Posted on June 6, 2024January 17, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Morales Guitar Questions: Morales Guitar by Tatsuo Miyachi Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 Mark Botten from the Internet asks: I have a 12 string acoustic guitar with the brand name Morales. It has a lovely tone and I am trying to find out more about the guitar's heritage. It was made in Japan. The inside marking does not clearly indicate manufacturer. Can you tell me where I can find more info about this guitar? Tatsuo Miyachi from Tokyo, Japan responds: Morales is a brand of Zen-On Music Company Ltd., a large sheet-music publishing company in Japan which also sells a wide range of musical instruments. They still sell steel string guitars under the Morales brand, but I have no idea whether they still manufacture those inexpensive guitars themselves. They also sell Morales guitar strings and picks. 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 Questions: Bass Theorbo Questions: Bass Theorbo by Gregg Miner Originally published in American Lutherie #88, 2006 Roger G. from Woodlands Australia asks: While on holiday in Venice I ran across a busker playing this instrument, which I think is a bass theorbo. I’d like to make one. Are plans available? Any info on dimensions, tuning, construction, or materials would help. And is there music written for this instrument? Gregg Miner of Harpguitars.net replies: What you saw is a fairly common “hybrid” instrument that, strangely, has yet to have a commonly accepted English name. I have an entire page of them in the Hybrids Gallery of Harpguitars.net, and I classify this one as a “theorboed guitar-lute.” Historically, these were most often sold in German catalogs under the name “basslaute” (English: bass lute). This is a confusing term (and inappropriate, in my opinion) as the instrument is neither a true lute, nor a bass version of same. Similarly, the 6-string guitar-lute (our common American term) without the theorbo-style extension for additional bass strings was simply sold as a “lute.” These instruments were meant to generically emulate the appearance of a historical lute or theorbo. They share the lute’s body, but in every other way are like a guitar. In fact, the theorboed guitar-lute is tuned and played exactly like a harp guitar (similarly called a “bass guitar” in Europe). The six fretted strings (originally gut, now nylon) are tuned to standard guitar tuning, and the four to six bass strings (occasionally two, three, or nine) most commonly tuned DCBA[GF] (descending from the neck’s low E). There is also an alternate “re-entrant” tuning. 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 Questions: Round Shouldered Dreadnought Questions: Round Shouldered Dreadnought by Mark Swanson Originally published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 Graeme Hugh Langley from the Internet asks: Does anyone know if there is a set of plans available for a round-shouldered dreadnought guitar such as a J-45 or J-50 Gibson style? Mark Swanson of Grand Rapids, Michigan replies: I assisted Jamie Unden of Guitar Plans Unlimited (www.guitarplansunlimited.com) with a plan for just such a round-shouldered dreadnought guitar. I had an early ’50s Gibson J-45 in my shop, so I measured and detailed as much as I was able and sent the information to Jamie, who drew up the plan. It’s available, along with many others that can’t be found elsewhere, on his website. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024January 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: 15 String Lap Harp Plans Questions: 15 String Lap Harp Plans by Art Robb Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009 Shirley Ward from the Internet asks: I am looking for blueprint plans for a regular triangular shaped 15-string lap harp, also referred to as a plucked psaltery. But not the hognose style. Art Robb from Wiltshire, England responds: The word psaltery covers a range of instruments. The plucked psaltery comes in many shapes, but I have not seen a triangular one. Trapezoids are the shape used most often these days although old paintings and sculpture more often shows the hognose shape. The tuning is usually diatonic. Plucked psalteries are very old, arriving in the west sometime after 1000AD, and they are ancestors of the hammered dulcimer, the harpsichord, and, eventually, the piano. The bowed psaltery is relatively modern. I can find no reference for them before 1890 and certainly no medieval references. It appears to have been invented for school use, and although it looks old, it simply is not. They are usually triangular, as this allows access to the strings with a bow. The tuning is chromatic with a scale on one side and the accidentals on the other. Fancy players will use two or more bows. I used to teach musical instrument making evening classes and developed a range of plans for the students. One plan for both a plucked psaltery and a bowed psaltery can be purchased from my website at www.art-robb.co.uk. ◆
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.
