Posted on January 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound by Chuck Traeger Review: The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound by Chuck Traeger Reviewed by James Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound Chuck Traeger with David Brownell and William Merchant Henry Strobel ISBN 1-892210-06-1 www.henrystrobel.com Every once in a while a book comes along in a particular field that sets a new standard for future titles to strive for. Chuck Traeger’s The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound is one of those gems. As a regular gigging double-bass player and luthier, I have been waiting for this text since I first picked up the instrument. Failed neck joints, broken scrolls, huge moisture cracks, and the general wear and tear of dragging around a very fragile refrigerator-sized item are part of daily life for the bass player and repairman. Chuck Traeger, who is referred to as “the Mercedes-Benz of (bass) repairmen” by his longtime friend and customer Ron Carter, didn’t come upon this overnight. He made his first professional jazz recordings in 1945 and played the double bass for over twenty years prior to becoming a repairman who specializes in the bass. His customer base and writing cover both the jazz and classical sides of the instrument. Chuck is a trained civil engineer from Columbia University. As such, his approach is that “there is a reason for everything. I want people to think in a different way about... the instrument, its repair, and setup.” To him it is a specialized art. 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 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar by Martin Koch Review: Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar by Martin Koch Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #83, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar Martin Koch ISBN: 3-901314-09-1 118 pp., 2004 Build Your Own Lap Steel Guitar Martin Koch CD-ROM, 75 minutes www.stewmac.com Martin Koch (www.BuildYourGuitar.com) devolves the process of lap-steel creation to make it accessible to the most unsophisticated readers. At the same time he hints at the small added details that make construction more difficult but add a touch of elegance to an otherwise Plain Jane instrument. Two lap-steel designs are illustrated in this book/CD set. The first is literally a plank with lines for frets, a thick maple board just wider than the untapered fretboard. The nut end is scooped out to create a headstock. The nut itself is a length of aluminum angle stock. The “frets” are inlaid bits of maple veneer. The only guitarish hardware involved is a Les Paul Jr. bridge, the machine heads, a single-coil pickup, a volume pot, and an output jack. Another piece of angle stock might have been used for the bridge, but the LP Jr. item smacks more of a musical instrument and was a good choice. Construction was accomplished entirely with a few hand tools. A bit of decorative trim was added by making a control cover and pickup ring from the same wood as the fingerboard. The guitar was finished in Danish oil. There’s an understated innocence to this instrument that I admire. It would be fun to show up at a jam with it and rock out just as hard as the guys with “real” instruments. It would be a very in-their-face statement. 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 13, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Hardingfele Letter: Hardingfele by Loretta Kelley Originally published in American Lutherie #8, 1986 Dear Editor: In connection with Hardingfele: People who are interested in this instrument might want to become members of the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America (126 S. Thayer Avenue, Sparta, WI 54656) Members receive a quarterly newsletter containing not only informative articles, but sources for instruments and supplies. The book on making this instrument is “Vi Byggjer Hardingfeler”, by Sverre Sandvik, published by Tiden Norsk Forlag, Oslo, 1983, ISBN 82-10-02357-8 (in Norwegian). Irving Sloan writes about making a hardingfele in “Making Musical Instruments”, Dutton, 1978, ISBN 0-87690-293-X. He is interesting, although his guess that the f-holes are bent instead of carved is wrong, and some of his other assertions are just assertions. Some additions to Mr. Peters’ articles: neither of my fiddles have purfling, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one with purfling, except converted violins. The traditional carving on the top is usually described as a dragon or perhaps a lion. And many hardingfeles have five sympathetic strings instead of four.
Posted on January 12, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: So You Want to Make a Double Bass; To Make a Double Bass; Double Bass Making Review: So You Want to Make a Double Bass; To Make a Double Bass; Double Bass Making Reviewed by David Riggs Originally published in American Lutherie #71, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 So You Want to Make a Double Bass Peter Chandler Peter Chandler, 2001 ISBN 9780968935309 To Make a Double Bass Harry S. Wake Harry S. Wake, 1995 (revised edition) ISBN 978-0960704866 Double Bass Making Bob Hitchings Gwyllum Press, 1999 ISBN 9780953715602 Until recently, would-be bass makers have had only one main source from which to get specific information on making the string bass. Harry Wake has now been joined by two authors who present distinct approaches to the subject. For those who may have been intimidated by the prospect of taking on such a seemingly difficult project, there is now a good deal of help available in these volumes. While it seems unlikely that one without any lutherie experience would tackle a bass as a first project, it is conceivable that one may be primarily interested in this instrument, and it is entirely possible to make a beginning, at least, with any of these books. For sheer detail and volume of information, I would probably pick the Hitchings book over either of the other two, but more on that later. Peter Chandler’s book is the slickest production with 93 pages and 109 figures, more than 20 of which are color photos. At $60US it is also the most expensive of the three. 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 12, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Assembling a Solidbody Electric Guitar by Dan Erlewine Review: Assembling a Solidbody Electric Guitar by Dan Erlewine Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #60, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Video: Assembling a Solidbody Electric Guitar Dan Erlewine Stewart-MacDonald, 1999 Though Dan Erlewine and I are contemporaries, I can’t resist thinking of him as Uncle Dan. Through his writing, videos, and convention appearances he has spread his wide knowledge and undying enthusiasm for guitars across the entire population of luthiers and players, making him a sort of good uncle to our entire clan. Assembling a Solidbody is one of Erlewine’s more basic video lessons. In the first half he builds a guitar around a raw Strat-style body, and in the second, a finished Tele body hits the operating table to become a guitar. All emphasis is placed on doing clean work that anyone might be proud of, though a difference is made between how a pro might build a guitar from parts and how a kitchen-table luthier might be forced to handle the same job. Using this tape, the rookie ought to turn in as creditable a job as a seasoned guitar man. The raw body is left unfinished, as lacquer work is the subject of other Stew-Mac references. The Strat is assembled according to Fender specs, which is a useful touch, and there must be a hundred tips to help your work come out cleaner and more precise. 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.
