Posted on January 11, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Kit Review: The Riverboat Banjo from Musicmaker’s Kits Kit Review: The Riverboat Banjo from Musicmaker's Kits Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #62, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 The Riverboat Banjo from Musicmaker’s Kits www.harpkit.com Kit-built instruments have garnered an unfair reputation for poor quality, as though the mere gathering of components into a kit was a guarantee of mediocrity. Bad kits do exist, and the fact that most kits are generally assembled by unskilled hands certainly doesn’t let them put their best face forward. Yet many in the trade got their first taste of lutherie from a kit, myself included. There are many whose level of skill is so untested that beginning lutherie with a kit makes good sense. Others haven’t the tools necessary to begin an instrument project from scratch. And believe it or not, some very talented luthiers are happy to avoid the expense and bother of collecting and housing a bevy of stationary tools, and find that jobbing out some of the rough labor to a kit maker makes good sense without adulterating the satisfaction they find in the finished work. Of course, a kit can be anything from a stack of rough lumber to an instrument in the white that requires nothing more than sanding and finishing. At American Lutherie we’ve decided that kits have enough merit to warrant some investigation, and the only way to do it is to build some instruments. Life could be a lot worse for a journalist. 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 11, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Kit Review: Musicmaker’s Hurdy-Gurdy Kit Review: Musicmaker's Hurdy-Gurdy Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Hurdy-Gurdy from Musicmaker’s Kits Imagine the following scene played out in some Medieval dialect. The inventor of the hurdy-gurdy proudly shows his new gizmo to his wife. She puzzles over it for a moment. “What’s this, Joachim? Another Noah’s Ark toy?” “No, Lambchop, it’s a mechanical fiddle. It makes music.” “Hah! Good one! No, really. What the hell is it?” 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 11, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Tambura by Dusan Brankov Review: Tambura by Dusan Brankov Reviewed by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #57, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Tambura Dusan Brankov Tamburitza Association of America, 1998 ASIN B0006FDGZK The tambura is a Yugoslavian version of the guitar featuring four courses (the first string is doubled), a Fender-style headstock, a floating bridge, and an oversize pickguard inlaid into the top. Back and top are ladder braced. This only describes the middle member of the tambura family; the smallest tambura has a body carved from a solid board and a much smaller scale, and the two largest members have cello-like scroll heads. I gather that tambura makers in eastern Europe have always taken an individual approach to the size, shape, and construction. Brankov’s mission is to garner international recognition and respect for the instruments he loves, and to standardize them as much as the violin family has been standardized. He doesn’t anticipate the first happening without the second. Only time will tell if he is successful. Brankov’s book is a good one. Anyone wishing to build tambura should find all the information they need here. Instruction is put forth in a formal and reasonable manner. There is a lot of math for those who wish to study it, along with a good dose of scientific theory about the way stringed instruments function. This scholarly approach is no doubt part of the quest for international status for the tambura. 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 11, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Strobel Series for Violin Makers Review: Strobel Series for Violin Makers by Henry Strobel, Publisher Originally published in American Lutherie #39, 1994 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Four, 2006 Book One: Useful Measurements for Violin Makers, A Reference for Shop Use Henry Strobel 1st edition July 1988 4th edition (4th printing) April 1994, 46 pp. (paper) ISBN 0962067326 Book Two: Violin Maker’s Notebook Henry Strobel 2nd edition 1992, 66 pp. (paper) ISBN 0962067334 Book Three: The Health of the Violin, and the Viola and Cello Lucien Greilsamer Translated from the French by Henry Strobel 1991, 34 pp. (paper) ISBN 0962067342 Book Four: Art & Method of the Violin Maker: Principles and Practices Henry Strobel 1st edition 1992, 2nd edition 1993, 78 pp. (paper) ISBN 0962067350 Book Five: Violin Making, Step by Step Henry Strobel 1st edition 1994 ISBN 0962067369 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 11, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Research Papers in Violin Acoustics 1975–1993 Review: Research Papers in Violin Acoustics, 1975-1993 edited by Carleen Hutchins and Virginia Benade Reviewed by David Hurd Originally published in American Lutherie #59, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Research Papers in Violin Acoustics 1975–1993 Carleen Maley Hutchins, Editor Virginia Benade, Associate Editor Acoustical Society of America, ISBN 1563966093 It is with some trepidation that I pen this, my first book review for American Lutherie. As I noted to Tim Olsen, “But I’ve never made or even played a violin. How can I review such books and do them justice?” “Well,” he replied, “most of our readers are in the same position. And, having written the review, you can keep the books.” So began several months of fascinated reading of this two-volume set of violin research papers. A little over half of the papers in this collection are from the Journal of the Catgut Acoustical Society, Series 1 or 2 and the Society Newsletter. Both the Society and the journal are still alive, well, and active in mostly violin family instrument research. The remainder of the articles come from such technical journals as: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Acustica, Journal of the Acoustical Society of Japan, Journal of Audio Engineering, Journal of the Violin Society of America, Scientific American, Wood Science and Technology, Acoustics Australia, Acta Metallica, Music Perception, American Journal of Physics, Interdisciplinary Science Review, Strad, and Physics Today. Papers from the proceedings of several conferences on acoustics and modal analysis are also represented. 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.
