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An Interview with Guitarist David Tanenbaum

An Interview with Guitarist David Tanenbaum

by David Fisher

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 8, #3, 1980



With this issue is begun a series of interviews with important and eminent Classic Guitarists on the subject of their tools and their relationships to lutherie. Twenty-four year old virtuoso, David Tanenbaum of Oakland, California, a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, is already a veteran of New York City solo recitals, innumerable other solo concerts as well as having served with the Joffrey Ballet on several domestic and international tours including a tour to Russia. He began piano study at the age of four, cello at eight, folk guitar at nine or ten and classic guitar at eleven. David plays a redwood top guitar by José Oribe from 1975.


What qualities do you feel you need in an instrument?

Fundamentally projection, because the guitar is a small voiced instrument.

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The Trade Secret

The Trade Secret

by Michael Dresdner

Originally published in American Lutherie #3, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000



I had just turned twenty-three and had my first “real” job in a finishing and furniture repair shop after serving a one-on-one apprenticeship for what seemed like forever. Although I was convinced that I knew far more than I really did, the lure of learning offered by a different and much larger employee pool was strong, and I was eager to start.

As was to be expected, there was a wealth of new finishes and techniques to absorb. Little by little, cans and bottles of strange brews became familiar and controllable tools, and a baffling array of effects was unveiled. Eventually I got to know the names and uses for all of the coatings and colorings as well as the companies that provided them.

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Where Are They Now?

Where Are They Now?

by Tim Olsen

Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume One, 2000

See also,
The Business of Lutherie, 1980 by Richard Bruné, George Gruhn, Steve Klein, Max Krimmel, and Robert Lundberg
The Business of Lutherie, 1984 by Ted Davis, Steve Grimes, Bob Meltz, and Matt Umanov



Five years ago, the Guild presented its first Business of Lutherie seminar at our 1980 Convention/Exhibition in San Francisco. I recently contacted the five panelists to see how lutherie has treated them in the interim. I found that times have changed, and that the panelists have changed as well.

Vintage and fine guitar dealer George Gruhn told of a wildly fluctuating and vastly changed market, and pinpoints late 1981 as the sudden end of the relatively good market conditions which prevailed throughout the seventies. At that time, the rise in value of the U.S. dollar shut off the lucrative export market, which had previously accounted for 40% of American-made guitars. The dismal conditions of 1982 and 1983 brought Gruhn Guitars to the brink of bankruptcy, and only in 1984 was George able to “climb out of the ooze onto dry land.”

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High School Dreams

High School Dreams

by Dave Schneider

Originally published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



Years ago, I wanted to do something different, something no one else was doing. I wanted to own my own business as a guitar maker. I’m living out my high school dreams.

My father showed me the art of fine craftsmanship when I was a boy. My high school woodworking teacher was a luthier. As I was one of the more advanced students he asked me if I was interested in making a guitar. I looked at Irving Sloane’s Classical Guitar Construction and told him I thought it looked too difficult, but later I said I would try. I needed a good challenge because I wasn’t really interested in academic subjects.

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This is My Life

This is My Life

by Phil Boulding

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly 6, #2, 1978



I have been building instruments for nearly seven years now, starting in the basement of my parents house in Boulder, Colorado, fresh out of high school, building guitars. I had only the aid of Sloane’s book, a spare-time guitar maker friend, and the experience of working with a cabinet maker for a while. Things were very slow for the first 2 years, until I got introduced to dulcimers — especially the hammered dulcimer. As soon as I started building and playing these, (it didn’t take me long to learn, as I have been playing most of my life) what appeared to be a hobby turned into a livelihood, which took another year to get on its own feet. That’s when I moved to Seattle (November ‘74) and as far as I know, I was the first hammered dulcimer builder here. Since then this heart-warming little instrument has blossomed and flourished in this city, mostly thanks to street players in the Market and Pioneer Square.

Then about 1 1/2 years ago, a secret and long submerged inspiration began to surface — my love for the harp. I began taking lessons then, and shortly thereafter began building small 3-octave harps of various designs and styles. Only just last week did I finally graduate to my first large Irish Minstrel Harp, nearly 5 octaves worth, with an exquisite sound. I used my imagination to figure out how to extend the soundboard like they do in some of the larger concert harps. The rest of it is pretty much patterned after the minstrel harp in Gilds Jaffrenou’s book, Folk Harps. Pictured in my first attempt as a Romanian Cymbalom (a successful one at that!) which I designed and build in collaboration with Ian Mihai, a master of the concert cymbalom from Romania who came with 2 others to teach their music at the University of Washington here. Since I have very little connection with the University, I was very fortunate to be introduced by a student-friend. The concert cymbalom is what I would consider to be the ultimate hammered dulcimer — nearly 5 octaves in range, fully chromatic, with a very unusual arrangement of half-steps. It also features a damper mechanism, a necessity for the Romanian style music, on such a loud and ringing instrument. My instrument was scaled down approximately 3/4 size, ranging 3 1/2 octaves; patterned after the concert cymbalom temporarily in use at the university. A magical-majestic sound, the music of which I am still a novice. I am more in command of the traditional Irish music on the diatonic hammered dulcimer (along with some contemporary arrangements).

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