Posted on June 6, 2024May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: 17″ Scale Length String Questions: 17" Scale Length String by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006 Rob E. of Lexington, MA asks: Does anyone know of a string that can be put on a 17" scale length instrument, with an after length to the tailpiece of about 6", that is strong enough to reach a mandolin E tuning without breaking? “Questions” editor R.M. Mottola answers: A string with a small enough diameter to be tuned to this pitch at this scale length will have a breaking tension that is too close to its static tension to be of much practical use. When specifying the scale length for a new type of instrument, use a length similar to that used by existing designs with the same pitch range. For high-pitched instruments with long scales (such as the instrument in question) the issue is finding a string with high enough breaking tension to be useful. Unfortunately there are no simple solutions short of having strings custom-made of high-tensile-strength materials. For low-pitched instruments with short scale lengths the issues are tone and, for fretted instruments, intonation. Short, fat bass strings don’t behave much like ideal strings and their partials tend to skew way sharp as they are further shortened by fretting. There is a mathematical relationship among scale length, pitch, tension, and mass per unit length of a vibrating string. Download the paper entitled “Catalog Supplement / String Tension Specifications” from the D’Addario website. The paper (in PDF format) can be found at www.daddariostrings.com/Resources/JDCDAD/images/tension_chart.pdf. It contains comprehensive info on the string formulae as well as mass-per-unit-length (unit weight) data for every string D’Addario makes. Unfortunately, breaking strength data is not available in this paper as the issue of specifying the tension at which a real string will break is more complicated than it might appear. Tensile strength data is available from wire manufacturers but the best bet is to design high-pitched instruments using short enough scale lengths.
Posted on June 6, 2024May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: B-String Compensation Questions: B-String Compensation by John Calkin Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Tom from Ohio asks: I built a parlor guitar for a buddy of mine and it really turned out nice... except. The B string is really sharp. This is a 12-fret guitar with a 24.9" scale length. I added 2.5MM compensation and the action is very low. I further compensated the B string as far as it would go by lengthening its point on the saddle. I’ve really never had this problem before. Is it because of the 12-fret configuration? What’s the fix? John Calkin from Greenville, Virginia replies: Cut a bit of saddle material (bone, or whatever you used) and glue it to the back of the current saddle, but only behind the B string. Let the new piece rest right on the bridge so the saddle won’t be torqued, but don’t glue it to the bridge. Level the new piece with the real saddle, then use a piece of .010" wire under the B string to find the intonation point. Mark the intonation point with a really sharp pencil, then take the saddle out of the bridge, file the bone to the correct intonation point, and use needle files to blend the new bone into the old to make it pretty. This sounds kind of strange but it works fine. In fact, I’ve used this trick to correct intonation on a whole saddle, rather than to fill the slot and recut it to a more accurate position. It’s sort of an emergency measure, but in your case it should be perfectly acceptable if you make it pretty enough. ◆
Posted on June 6, 2024May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: String Tension Questions: String Tension by Thomas Knatt Originally published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 John C. from the Internet asks: String tension will deform an instrument in an elastic manner so that when the tension is removed, the instrument will return to its original shape. But over time the tension will also deform the instrument permanently, often requiring repair work to make it playable again. Is this permanent deformation proportionally related to the amount of time the instrument is under tension? If the instrument is tuned to pitch only when it is played, will the time it takes to deform to the point of unplayability be lengthened in proportion to the amount of time the instrument is not under string tension? Thomas Knatt from Groton, Massachusetts responds: The short answer is yes, detuning every time would probably lengthen the life of the instrument. But.... Let’s do a thought experiment. Suppose we significantly loosen one side of a drum or banjo head. The drum would sound duller when struck on the side with the low tension. The sound of the banjo, when played, would change as well, although I won’t predict exactly how. Carleen Hutchins says that you don’t want a lumpy system, because it doesn’t behave well. I have done a glitter test on a well-tuned kettle drum, and the glitter jumped a foot off the head at one frequency. If I went one cycle above or below the tuned frequency, it only jumped an inch. I went ±2 cycles and it barely moved. That is a good example of low damping. A system becomes lumpy by adding lumps (weight) or changing the stiffness in sections. 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 October 31, 2022May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Building the Prima Gusli Building the Prima Gusli by James H. Flynn Originally published in American Lutherie #27, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 The Gusli is a very old Russian folk musical instrument. Most probably, it dates back to the 11th century. The gusli is a Russian version of the ancient dulcimer or psaltry. Also in the same family, although different, are the Finnish kantele and the Hungarian cymbalom. Over time, the gusli has changed to accommodate a wide range of musical situations. Today, with especial thanks to the great V.V. Andreev (American Lutherie #17, see Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 180), one must be specific in describing the gusli because of the many styles. The largest of the guslis, both in physical size and musical range is the piano gusli which is shown in Fig. 1. This instrument stands on four legs (which are detachable to facilitate moving) and has a musical range of five octaves. The keyboard, which is one octave wide, is manipulated with the fingers of the left hand while the right hand works over the exposed strings with a plectrum. Activating the keyboard lifts the dampers on certain strings in all octaves. 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 1, 2022May 22, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: String Tension and Purity of Tone Questions: String Tension and Purity of Tone by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #99, 2009 See also, Questions: String Tension and Pure Tone by R.M. Mottola Alan Carruth from Newport, New Hampshire writes in response to Pat Bowen’s question in AL#98 about the relationship between string tension and purity of tone: While there is some truth in the equation higher tension=purer tone, it is, as the editor said, not as simple as that. A lot depends on how you get the higher tension. When you pluck a string, it vibrates at a set of different, but related, frequencies. For ideal strings, the kind that you only find in physics books, these frequencies form a harmonic series; each one is an exact whole-number multiple of the lowest (or fundamental) pitch that the string makes. Real strings don’t do this, and that affects the way they sound. 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.
