Posted on March 7, 2024June 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips Hardanger Fiddle Hardanger Fiddle by E.M. Peters Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 The Hardanger fiddle differs from the conventional violin in several respects. Most apparent is the fact that it has eight strings. It has four strings which are bowed in the usual manner, and in addition it has four strings on a lower level, running under the fretboard. These lower four, sympathetic strings resound to the vibration of the four upper strings when these are stroked with the bow. There are other differences between the Hardanger fiddle and the common fiddle, too. The bridge and the fingerboard are flatter, making it easier to stroke two strings at the same time. Much of the time they are stroked two at a time, one open and one stopped. The usual fiddle is tuned one way (E, A, D, G), but the Hardanger fiddle, in the hands of an expert, may be tuned in over twenty ways. 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 March 4, 2024May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Chemical Stains Chemical Stains by Michael Darnton Originally published in American Lutherie #32, 1992 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 One of the biggest problems for the violin maker trying to replicate the effects of time is the imitation of the color of ancient wood. Even unantiqued instruments benefit from the rich appearance of old, time-darkened wood under a coat of fine varnish. Chemical stains have the greatest promise for replicating the look of old wood. Unlike aniline and pigment dyes which insert foreign colors into the wood, either in the form of a soluble dye or of a solid pigment, chemical stains cause a color change in the wood itself. The change is both permanent and clean-looking when compared to that of aniline and pigment colors. 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 March 3, 2024May 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips Marvels among the Reeds Marvels among the Reeds by Susan Norris Originally published in American Lutherie #11, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Maybe it was my fantastic upbringing with parents who were (and are) scientists, lovers of nature and animals; people who loved to have fun and who nurtured the inquisitive mind in all of us, their children. I grew up sleeping with a bobcat curled up around my head, swimming with dolphins in warm lagoons, and tramping around in pursuit of lizards in the desert. When I think of where my inspiration comes from, these marvelous communications with animals and people from all over the world come swimming colorfully into my vision. When I walk out in the woods near our shop, the trees and mountains sing inspiration to me, and I can’t help but create in ways that speak their soul and mine combined. A number of years ago, soon after I moved to Vermont from Oregon, where I had been studying violin making with Paul Schuback, I met Fred Carlson and Ken Riportella at a Guild convention in Boston, which I had miraculously stumbled upon. Their approach to instrument making excited me and rang true with my own feeling that instrument making is an evolving process, and perhaps it’s been getting a bit too stuck. There is absolutely no reason why it can’t continue to grow and flower along with the rest of us! 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 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Attic Strads, and Why What’s Worth Something Is Worth What It’s Worth Attic Strads, and Why What’s Worth Something Is Worth What It’s Worth by Michael Darnton Originally published in American Lutherie #25, 1991 and Big Red Book of American, Volume Three, 2004 One of the most common myths of violin fanciers is the existence of the attic Strad. The chances of finding a valuable violin at a garage sale are zip (or less). In recent years the number of Strads and Guarneris discovered in this world in this way can be counted on about three fingers, and they haven’t been found in attics in Kansas. Check out places like ancient European monasteries and the country homes of nobility if you want to increase your chances of finding something good. In spite of this, every large shop has several people a week coming in with a really bad violin they have been saving as a way to finance their retirement. In addition, hundreds of amateur collectors have instruments they believe are valuable Italians, which are “prevented from receiving their rightful recognition” by owners of the big shops who either “don’t want to admit that someone else has something good” or “don’t know what they’re talking about.” They are right; someone does not know what they are talking about. It isn’t the big shop owner. In the early part of this century and the end of the last, thousands of cheap factory violins were imported into this country from Germany and Czechoslovakia. Although some of these look and sound quite nice and are made of beautiful wood, they are still just factory fiddles. Since much of a violin’s value derives from factors other than the quality of the wood and the quantity of sandpaper used in its construction, like it or not those factors don’t mean much in assessing the value of an instrument. Certainly no one would appraise a painting based on the cost of the paint and the quality of the canvas, yet many amateur violin collectors use that type of criterion for evaluating their finds. 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 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Ancient Simple Fiddle Letter to the Editor: Ancient Simple Fiddle by Paul Butler Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006 Hello! I’m an amateur luthier that does reproductions of Medieval and early Renaissance stringed instruments, and was researching information on the early “medieval viol,” also called a guitar fiddle, or by various other names. It was a sort of tenor or baritone fiddle played gamba style in the 12th–14th centuries. In any event, in doing research for this instrument, I came across what is considered possibly the oldest depiction of a bowed instrument: Mozarabic manuscript S. Beati de liebana explanatio in apokalypsis S. Johannis. Spanish, c.920–30. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Hh58, fol.127r is the full reference. Here is a reproduction. Photo courtesy of Paul Butler. I came across R.M. Mottola’s Savart-style Canotto upright bass in AL#80 and the small variation built by Arecco and Raiteri which appears on the GAL website’s “Extras” page for that issue, and was particularly surprised at the strong resemblance. It seems in creating a simple structured instrument, especially one for children, Arecco and Raiteri have reinvented one of the oldest bowed strings! I just thought it was too amusing not to share. Photo courtesy of Francesco Arecco.
