Posted on May 6, 2021May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Lutherie: Art or Science? Lutherie: Art or Science? by R.E. Bruné Originally published in American Lutherie #1, 1985 Aside from the eternal “How do you bent the sides” question asked by non-makers, the most frequent point of curiosity seems to be that of other makers: “What do you think of the Kasha guitar?” I am somewhat surprised at this. Firstly, it doesn’t really matter what I think of the Kasha model. I don’t build it, and I would think this fact says enough. The second point is that the Kasha model and theories have been around for enough years (nearly twenty if I’m correct) that, were there merit in the model, it would have been almost universally adopted by makers and players by now. It took less than twenty years for the conservative makers of Spain to adopt the design ideas of Torres, for by the time of his death just before the turn of this century, nearly every Spanish maker with the exception of José Ramírez I was using his model. The reason for this nearly overnight conversion is obvious; the models of Torres were clearly superior to anything else available, and the musicians quickly accepted them. In fact, the makers who didn’t adopt his patterns went out of business. In contrast, one does not see musicians today playing the Kasha model. I know of no professional classical guitarists playing them, and in the nearly twenty years I have been involved in the guitar world, I have never been to a concert where a Kasha model guitar was played. Yet it seems there has hardly been an issue of the G.A.L. Quarterly without some article or reference to the Kasha model as if it were definitive, and desirable. 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 April 12, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Free Plate Tuning, Part One: Theory Free Plate Tuning, Part One: Theory by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #28, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume 3, 2004 See also, Free Plate Tuning, Part Two: Violins by Alan Carruth Free Plate Tuning, Part Three: Guitars by Alan Carruth I started learning free plate tuning on violins and violas more than ten years ago from Carleen Hutchins. For those who have not had the pleasure of her acquaintance, Carleen is one of the founders of the Catgut Acoustical Society and its permanent secretary. She is an able scientist, a great teacher, a fine luthier, and a self-confessed mediocre violist. While working with physicist Frederick Saunders almost thirty years ago she helped rediscover and update the old Chladni method of visualizing the vibrations of plates. Her subsequent research, using Chladni patterns as a window into the differences between good and poor violins earned her a silver medal from the Acoustical Society of America. Violin makers have traditionally used some variant of “tap tone” tuning to guide them in working out the final graduations of the top and back plates. Although the technique seems simple and organic on the face of it, it is in fact very complex. It takes a long time, as well as a good ear and a lot of talent, to learn to tune plates by tap tone. Even those who are good at it don’t always succeed. Felix Savart, back in the 19th century, tried to adapt Chladni’s method to research on violin acoustics, but the technology wasn’t there. Now we have the means, and as we gain more understanding of how the instruments work, we also gain more control over the sound. And it doesn’t only work on violins. Fred Dickens, Graham Caldersmith, and Gila Eban have all done major work in applying the principles of violin acoustics to guitar construction. Of course, there are differences and it takes time and effort to sort them out, but physics is physics, or, as a friend of mine said, “it all comes down to F=mA in the end.” I have found these techniques to be useful, and sharing useful techniques is what the Guild is all about. 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 April 7, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips In Search of the Perfect Cone In Search of the Perfect Cone by Tim Earls Originally published in American Lutherie #30, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 I think I've got it. I have here an untested method of finding the exact, correct multiple radius for any given fingerboard using simple barnyard geometry and no computer. Danny Rauen and Tim Olsen wrote interesting articles on multiradiused, or conical, fretboards in American Lutherie #8. (See Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, p. 298.) Great stuff! Let’s talk about cones for a moment. A cone is a tapered cylinder extended up to a point. Or a tapered cylinder is a cone with its point lopped off, take your pick. You knew that. Bear with me. In a two-dimensional view, this looks like Fig. 1. The circular base of the cone is seen as a horizontal line, since you’re looking at its edge. The height of the cone, what I call “true length” is measured on the centerline from base to point. The side line of the cone I call “true distance.” The radius at any spot on this cone can be found by drawing a horizontal line from the centerline to the true distance line and measuring it. You probably knew that too. 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 17, 2020May 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Basics of Air Resonances Basics of Air Resonances by W.D. Allen Originally published in American Lutherie #1, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Stringed musical instruments with soundboxes typical of the guitar and violin families have many internal air resonances. The resonance with the lowest frequency is called the Helmholtz resonance, and its importance to the quality of the instrument is appreciated. The resonances with higher frequencies have been referred to by different names: higher Helmholtz, cavity modes, or standing wave modes. These resonances have been measured and documented for several different instruments, but there seems to be little information on their controlling parameters. The intent of this article is to give the instrument builder some understanding of the air resonances, what parameters establish the frequencies, and some insight into the potential for using this information to make better instruments. A minimum-math, pictorial approach with approximation and rounded-off numbers will be used. Showing the effects of the controlling parameters is the objective, not the absolute value of a number. 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 24, 2020May 8, 2025 by Dale Phillips Area Tuning the Violin Area Tuning the Violin by Keith Hill Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #283, 1984 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 See also, Hints for Area Tuning the Violin by Keith Hill Announcements of “discoveries” of the “secrets” of Stradivarius usually are not worth the ink used to print them. When they appear, everyone reads them with the customary curiosity. Then away they are filed along with the hundreds of other such claims. They get dredged up again when someone writes yet another book on the violin. Mindful of this possible fate, I would like to offer an explanation of a discovery that I have made. It is not of the “secrets” of Stradivarius; rather it is, I believe, the acoustical system utilized by the ancient Italian violin makers. The system is simplicity itself. It is possible for anyone who understands it and has normal hearing to use it. Moreover, it requires no measuring equipment save the ears and possibly a monochord. Furthermore, the thicknesses and their inexplicable variants, which so annoy our modern sense of decency when we observe them in the finest violins by Stradivari and Guarneri, occur naturally as a result of this system. Because it is so simple, it is, of course, the last place one would think to look for the answer. I expect that once you are equipped with the following information, you will go to your nearest antique Italian fiddle and look to see if what I am saying is actually there. 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.
