Posted on January 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Baxter’s Database of Violin and Bow Makers v3.0 by Edward D. Baxter Review: Baxter’s Database of Violin and Bow Makers v3.0 by Edward D. Baxter Reviewed by Randy DeBey Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Baxter’s Database of Violin and Bow Makers v3.0 Edward D. Baxter CD-ROM, 2002 www.violinmakersdb.com. On the rare occasions that I need information about the maker of a particular instrument, I don’t like to spend a lot of time getting it. Due to the ridiculously high prices of violin-maker reference books, I have to get whatever I can from the web, and sometimes that’s a complete waste of time. Now there’s another option that’s less expensive than buying books, and likely more productive than web searching. Edward Baxter of West Camp, New York, has compiled a database from twenty-four violin and bow maker references. He actually started his database several years ago, and the version reviewed here (v3.0) was released in June 2004. It contains information for 19,506 makers. The ViolinMakers Database software was created for PCs running Microsoft Windows (sorry Mac users). It comes on one CD and is easy to install. It includes a stand-alone version of the Microsoft Access database query engine dedicated to searching this database. 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 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Getting a Bigger Sound: Pickups and Microphones for Your Musical Instrument by Bart Hopkin with Robert Cain and Jason Lollar Review: Getting a Bigger Sound: Pickups and Microphones for Your Musical Instrument by Bart Hopkin with Robert Cain and Jason Lollar Reviewed by Fred Carlson Originally published in American Lutherie #74, 2003 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Getting a Bigger Sound: Pickups and Microphones for Your Musical Instrument Bart Hopkin with Robert Cain and Jason Lollar ISBN 0-9727313-0-X Nicasio, CA: Experimental Musical Instruments, 104 pp., 2002 www.windworld.com I know I’m not the only electronically challenged luthier who’s been waiting for someone to write an understandable, useful handbook on pickups, microphones, and instrument amplification. I’d been envisioning the author to be lutherie renaissance-man Rick Turner, who wrote the fine “Electronic Answer Man” columns for American Lutherie in years past. I know how busy Rick is, but I remain ever-hopeful that pressure from the lutherie community will drive him to it someday. In the meantime, another of my musical instrument heroes has come out with his take on such a manual, and I’m happy to say it goes a long way toward filling the void in useful introductions to this subject. Bart Hopkins’ take on the adventure of electronically amplifying a musical instrument is undoubtedly coming from a different perspective than one from which a more guitar-oriented writer like Rick Turner would approach it. Bart has spent many years spearheading Experimental Musical Instruments, an organization devoted to interesting and unusual musical instruments of all sorts. For many years, EMI published a journal of the same name that featured all sorts of amazing stuff from the wonderful, quirky, experimental underside of instrument building. Bart did writing and illustrating for the journal as well as editing and publishing duties. He’s also an active guitarist and creative instrument builder/inventor with experience and interests covering a broad spectrum of the music world. Since EMI’s journal ceased publication in 1999, Bart has kept the organization alive as a source of back issues. EMI also offers recordings of many of the wild and wonderful creations featured in the journals’ pages, as well as several books Bart has written on instrument design and building. Recently the EMI catalog has added pickups and pickup components and materials to its stable of offerings. 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 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Bouzouki Book, by Graham McDonald Review: The Bouzouki Book by Graham McDonald Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #80, 2004 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 The Bouzouki Book Graham McDonald ISBN 0-646-43602-3 Graham McDonald Stringed Instruments, 117 pp., 2004 Totally new instruments don’t appear very often. When they do the results can be pretty exciting, both musically and socially, though it’s not easy to establish a pattern to the events. When the 5-string banjo was born in America in the early-to-mid 19th century it took a couple decades for many of the details to become standardized, after which the popularity of the banjo began to grow rapidly. Small builders furnished most of the early instruments, but as the banjo boom spread, larger factories became the important players. Banjo production mirrored the industrialization of the country at large. However, it takes a lot of money to drive an industry, and as the 20th century demand for banjos began to wane, the big companies backed off and there was once again room for the small builder. 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 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: El Tiple Puertorrqueño: Historia, Manual y Método by José Reyes-Zamora Review: El Tiple Puertorrqueño: Historia, Manual y Método by José Reyes-Zamora Reviewed by Fred Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #81, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 El Tiple Puertorriqueño: Historia, Manual y Método José Reyes-Zamora ISBN: 0-942347-55-2 Ediciones Puerto, Inc., 211pp., 2002 www.edicionespuerto.com The tiple. Oh, yeah, that’s that South American instrument, like a guitar but triple-strung. I remember repairing one that had a soundbox made from an armadillo shell, like a charango. Then there was the adaptation that Martin came up with, putting tiple-type stringing onto a ukulele (see article and plan by Jorge Gonzalez in AL #39, BRBAL4). And one time I came across an old bowl-back mandolin that had twelve strings, arranged tiple-fashion. Yeah... the tiple. Forget all that. 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 14, 2010May 28, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound by Chuck Traeger Review: The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound by Chuck Traeger Reviewed by James Condino Originally published in American Lutherie #84, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound Chuck Traeger with David Brownell and William Merchant Henry Strobel ISBN 1-892210-06-1 www.henrystrobel.com Every once in a while a book comes along in a particular field that sets a new standard for future titles to strive for. Chuck Traeger’s The Setup and Repair of the Double Bass for Optimum Sound is one of those gems. As a regular gigging double-bass player and luthier, I have been waiting for this text since I first picked up the instrument. Failed neck joints, broken scrolls, huge moisture cracks, and the general wear and tear of dragging around a very fragile refrigerator-sized item are part of daily life for the bass player and repairman. Chuck Traeger, who is referred to as “the Mercedes-Benz of (bass) repairmen” by his longtime friend and customer Ron Carter, didn’t come upon this overnight. He made his first professional jazz recordings in 1945 and played the double bass for over twenty years prior to becoming a repairman who specializes in the bass. His customer base and writing cover both the jazz and classical sides of the instrument. Chuck is a trained civil engineer from Columbia University. As such, his approach is that “there is a reason for everything. I want people to think in a different way about... the instrument, its repair, and setup.” To him it is a specialized art. 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.
