Posted on January 6, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows by Thomas E. Florence Review: Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows by Thomas E. Florence Reviewed by George J. Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Appraisers Reference Manual of Authentic String Instruments and Bows Thomas E. Florence M & M Distributing Company 2465 South Industrial Highway, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 $175, and $30 for yearly supplements The author’s death has put the continuation of this book in doubt (1999). If there is one book that will be useful to any violin shop or maker who does appraising, this is it! Thomas Florence has compiled a complete sectional directory of authentic violins, violin bows, violas, viola bows, cellos, and cello bows that have been sold in the major auction houses in the United States and England since 1980. Each section is in alphabetical order according to the maker for easy reference. Every entry informs the reader of the catalog lot number, type of instrument, maker’s name, year the instrument was made, selling price (in U.S. dollars), date of sale, and what auction house sold the instrument. The manual can also be used as a price guide for collectors. Yearly supplements will include information concerning that year’s past winter, spring, summer, and fall sales, keeping the manual current at all times. 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 6, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Manuscript on Violinmaking by Giovanni Antonio Review: The Manuscript on Violinmaking by Giovanni Antonio Marchi Reviewed by Don Overstreet Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Manuscript on Violinmaking Giovanni Antonio Marchi Arnaldo Forni Editore Bolgna 1786. 1986 Those of us who make instruments, particularly violins, are always hoping that ancient road maps will surface which will guide us along the mysterious paths that lead to the skill to build consistently good sounding and beautiful instruments. Over the centuries there has developed a considerable body of practical and historical information as well as enough “learned lore” to keep even the most hard-boiled luthier confused throughout his or her entire career. There will never be a substitute for excellent training, and all those who have made a serious study of instrument making have a firm foundation. Yet we cling to the belief that there are secrets, known only to a privileged few. Thus it was that in the winter of 1986 there was published in Bologna, Italy (for the first time), a translation of a two-century old manuscript on violin making by an Italian violin maker named Giovanni Marchi. Not a familiar name, but there he was in 1786 making instruments, repairing “old” ones, and actually having the wherewithal to commit his thoughts on the subject to paper. Could this work conceal information about 18th-century Italian violinmaking that had been lost? 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 6, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments by Dan Erlewine and Paul Newson Review: Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments by Dan Erlewine with Paul Newson Reviewed by George Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Violin Set-Ups and Adjustments Dan Erlewine with Paul Newson VHS videotape (90 minutes) Stewart-MacDonald $26.95 from Stewart-MacDonald (1999) Teaching violin repairs from a television set! This first struck me as a most inane idea. My thoughts quickly changed after watching the first five minutes of this tape. Paul Newson is a fine repairman, and with Dan Erlewine’s commentary, this tape on violin repair and adjustments is a very good shop aid for a young luthier just starting out. 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 6, 2010May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: How to Make a Violin Bow by Frank V. Henderson Review: How to Make a Violin Bow by Frank V. Henderson Reviewed by David Riggs Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 How to Make a Violin Bow Frank V. Henderson Murray Publishing Co., 1977 LCCN 77375025 This may be the most useful “how-to” book you will read on any lutherie topic. If you ever wanted to make a bow; if you like clear, concise directions on toolmaking, sharpening, workbenches, investment casting, the use of machine tools in woodworking, or a good many other topics of immediate concern to those working with instruments; if you can appreciate an easily read treatment of an interesting topic which will be clear to readers with little or no lutherie experience, this book will bang your gong! The author makes no pretense that his book will fit a craftsman to make his or her living as a bow maker. It does, however, actually show you that to make a very credible violin bow does not require supernatural skill or secret knowledge, a pleasant surprise if you have read other books on the subject which seem to actually discourage you from the undertaking. This is not a subject about which a ton is in print. Not that you need a ton if you have this 182-page illustrated volume. 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 6, 2010May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Making Stringed Instruments — A Workshop Guide by George Buchanan Review: Making Stringed Instruments — A Workshop Guide by George Buchanan Reviewed by C.F. Casey Originally published in American Lutherie #26, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 Making Stringed Instruments — A Workshop Guide George Buchanan Sterling Publishing Co., 205 pp. ISBN 0-8069-7464-8 You don’t have to look at the publishing information to know this is a British book. You don’t even have to depend on the usual vocabulary clues. In fact, they’re not even all here. The book uses “clamps” rather than the dead-giveaway “cramps,” although it does refer to “timber” rather than “lumber.” It’s the style, that unmistakable tone typical of English do-it-yourself books: not exactly formal, not exactly old-fashioned (in fact, the book was first published in 1989), but just subtly different in flavor from its North American counterparts. It’s more than just diction and syntax that make this book different, it’s the approach to the material. As the title suggests, the book is about a variety of instruments: violin, viola, and cello; mandolin and mandola; and classical and archtop guitars. However, rather than treating each instrument more or less independently, as most books of this type seem to do, Buchanan spends fully half the book dealing with the violin and viola, and then adds comparatively short chapters covering those aspects of the other instruments which are different from the violin. He does spend somewhat more time on the mandolin and mandola, as the first flat-top-and-back instruments in the book. 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.
