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The Travielo

The Travielo

by Ernest Nussbaum

Originally published in American Lutherie #5, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



Cellists who want to travel with their instruments have a problem: on air trips they must purchase a seat for the cello or take the risk of having it damaged if checked into the baggage compartment, and in most cars it won’t fit into the trunk and thus takes up at least one passenger seat. In other words, it’s too big.

For professional cellists traveling to a playing engagement, the purchase of a plane seat is a necessity which at least constitutes a deductible business expense. For symphony musicians on tour there is no problem at all because orchestras have provision for safe shipping of the larger instruments. But for the cellist who would like to practice during a vacation trip or play chamber music with friends at the other end, the expense and bother of taking the cello along often result in its getting left behind.

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Electric Violins: The New Frontier

Electric Violins: The New Frontier

by George Manno

Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987



In the past, my contributions to this journal have been of the more traditional subject matter. From repairing cracks to varnish recipes, I lend my knowledge of the violin to all our readers. Although this article is not about the traditional violin, I have the same enthusiasm to share the following information with you.

Twenty years ago, electrifying a violin was a simple matter of attaching a DeArmond pickup clamp to the tailpiece and plugging the cord into an amplifier. Not much attention was given to the quality of sound that came out of the speaker. Players were more concerned that the violin could be heard over the drums and other electric instruments.

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The Sami-Sen

The Sami-Sen

by Nicholas Von Robison

Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



The Sami-Sen (pronounced and sometimes spelled “shamisen”) is one of the trinity of Japan’s important musical instruments, the koto and shakuhachi* being the other two. The equivalent of the Chinese san hsien, this three-stringed lute was originally a solo instrument, played by a wife for her husband, or a lone musician for his or her own enjoyment (and Buddha’s too!). Not until the Edo period (early 17th to mid-19th centuries) was the sami-sen used in <em>gagaku</em> (orchestral) and chamber ensembles. In recent years there has been a revival in the ancient solo literature, many of the solo pieces being conceived of as an aid to meditation. Poetic and descriptive song titles that reflect tone-painting are not uncommon.

The drawing was done from an instrument whose equivalent is probably the Volkswagon or the Sears Silvertone. Even though this bottom-of-the-line instrument shows some crudeness (the inside arch to the soundbox sides appears to have been hacked out with an adz), it is still remarkable. The neck joints fit perfectly, and the soundbox wood is a fine-figured, mahogany-like hardwood that is very attractive. Mrs. Richard Ota, a sami-sen teacher and performer, obtained for me strings, bridge, and pegs, and she owns an instrument of similar caliber to mine, plus a really nice instrument. Lacking a fretboard, once the performer’s fingers have put a hollow in the neck from the most used fretting positions after a few years, the neck is useless. For that reason, the serious sami-sen player owns a cheap instrument for practice and a better one reserved for performing.

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The Acoustical Characteristics of the Concert Cimbalom

The Acoustical Characteristics of the Concert Cimbalom

by Janos Pap

Originally published in American Lutherie #61, 2000



We may be surprised that the sound of the concert cimbalom, or Hungarian hammered dulcimer, is occasionally similar to that of the piano. But we can be sure that it is not a piano, only related to it. The cimbalom produces a little more nasal sound, with a rougher timbre. The acoustical differences derive from the construction of the instrument and the manner of playing. I have devoted much time to making acoustical measurements on concert cimbaloms at the Acoustic Research Laboratory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in an anechoic chamber, and on a cimbalom model at the Institute of Musicology at Cologne University, hoping to satisfy my curiosity about the causes and effects of the cimbalom’s sound.

In instruments of the hammered dulcimer family, the form is determined by the mode of playing. The player strikes the strings with two hammers. The strings must be divided to give a large range of notes, and the struck parts of the strings must be raised for playability. The string-dividing determines the damping features, and thus the timbre and the decay. The raising of the strings results in high downward force on the bridge, which determines the sound indirectly, by the mode of energy transport and radiation.

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Small Bow for Psalteries and Dulcimers

Small Bow for Psalteries and Dulcimers

by Tony Pizzo

Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #38, 1976



This data sheet provides plans for a small, simple bow (especially well-suited for bowed psalteries) which I am still in the process of developing. There is no need for frogs and threaded shafting, etc. as the bow hair is held tightly by means of tension. Until information on simple bow making becoms more accessible, bows such as this serve quite well. (The shape is adapted from an illustration in Lynn Elder’s “How to Play the Bowed Psaltery”, and as I developed my bow through a process of trial and error from that initial point, I don’t know how far the similarity carries from there. At any rate thanks to Mr. Elder.)

Materials:

bow — mahogany (or other hardwood 13" × 1 1/4" × 5/8" (or 1/2")
shims — rosewood inlay strip 1" × 1/8"× 1/28"
doweling — 1" lengths of 1/2" and 3/8" diameter dowels
bow hair — approx. 13" length (suggestion..“Chieftain” Nylon Bow Hair available from International Violin Co./1421 Clarkview Road, Suite 118/Baltimore, MD 21209.

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