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Review: From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume 1

Review: From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume I

Reviewed by Tim Olsen

Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume I
Experimental Musical Instruments
Out of print

Ever wonder what it would sound like if the wind blew through 19' stainless-steel bands attached to your roof? If so, you are the kind of person to relish this intriguing and enlightening little effort from the different drummers over at Experimental Musical Instruments magazine.

The wind instruments on the compilation provide the most “musical” (accessible) selections while the percussion instruments provide the sort of material that goes well on art-film soundtracks. Of particular value to luthiers are the four tracks which feature strange and wonderful string instruments.

The Puget Sound Wind Harp is hybrid of an aeolian harp and a small house. The wind plays upon the 3/8" steel ribbons to make sounds of a predictably low frequency. The tape gives a hint of what must be a sort of tooth-rattling “om.”

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Review: The Fender Guitar by Ken Archard

Review: The Fender Guitar by Ken Archard

Reviewed by Kevin Kobie

Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004



The Fender Guitar
Ken Archard
The Bold Strummer, 1990 (reissue)
ISBN 0-933224-48-6

This book was first published in 1977 by Musical News Services Ltd. London and at the time was the only book available on vintage Fender guitars. It contains the personal history of Clarence Leo Fender, the companies he started, and some of the key people he worked hand-in-hand with.

There is a good general-features chapter with serial number information. The number sequences give two- to four-year spans listing the beginning of each consecutive hundred-thousand series.

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Review: Physics and Music by Neville H. Fletcher

Review: Physics and Music by Neville H. Fletcher

Reviewed by Thomas D. Rossing

Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



Physics and Music
Neville H. Fletcher
Heinemann Educational Books
70 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801
Out of print (1999)

Neville Fletcher is one of the world’s foremost authorities on musical acoustics. In 1976, he wrote this delightful forty-eight-page book to supplement high school physics courses in Australia. For some time it was difficult to obtain, but now it available in the USA for $4.95 per copy.

The book begins with a brief history of musical acoustics, followed by brief chapters on Hearing and Music; Vibrating Systems; Strings, Drums, and Bells: Overtones and Sounds; Air Cavities and Pipes; and Horns. Then it treats Stringed Instruments and Wind Instruments, and concludes with three chapters on Musical Sounds, Harmony, and Tuning and Temperament. If it appears that these interesting topics are treated with too much brevity, remember the audience for which it was written. You will be happy to know, however, that Professor Fletcher is collaborating (with Arnold Tubis and myself) in writing a much more comprehensive treatment of musical instruments (to be published by Springer Verlag).

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Review: The Science of Sound by Thomas D. Rossing

Review: The Science of Sound by Thomas D. Rossing

Reviewed by Paul Wyszkowski

Originally published in American Lutherie #3, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000



The Science of Sound
Thomas D. Rossing
637 pages
Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1982
$76.70 from amazon.com (1999)

If you missed reading Tom Rossing’s articles on guitar acoustics in the GAL Quarterly, you may not know that he is a professor of physics at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. His field of specialization is, as you may have guessed, acoustics and particularly musical acoustics. In fact, he has taught musical acoustics for over twenty years.

“This book,” says Tom in his preface, “is intended to be an introduction to acoustics written in nontechnical language, primarily for students without college level physics and mathematics.”

He notes that the word “sound” refers to two distinct phenomena: (1) the sensation of sound, that is, the conscious experience of hearing, and (2) vibrations in a physical medium which can cause the sensation of sound. (Making this distinction he points out, answers once and for all the old riddle: If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound?)

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Review: How to Repair Your Diatonic Accordion or Concertina by John Townley and Jehan Paul

Review: How to Repair Your Diatonic Accordion or Concertina by John Townley and Jehan Paul

Reviewed by John Calkin

Origially published in American Lutherie #55, 1998



How to Repair Your Diatonic Accordion or Concertina
John Townley and Jehan Paul
Lark in the Morning LAR019
approx. 1 hour
available from Mel Bay dealers and Elderly Instruments

Townley and Paul set a new standard of sorts for instruction videos. Their workbench is a cafe table. Townley would blend right in at any luthier’s convention, while Paul looks like a Parisian street musician. It’s a Mutt-and-Jeff combination that works very well. As Paul says, “It’s important to be relaxed while working on accordions,” and the two belt down tequila as the show progresses. It’s pretty amusing at first, but by the end you’ll want to pour out some shooters for yourself for the second viewing.

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