Posted on September 6, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Norman Pickering Meet the Maker: Norman Pickering by N.P., with Barbara Goldowsky previously published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 Norman Pickering does not understand the concept of retirement. He celebrated his ninety-second birthday on July 9, 2008, and he is still immersed in studying the properties of violin, viola, and cello bows. This is a logical follow-up to his lifelong study of the acoustics of bowed instruments, as a player, maker, and scientist. Though musical acoustics is his overriding passion, there have been lengthy, but fascinating detours along the way into fields as various as medical ultrasound, aircraft instrument design, and his most famous invention, the Pickering phonograph tonearm and cartridge. Rather than trying to condense his multiple careers and achievements into a question-and-answer interview, Norman agreed to share his life story — so far — in an essay he wrote after moving to our current home in East Hampton. I think AL readers will enjoy it. With characteristic modesty, he calls it simply “Biography.” — Barbara Goldowsky I was born in 1916 in a small fishing and farming town where both sides of my family had lived for at least three generations. Just at that time it was on the way to being submerged in the borough of Brooklyn by development and road building. By the time I was seven years old it was no longer the integrated semi-isolated village my parents and grandparents had known. My mother’s family were farmers and my father and his father were engineers. My future education was decreed almost from birth: I would follow my father’s plan for me. And so I did; after a happy and successful time in grammar and high school, I entered Newark College of Engineering and finished in 1936, a few weeks before my twentieth birthday. I enjoyed engineering, but found that my interest in music was much too strong to be ignored. 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 30, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Meet the Forester: Andrea Florinett Meet the Forester: Andrea Florinett by Greg Hanson previously published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 In the summer of 2005, I took a step that many an amateur luthier eventually must — I ordered European spruce tops from a European source over the Internet. The Internet has become a vital vehicle for commerce, but when it comes to selecting tops for acoustic guitars, nothing can replace hands-on inspection, even for those of us with less than full-time professional experience. The tops that showed up on my doorstep two weeks after I clicked the “Submit Order” button exceeded my expectations, but I liked some better than others. How, then, to solve this problem other than trekking off to Europe to test, tap, and touch the so-called Holy Grail of the Mother Continent, Picea abies? As a professor of German and a fluent speaker of the language, I threw caution to the wind and wrote to Andrea Florinett of Tonewood Switzerland in Graubünden, Switzerland. I took advantage of the three main reasons many teachers become teachers — June, July, and August — to ask Andrea if I could work for him for a couple of weeks on a volunteer basis. I can only imagine what reservations the Florinett family might have had, but a week later I received a very welcoming e-mail from Annette Florinett, Andrea’s wife, accepting my offer. Tonewood Switzerland is largely a family-run operation with one full-time employee, and they were glad to gain a helping, albeit inexperienced, hand. 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 21, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud, Part One Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos, Part One by R.M. Mottola previously published in American Lutherie #94, 2008 See also, “Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud, with Peter Kyvelos Part Two” by R.M. Mottola Here in the USA, interest in ethnic music of all sorts has seen an increase in recent years. Probably driven by immigration from many parts of the world and by the rise of so-called world music, this increased popularity manifests itself for us in an increased interest in the stringed instruments used in various ethnic musical styles. For instance, we’ve seen much interest lately in the oud, also commonly spelled ud or ’ud. Starting off with absolutely no knowledge of a subject (as I did with this one), it is probably always a wise first step to consult the experts. Of course, with no knowledge of the subject, even the process of identifying subject-matter expertise is a problem, but I’ve always found that persistent and wide ranging investigation into just who the experts are is a fruitful approach. Eventually it becomes obvious that the same handful of names come up again and again in these queries. During the process of identifying those individuals most likely to be experts on the subject of the oud, it was both unusual and interesting that only one name came up repeatedly. Whether I asked musicians, luthiers, or academics, in this country or in the Middle East, the person that was universally regarded as the foremost expert on the oud was Peter Kyvelos. Working out of his shop Unique Strings in Belmont, Massachusetts, Peter Kyvelos has built close to 200 ouds and other Middle Eastern instruments. The shop, located in a section that is home to many Armenian and other Middle Eastern immigrants, also repairs pretty much all stringed instruments, plucked and bowed, domestic and foreign. But Middle Eastern instruments have been the focus of the shop and of the lutherie of Peter Kyvelos for the last thirty-five years. This dedication has earned Peter the reputation as the expert in this field. It has also earned him a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. 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 1, 2019February 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Woodchopper’s Ball Woodchopper’s Ball by Bruce Harvie from his 2004 GAL Convention Lecture previously published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 How many people are here because they are thinking about processing their own wood? I highly encourage it. It’s very satisfying to build instruments from wood that you’ve cut. You can get a spruce on a firewood permit. It’s a great feeling to be out in the forest. When the Guild was first starting out over thirty years ago, the word “tonewood” was not in common usage. Back then there were maybe only three or four suppliers. Now you can Google “tonewoods” and get a hundred suppliers. There’s still a lot to be explored in the world of tonewoods. Englemann spruce didn’t really come on the market until 1978, and Red spruce not until ’89 or so. I can think of four or five species that are virtually untapped in the world of tonewoods: Noble fir, California red fir, and true white fir are all great woods. In Europe, you have places like the Ukraine opening up right now. They have beautiful spruce. I’ve seen quite a bit of it. We have wood here at this convention from the Balkans. That’s nice to see. It’s amazing how much wood is here. It’s just great to see all the guitar tops and woods for sale. And don’t miss the auction. If you look at the woods that were used in guitars in the first part of the 20th century, you see some scuzzy looking wood. On some of the best-sounding prewar Martins, the tops are mismatched and the grain is running every which way. You see tons of runout because that wood was supplied in the form of lumber, not split billets. I see some wonderful-sounding old guitars that were built with wood that people would throw away nowadays. But a typical guitar store today has walls full of Breedloves or Martins with tops that were milled correctly, probably by Pacific Rim Tonewoods up in Concrete, Washington. They do an incredible job of milling guitar wood. 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 June 28, 2019March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Trio Romantico and the Requinto The Trio Romántico and the Requinto by C.F. Casey previously published in American Lutherie #89, 2007 Picture it: You’re sitting in an open-air courtyard, perhaps in Guadalajara, perhaps in San Juan, perhaps in Buenos Aires. Your surroundings are lit only by the candles on the tables and the stars above. The air is like a caress on your skin. Across from you sits someone you care about very much. Nearby, in the semi-darkness, a small group wanders from table to table. You hear voices in close harmony, singing in Spanish, singing of love. Two guitars throb in the rhythm of a bolero or a tango. And above, between, and around the words, a third guitar pours out cascades and arabesques of clear, shimmering notes. As the song ends and the group moves on, you gaze through the candle light, deep into the eyes of your companion, and say: “I’d love to get a closer look at that lead guitar; it’s got a really unique sound. Maybe I could get my inspection mirror inside it and get a look at the bracing.” We can’t help it: we’re luthiers. You were listening to the sound of a trio romántico, and the lead instrument was a requinto, a smaller version of the regular nylon-string guitar, tuned a perfect fourth higher (ADGCEA). 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 recieve 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.
