Posted on January 3, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Stradivari by Stewart Pollens Review: Stradivari by Stewart Pollens Reviewed by David Gusset Originally published in American Lutherie #103, 2010 Stradivari by Stewart Pollens ISBN: 978-0521873048 Cambridge University Press, 2010 For over 200 years, Antonio Stradivari has been universally regarded as the greatest violin maker who ever lived, yet it is not widely known that he made virtually every kind of bowed and plucked string instrument popular in the Baroque period, including lutes, guitars, mandolins, viols, harps, and bows. And what do we actually know about the man and about his life and times? For a start, Antonio Stradivari (the Latinized form of his name “Antonius Stradiuarius” can be seen on the labels he inserted in his instruments) lived and worked in Cremona, Italy. He was born sometime between 1644 and 1649 and died in 1737 and was the successor to three previous generations of Cremonese violin makers of the Amati family. What do we know about Stradivari’s working methods, about how he designed and built his instruments? Certainly a lot can be learned from studying the more than 600 of his instruments that still exist, although many of us regrettably may never have the experience of studying firsthand his instruments inside and out. Furthermore, almost all of those surviving instruments have been altered in the process of repair and modernization. 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 3, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Classic Guitar Making by Arthur E. Overholtzer Review: Classic Guitar Making by Arthur E. Overholtzer Reviewed by William McCaw Originally published in American Lutherie #1, 1985 and The Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Volume 1, 2000 Classic Guitar Making Arthur E. Overholtzer Williams Tool Company, 1983 (revised edition) Out of print (1999) For readers who are familiar with the original edition of Classic Guitar Making, this edition is a new printing, using a full-page format instead of the two-column style used in the original, and has about two-thirds of the illustrations (180). As far as I can tell, the text is the same, with some general tightening up of Art’s rambling style. The printing and illustrations are of a higher quality than the original version. The directory of sources for materials and supplies has been expanded and updated. When I first got interested in building classic guitars, I read several books and soon discovered that there were several ways of doing most of the construction operations. At that time, the first edition of this book was out of print. When I finally got a copy through interlibrary loan, it struck me as being the most logical and complete source that I had read on classical guitar building, so I started using Overholtzer methods. His concepts have done well for me and have been a good platform from which to experiment, in building eleven classic guitars, a fingerpicking steel string, and a 34" scale acoustic bass guitar. 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.
