo Kottke school where heavy strings are used but tuned way down, perhaps all the way to C. I have no experience with this but would guess that detuned heavy strings would have about the same tension as light gauges tuned to standard pitch. ◆ [/wcm_restrict]
Posted on June 6, 2024May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Gibson Firebird Plan Questions: Gibson Firebird Plan by Mike Doolin Originally published in American Lutherie #75, 2003 See also, Questions: Gibson Firebird Plan by David Riggs Marc Vermeiren from cyberspace asks: I’m searching for a plan of a Gibson Firebird. Mike Doolin of Portland, OR responds: I’ve never heard of a published plan for a Firebird. It’s a Gibson solidbody that came out briefly in the ’60s and has occasionally been reproduced since then. It wasn’t terribly popular. The pickups were different than normal Gibsons, but I think Seymour Duncan makes a Firebird replacement pickup. I’d say your best bet would be to find a Firebird and trace the body shape. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Rebec Building Plans Questions: Rebec Building Plans by Cammie Mills Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 Cammie Mills from the Internet asks: I am looking for the building plans for a rebec. Cammie Mills found the plans: Paul Butler offers a plan for the 3-string rebec (also known as a soprano) on his website. His page covers how he built one and gives a mildly detailed history of the instrument. The site in general is very informative. He also provides links to more information as well as a link to some music for the rebec and how it sounds. http://crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/rebec.html. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Vintage Strings Questions: Vintage Strings by Fan Tao Originally published in American Lutherie #91, 2007 Andrew Lines from the Internet asks: I am looking for information on original string types as fitted to early Orville Gibson archtops as well as 1920s and ’30s instruments such as the L-5, New Yorker, and Master 400. I understand that these were originally metal strung, pure copper or Monel wound, but can’t find any info on gauges or core-to-winding ratios. Fan Tao of D’Addario Strings in Farmingdale, New York, replies: I’ve asked Jim D’Addario and several other guitar players around here, and no one knows. They all say it was long before their time. We have historical information only on modern D’Addario products, (back to the 1950s). However, there is some information in the book D’Addario: The Player’s Choice: 1905–2005 by Baker Rorick commissioned by D’Addario in 2005. Chapter 2 starts: “Before WWII, most steel-core strings had been wrapped with copper, silver-plated copper, or ‘commercial bronze’ (90% copper and 10% tin and other alloys). Monel — the trade name for a nickel-copper alloy — became a popular wrap wire in the 1920s, and its high nickel-steel content also made it viable for use with electromagnetic pickups and amplifiers. John Sr. [he passed away in 2000], searching for a louder, brighter, stronger, and longer-lasting string, experimented with different alloys of copper and tin, and developed a formula using 80/20 bronze (80% copper and 20% tin, also called brass) windings over a steel core. Trying different core-to-wrap ratios, he used a lighter core than other string makers, which ended up being the key to a better sounding string.... One of the first people to recognize [their] superiority was John D’Angelico.... It’s not known when [they met], but it is known that by 1937 C. D’Addario & Son had begun supplying their new 80/20 bronze roundwound strings to D’Angelico....” ◆
