Posted on January 3, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips A Scene from Dickens A Scene from Dickens by Steve Curtin Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and The Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume 1, 2000 See also, “H.L. Wild” by Paul Wyszkowski “Out of the Basement” by Richard Bingham I suppose the seeds of the notion to build an instrument were planted in many of us in The Last Whole Earth Catalog, from which I learned of this fabulous establishment on Manhattan's Lower East Side. I think I planned to build some dulcimers first, and embarked by train and subway for the place. This was 1974. Great neighborhood! Inside, I was greeted by a scene out of Dickens. The light through the unwashed windows and dust was poetic in the best cinematic style. Unfamiliar woods were everywhere, strewn in chaos. Light barely penetrated the rear of the shop. 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 1, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud, Part Two Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos, Part Two by R.M. Mottola previously published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 See Also, “Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos, Part One” by R.M. Mottola The Top The top of the oud is “flat” and features ladder bracing and one to three sound holes with fretwork rosettes in them. However, the top is constructed to either passively encourage or actively shape the kind of bellied-in-front-of-the-bridge, humped-up-behind-the-bridge distortion common to all instruments with string anchors at the glued on bridge. More on this in a bit. Peter uses German spruce for his tops and he generally joins and then thickness sands tops well in advance of building, inventorying the joined tops for years before actually using them (Photo 1). Finished top thickness will average around 2MM, depending on the stiffness of the wood, so tops are thickness sanded accordingly at this point. The first steps in preparing the top are to cut it to shape and then mark and cut channels for the sound hole purfling (Photo 2). He uses a custom made fly cutter to cut the channels. His purfling scheme is pretty simple, and he generally uses black and white fiber violin purfling strips for this. The ends of the purfling strips are mitered and dry fitted before being glued. There is no fingerboard extension to hide the butt joint, so this work is a bit finicky (Photo 3). The purfling is glued into the channels and then scraped down once the glue dries. Then the sound holes are cut out. 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 1, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Three Craftsmen Three Craftsmen by H.E. Huttig previously published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly 10 #3, 1982 See also, “The Guitar & I” by H.E. Huttig “Woes of a Wood Merchant” by H.E. Huttig Just returned from a trip from Miami to Williamsburg, and return with visits to three fine craftsmen. First we visited Allen Chester in Jacksonville. Allen says he was inspired by an early article of mine to start building classic and flamenco guitars. The demand for electrics was much greater, so he changed over and now specializes in them. He is a builder and repairman for quite a few professional groups and is highly esteemed for his work on their instruments. He had tee shirts made up with his logo, and one of the groups wore them when their picture was taken for an album cover. Allen says that he has the luck to be in the right place at the right time. What he doesn’t say is that he has the talent to take advantage of opportunities and the abilities to back up his participation. Allen is multi-talented and experienced in all sorts of mechanical and machine work. He belongs to a sail plane club; not only flied but also builds the sophisticated and super light glider aircraft. He made a rosewood belt buckle with a mother of pearl inlay in the design of a sail plane. It was a gift for a friend, but now he has orders for the belt buckles. He lives in a comfortable house on which he has put additions and restorations. At least half of the building houses his well-stocked workshop. 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 1, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Woes of a Wood Merchant Woes of a Wood Merchant by H.E. Huttig previously published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly 10 #4, 1982 See also, “The Guitar & I” by H.E. Huttig “Three Craftsmen” by H.E. Huttig We became interested in instrument building back in the ’60s and were given a couple of junk guitars by Ernest Kaai, a Hawaiian performer and teacher. We gave up our distribution of canned goods and began to import and sell instrument makers materials, impelled by our own need for supplies. We found suppliers on our trips to Germany and Spain. Later we imported from France, Holland, India and Brazil. The wood we get now is of mixed quality; we simply cannot offer a consistently standard product. The guitar builder must demand quality in wood as he is gambling his precious time to produce a saleable instrument. On the other hand, I can only sell him the best that I can get. Many builders have read “how to” book that state that all wood must be cut with vertical grain and that the grain must be straight. This is fine for spruce or cedar intended for sound boards but is not necessary or even desirable, say for Brazilian rosewood (it would hide the figure) or for mahogany necks (there is very little grain — the wood is like a bundle of fibres and there are not well defined growth rings). I have reviewed files that represent some ten thousand transactions and have chosen some of the customer’s complaints. Most are valid and all but one has been refused or exchanged. They are: 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.
