Posted on July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton Meet the Maker: Michael Darnton by Jonathon Peterson Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 How did your lutherie career get started? I started playing cello when I was in 6th grade and immediately got more interested in the instrument than I was in the playing. When I was about twelve years old I got some money for Christmas from my grandmother. The very next day I ran out and bought Heron-Allen’s Violin Making, As It Was and Is, which I had spotted at a local bookstore. I talked to my mother a couple of weeks ago and she told me that she took one look at the book and thought, “This is a waste of money! He’s never going to do anything with it. It’s much too complex.” But she was wrong. I really surprised her. It took awhile to get around to it, though. Five or six years later I bought a piece of wood and some tools. I started a violin, but I didn’t get very far. I just put the whole thing aside. 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 July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Chuck Lee Meet the Maker: Chuck Lee by Steve Kinnaird Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 Chuck Lee, versatile fellow that he is, has worn a number of hats over the years. For more than three decades he has been in the plumbing trade, and for the last fifteen has held a Texas Master Plumber’s license. (And he has the dust collection system in his shop to prove his prowess with the pipes.) For seven years he worked with Wycliffe International, an organization engaged in translating the Bible into tribal languages. Currently he’s at the helm of Chuck Lee Banjo Company. Located just south of Dallas, this small firm turns out over eighty open-back banjos a year. Recently, Chuck took an afternoon off from his busy schedule to talk about his work. It was a pleasure to visit with my friend, and learn more of his story. Plus, his tidy shop and efficient use of space are always an inspiration. About halfway through we were joined by his wife Tammy, and the conversation really got interesting. 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 July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Jose “Pepito” Reyes Zamora Meet the Maker: Jose “Pepito” Reyes Zamora by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #88, 2006 I first met Pepito Reyes by phone, when I called him to ask some questions for my review of his book El Tiple Puertorriqueño. About a year later, I had a chance to meet him face to face, at the Tiple Conference in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and later at his home and workshop in Jayuya. As we talked, I gained more and more respect for a man who, after ending one successful career, immediately created a second: to dedicate himself to giving back to the environment and culture that nurtured him. Pepito is a man filled with passion for his cause, which is to ensure that traditional Puerto Rican culture, especially its music, and more especially yet, the Puerto Rican tiple, will not vanish into the mists of time. When did you build your first tiple? I built it in 1989 and I still have it; it’s in good shape. It’s traveled to Texas, Florida, and France, and it’s been used in recordings. 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. Meet the Maker: Jose “Pepito” Reyes Zamora by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #88, 2006 I first met Pepito Reyes by phone, when I called him to ask some questions for my review of his book El Tiple Puertorriqueño. About a year later, I had a chance to meet him face to face, at the Tiple Conference in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and later at his home and workshop in Jayuya. As we talked, I gained more and more respect for a man who, after ending one successful career, immediately created a second: to dedicate himself to giving back to the environment and culture that nurtured him. Pepito is a man filled with passion for his cause, which is to ensure that traditional Puerto Rican culture, especially its music, and more especially yet, the Puerto Rican tiple, will not vanish into the mists of time. When did you build your first tiple? I built it in 1989 and I still have it; it’s in good shape. It’s traveled to Texas, Florida, and France, and it’s been used in recordings. Pepito and author Fred Casey at Casa Canales, the museum in Jayuya that Pepito curates, and the home of the Tiple Movement. All photos by Fred Casey and Kate Ferris. What influenced you to do it? I was inspired by a growing interest in the instrument, dating from when my wife Enid gave me a tiple built by Don1 Julio Negrón in the early ’80s. I was also spurred on by the need for a number of tiples for teaching people how to play. Why the tiple? What’s special about it that caught your attention? Why the tiple? Maybe because it looks like a toy, and I love making wooden toys. Just joking. Rather, the tiple that Enid gave me came into my hands just as I was retiring with time and plans to return to my home town of Jayuya to dedicate myself on a volunteer basis to community cultural and educational work. I was also struck by its physical and sonorous attributes and its history as “the people’s instrument” of the 19th century. I tried to get music out of it, but I found it very hard because of Don Julio’s very personal style of stringing and tuning it. This became a challenge for me, and from that moment I began to study the origins and development of the tiple’s construction and playing; and I fell in love more and more with its possibilities. The moment came when I began to feel that it was my responsibility to organize a rescue movement, which has turned out very successfully. Thanks be to God, in about twenty years we have rescued the tiple from its journey towards becoming a mere museum piece. Now, knowledge about it, its construction, and how to play it are developing rapidly. It seems that Don Julio Negrón is very important to you, since you mention him here and also several times in your book. Can you tell us who he is and how he influenced you? The importance of Don Julio Negrón in the history of the Puerto Rican tiple is that he was the only person on the island (until we started the Movement for Rescue of the Puerto Rican Tiple) who had kept the tradition alive, building and playing the tiple doliente in the way he learned from his father and other tiplists now deceased. In short, he is the only traditional tiple builder and player still alive. Was your first tiple the first musical instrument you built, or were there others before? I had been building stringed instruments since 1986, first guitars and then cuatros.2 I had some knowledge of and love for carpentry and cabinetmaking, and I enjoyed making wooden toys. The tiple is usually hollowed out from a single board, which is different from the construction of many stringed instruments. Why is it done that way? Generally I make the tiple’s body (soundbox, neck, and head) from one piece to keep the procedure as traditional as possible, although I recognize that building from separate pieces saves wood. I’ve built some tiples from pieces for my grandchildren. Demand is bigger for the hollowed-out ones. The hollowing-out method is simpler than the de piezas technique and is very appropriate for a handicrafts or small-production approach. It doesn’t need specialized skill, although it’s useful to have a knowledge of the properties of different woods. Lately I’ve been hollowing out with a drill press and refining the shape with a 3 1/4 h.p. router. That works well. This display at the museum shows steps in the hollowing of the traditional one-piece instrument. One attention-getting aspect of the tiple is the shape of the box with straight sections, which isn’t common elsewhere. In your historical research, have you found any information on this feature? Our tiples took on different shapes according to the impact of the various provinces of Spain that influenced them. Everything seems to indicate that the first Puerto Rican tiples appeared in the middle of the 18th century, when small stringed instruments were becoming popular in the mother country. Some, called guitarrillos, had a figure-eight shape, like the tiples that are called sabaneros.3 The name “guitarrillo” sounds logical because the shape imitated the shape of the guitar or vihuela. There is also evidence of instruments with a keyhole shape, or two threes face-to-face, like the mountain tiple requinto. The most common shapes, the coastal requinto, the doliente, and the tiplón (large or noble tiple) are the ones with straight sections. I have no information on the origin of this shape. Perhaps it’s a combination of the other two. You’ve said that your original purpose was to rescue the tiple from being forgotten. How did it happen that it fell into disuse? The tiple, which was the instrument of the people in the 19th century, became forgotten because it couldn’t, didn’t know how, or didn’t want to adjust and go with the times. It couldn’t because of its regional character, it didn’t know how to live in the present, or didn’t want to lose its musical purity. So how did you go about the rescue? In 1989 we started a movement with the purpose of investigating its origin and evolution, putting on conferences in centers of education, giving classes in playing, developing workshops in construction, and encouraging cuatro players to include the tiple in their performances, recordings, and musical arrangements. The main figures in the Movement have been: ▶ Enid Colón, my wife, who gave me that tiple built by Don Julio. ▶ Willy Torres, professor of stringed instruments including the tiple and first Director of the Tiple Group. ▶ Francisco Marrero, musician, President of the Dr. Francisco López Cruz Foundation and Sub-Director General of the Movement. ▶ Edwin Colón Zayas, famed musician, master cuatro player, sound technician, and Director of the Performance Committee of the Movement. ▶ José “Cuco” Rivera, stringed instrument builder and Director of the Lutherie Committee of the Movement. ▶ José “Tony” Rivera, musician, Director of the National Cuatro Group and of the Education Committee of the Movement. Some of the organizations that support us are: Institute of Puerto Rican Culture; National Endowment for the Arts; Industrial Promotion Company; Puerto Rican Foundation for the Humanities; National Endowment for the Humanities; Dr. Francisco López Cruz Foundation; Puerto Editions; and the Legislature of Puerto Rico. Of all the different shapes and sizes of the tiple, why did you choose the doliente as the one to concentrate your efforts on? We chose the tiple doliente (mid-sized or tenor of the tiple family) because it was the best known, its five strings offer better potential, and it’s easier for cuatro players to learn. The Puerto Rican cuatro has five double courses of strings. The tuning you selected is similar to the cuatro’s too, isn’t it? In the past, each region or even each person strung and tuned the tiple in their own way. Don Julio claims that the tiple doliente as he knows it has eighteen tunings. We might rather say they’re variants. What is certain is that when we invited him to the first Conference, which we dedicated to him, for every piece of the several he played, he changed the tuning. This regional (and at times personal) diversity of stringing patterns, scale lengths, and tunings was the main reason why the instrument wasn’t getting passed down to the new generation. For that reason, at the first Conference we agreed on a stringing pattern and tuning like the cuatro’s, and we believe it was one of our best moves. In this way cuatro players can play the tiple and all the music written for cuatro can be used as tiple arrangements too. By the way, why is it called the “tiple doliente?” What does that mean? The word “doliente” means painful or grieving. It produces sounds that are sentimental and melancholy. When it’s used as an adjective for “tiple,” it relates to “sentimental.” In Cuba they describe their tiple as “lastimero,” which has a similar meaning. We must remember that in the 19th century our tiple was the inseparable companion of the jíbaro,4 whose life was full of limitations and very few joys. Besides the Tiple Movement, you’re very involved in historical activities. What can you tell us about that? When I retired as Senior Vice-President of the Banco Popular (the largest bank on the island), my wife and I returned to Jayuya, the town I was born in, in the center of the country. Our purpose was, and still is, to dedicate ourselves to volunteer work “ad honorem et amores.” Our first step was the incorporation of the Circulo Canaliano, Inc., an umbrella organization for the other projects we developed. Among these are: the rebuilding of Casa Canales;5 the establishment of the Museum of History and Centre for Historical Investigation of Jayuya; the Musicasa School which gave birth to the National Tiple Group; the Saniarte Workshop where we regularly offer courses in tiple construction; and the Movement for the Rescue of the Puerto Rican Tiple, which is national in scope and organizes the Tiple Conferences. Pepito's collection of antique tiples. So, it all fits together. At the 2006 Conference, Edwin Colón Zayas introduced a fascinating instrument that you built for him: a combination cuatro and tiple. Can you tell us about it? The instrument Edwin commissioned me to build was a hybrid that would permit him to play the cuatro and the tiple at the same time, either alone or with his daughter. It was a wonderful experience for me to be able to use the knowledge I’ve picked up over twenty years, combining the two designs and trying to bring out the respective tone qualities of both cuatro and tiple. I baptized it the “cuatiple;” Edwin calls it the “Siamese (twin);” at the Conference it was called a “guareto”6 and the press described it as a “hybrid.” Others have called it an “offspring” or a “grafting.” What would you call it? Pepito opens the Tiple Conference afternoon session. Well, the first thing I thought of was “tiplatro,” which is just the reverse of what you called it, I guess. But in fact, I prefer “cuatiple.” In any case, what impressed me most about it (besides the very distinct timbres of each side) was how you worked the different depths of the two sides of the soundbox. Did you encounter any special problems doing it, either on the inside or the outside? It wasn’t as easy as it might seem. The first thing I did was take my tiple and cuatro plans and play with them on graph paper. Then I worked out a design, positioning the instruments so the C on the 5th fret of the 1st string of the cuatro would line up with the open C on the tiple. The rest was largely common sense and crossing my fingers that the box sizes would give the timbres that I wanted. The hardest part was carving the outside where the two necks join the body. It looks like it would have been tricky clamping the binding strip that marks the separation between the two backs. I asked Edwin to come and check how the separation of the necks felt. When he arrived, he suggested making the level change in front, but I had already begun on the back and I couldn’t change it. I promised him that when I make the next one, a combination tiple, cuatro, and bordonúa,7 I’ll do that. But while trying to comply, I made a mistake with the interior wall that separates the cavities of the tiple and cuatro. In order to hide the mistake I came up with this binding strip, and I think it did the trick. Pepito watching and listening as Edwin and his daughter Neliane show off the "cuatiple" that Pepito built. The back of the "cuatiple" has two levels separated by a binding strip. It worked well; when I examined the instrument for the first time, I didn’t notice anything. There’s a saying in English: “The best craftsman is he who best knows how to hide his mistakes.” I imagine there’s something similar in Spanish, no? But a triple instrument! Good God, how will you name it? Cuatiplenúa? Bordotiplatro? Botitro? The possible combinations boggle the mind! What woods are used in the tiple? The woods I generally use are local ones. I classify them according to their properties as: (1) soft or flexible; (2) hard and heavy; and (3) semihard. The soft woods like yagrumo hembra (Cecropia peltata), which are similar to pine and have a low specific weight, I use for the soundboard. Hard ones like maga (Montezuma speciosissima), similar to ebony and with a high specific weight, I use for accessories (bridge, fingerboard, head veneer). Semihard woods, which are our main raw material and have a midrange specific weight, I use for the instrument’s body (soundbox, neck, and head). The wood traditionally used for the body was guaraguao (Guarea trichiliodeis), which is a native wood, but as time goes on builders are getting good results with other woods like Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata), mahogany (Podocarpus coriaceus), majó (Hibiscus elatus), laurel (Ficus retusa), roble (Tabebuia heterophylla), and fruitwoods. The tiple that I got from you is made of majó and has a very attractive look due to the contrasting black and cream colors of the heartwood and sapwood. Besides, it’s got a wonderful voice. Are these woods exported? There’s no export industry for wood as such in Puerto Rico; rather, we import a lot of construction-grade lumber. The native hardwoods like maga are beginning to get scarce, which forces us to use it more wisely. Fortunately, it’s the accessories that use up the least wood. Just like in everything else, then, we have to conserve. Before ending our chat, I have to shamefacedly confess something to you: I’ve got my tiple tuned like a guitar with a capo at the 7th fret (that is, with the 1st string tuned to B and the 2nd to F♯, instead of C and G). Will you forgive me this little cheat? You can tune your tiple with the 1st string at B, C, C♯, or D. Of course at B it won’t sound as tiple-like as at C or D. That’s the interesting part of musical instruments; they’re so versatile. Thanks for giving me this interview, Pepito. It’s been a real pleasure. ◆ Notes 1. Don: a title of respect for an older man. 2. cuatro: Puerto Rican instrument with five double courses tuned BEADG, low to high. Body shape typically has “C” bouts similar to a violin. In the 20th century it supplanted the tiple as the instrument most identified with Puerto Rico. 3. sabanero: in the style of the coastal plains 4. jíbaro: Puerto Rican peasant 5. Casa Canales: a museum reconstruction of a 19th century Puerto Rican home in Jayuya. 6. guareto: a Puerto Rican dialect word, approximately equivalent to “Siamese twin” or things similarly joined. 7. bordonúa: Puerto Rican instrument, larger than the cuatro, with five double courses tuned ADF♯BE, low to high. Body shape is typically pearlike, with the upper bout close to the same width as the waist. Functions largely as the bass in a traditional Puerto Rican ensemble.
Posted on July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Ed Arnold: String-Tie Kind of Guy Ed Arnold: String-Tie Kind of Guy by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000 Ed Arnold is a crew-cut and string-tie kind of guy. I met him while crewing aboard his son-in-law’s thirty-two foot sloop Iolaire on definitely not a crew- cut and string-tie kind of day. As a storm scudded down on us and I ejected my lunch off to leeward, I watched Ed go forward with the lithe grace of an athlete to hank on the storm jib on that bucking bronco of a foredeck. Ed turned sixty-seven in June. He’s the kind of guy you can picture being at home on a rugged wilderness trail or negotiating a mountain pass on a donkey, and making it look easy. In his sixteen years as an exotic wood importer I’m sure he has ridden a few donkeys and walked a few dusty miles. A one-man operation, he went into Mexico and Central America, selected his trees, oversaw their handling and production, then shipped them home by container. He knows wood in a way that few luthiers ever will, our work beginning with the end result of Ed’s labors. I obtained some answers to things I have pondered over from time to time and even some I haven’t. Anybody know the Mexican name for mahogany? Zopilozontecomacuahitl. 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 July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips de Grassi & Dawgs: Our Hates & Luvs de Grassi & Dawgs: Our Hates & Luvs by David B. Sheppard Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 9, #3, 1981 I conducted brief interviews with some of the top-notch performers at the 1980 G.A.L. Convention; David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Mark O’Conner, and Alex de Grassi. I asked each of them the same questions: What instruments do you use on stage? As you might expect, this question produced a variety of answers. Alex de Grassi uses three recent instruments; two made by the Guild Guitar Company (a six-string and a twelve-string), and his main guitar made by Ervin Somogyi. The members of the David Grisman Quintet (Grisman, Marshall, and O’Conner) use a number of vintage instruments on stage, most of which are Gibson; F-5 mandolins, H-4 mandola, K-4 mandocello. At the time of the convention Mark O’Conner was using a vintage Martin D-28 guitar, but shortly thereafter he purchased a cutaway flattop guitar from Ervin Somogyi and is now using it most of the time. The Grisman Quintet also uses recent mandolins by Guild member John Monteleone in its performances. 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.
