Posted on October 31, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Attic Strads, and Why What’s Worth Something Is Worth What It’s Worth Attic Strads, and Why What’s Worth Something Is Worth What It’s Worth by Michael Darnton Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American, Volume Three, 2004 One of the most common myths of violin fanciers is the existence of the attic Strad. The chances of finding a valuable violin at a garage sale are zip (or less). In recent years the number of Strads and Guarneris discovered in this world in this way can be counted on about three fingers, and they haven’t been found in attics in Kansas. Check out places like ancient European monasteries and the country homes of nobility if you want to increase your chances of finding something good. In spite of this, every large shop has several people a week coming in with a really bad violin they have been saving as a way to finance their retirement. In addition, hundreds of amateur collectors have instruments they believe are valuable Italians, which are “prevented from receiving their rightful recognition” by owners of the big shops who either “don’t want to admit that someone else has something good” or “don’t know what they’re talking about.” They are right; someone does not know what they are talking about. It isn’t the big shop owner. In the early part of this century and the end of the last, thousands of cheap factory violins were imported into this country from Germany and Czechoslovakia. Although some of these look and sound quite nice and are made of beautiful wood, they are still just factory fiddles. Since much of a violin’s value derives from factors other than the quality of the wood and the quantity of sandpaper used in its construction, like it or not those factors don’t mean much in assessing the value of an instrument. Certainly no one would appraise a painting based on the cost of the paint and the quality of the canvas, yet many amateur violin collectors use that type of criterion for evaluating their finds. 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 August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Harpsichord Basics Harpsichord Basics by J.R. Beall Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Newsletter Volume 1, #2, 1973 Almost since the beginning of my career as a luthier, I have been obsessed with the desire to build harpsichords. My inclinations were, however, met with a great deal of difficulty resultig from the fact that in my part of the country, harpshichords and their makers are rare. After quite a long period of dilligent investigation, I did manage to compile a list of information on the subject and was able, successfully, to build my first instrument. The completion of my own scratchbuilt harpsichord was one of the most exciting and satisfying occurences of my career as a luthier, and I recommend it highly to those of you with similar aspirations. 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 August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Ancient Simple Fiddle Letter to the Editor: Ancient Simple Fiddle by Paul Butler Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 Hello! I’m an amateur luthier that does reproductions of Medieval and early Renaissance stringed instruments, and was researching information on the early “medieval viol,” also called a guitar fiddle, or by various other names. It was a sort of tenor or baritone fiddle played gamba style in the 12th–14th centuries. In any event, in doing research for this instrument, I came across what is considered possibly the oldest depiction of a bowed instrument: Mozarabic manuscript S. Beati de liebana explanatio in apokalypsis S. Johannis. Spanish, c.920–30. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Hh58, fol.127r is the full reference. Here is a reproduction. Photo courtesy of Paul Butler. I came across R.M. Mottola’s Savart-style Canotto upright bass in AL#80 and the small variation built by Arecco and Raiteri which appears on the GAL website’s “Extras” page for that issue, and was particularly surprised at the strong resemblance. It seems in creating a simple structured instrument, especially one for children, Arecco and Raiteri have reinvented one of the oldest bowed strings! I just thought it was too amusing not to share. Photo courtesy of Francesco Arecco.
Posted on July 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Vaulted Back Guitar Questions: Vaulted Back Guitar by Sjaak Elmendorp Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 AG from the Internet asks: Any tips on building a guitar with a vaulted back, such as the Baroque guitar in Plan #27? Little information is available on the precise shape of the back and effective ways of constructing it. Sjaak Elmendorp of Nieuw-Vennep, The Netherlands replies: After having made some steel string and classical guitars, I wanted to try something a little more involved. I bought a plan of a Baroque guitar with vaulted back, such as GAL Instrument Plan #27 drawn by Bruné. The plan provided only scarce information on the shape of the back, so as a novice to this field I was left to my own imagination. I must not be the only one, as there seemed to be a variety of schools of thought on the subject. Among professional builders there seems to be consensus that the guitars were constructed to have backs that have the same curvature across the width of the instrument, i.e., the cross sections resembled part of circles. From there on, it was a matter of combining the beautiful and ancient design with some modern mathematics. Using the location of the back braces along the centerline as position indicators, the width of the back and height of sides and center of the back was taken from the plan at these points. A simple calculation in an Excel spreadsheet allowed the radius of curvature of the back to be calculated from these three data points at each back brace position. The shape of the cross sections of the back were calculated and printed. (Note: the formula for this calculation can be found in John Sevy’s article in AL#58 p. 42 and BRBAL5 p. 355.) I am happy to make the spreadsheet available to interested readers. It is available on the Extras page of the GAL website: www.luth.org. (Look for “magazine extras” under the “publications” menu.) The cross sections were made out of plywood, to serve as a mold. The spruce braces were bent and attached with a few small short nails to the plywood. The ebony (10MM wide ) and maple (3MM wide) strips for the back were then cold bent into shape and glued on the braces using rubber bands and a few small clamps. The sides, also consisting of alternating ebony and maple strips with reinforcing spruce braces to provide cross-directional strength, were made on a mold. A heat gun was used to bend the strips into shape. It is now strung up and it looks, plays, and sounds correct. Although I see many areas for improvement, the back looks all right. Photo by Sjaak Elmendorp
Posted on July 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Inharmonicity of Guitar Strings Inharmonicity of Guitar Strings by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Strings are uniquely well suited to make music because all their resonant frequencies are very close to being integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.1 The octave is the most consonant interval and the resonant frequencies of a vibrating string are separated from one another by octaves. The expression for the resonant frequencies of an ideal string is familiar to many luthiers. 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.
