Posted on December 21, 2021May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Power of Circles The Power of Circles by Michael Darnton from his 2004 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006 Violins and guitars that are strong visually have a solid underlying structure that you might not see if you’re just casually looking. But it’s there. Designers of the past constructed a shape with straightedge and compass on concrete geometric forms. There are many equally valid ways to look at designs, but I hope everyone will at least consider the concept that I’m going to talk about today: that strong instrument design comes most easily from the consistent use of very simple geometric shapes. This doesn’t eliminate creativity and new forms. Rather, it can strengthen the impact of any design, traditional or modern, by drawing on a common language to promote immediate visual understanding, usually on a subconscious, but effective, level. 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 25, 2021May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-holes by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll by Robert J. Spear I have little doubt that artists, artisans, and architects of the Renaissance and Baroque used some system of guidance for their drawings that was based on the knowledge of geometry and the use of straightedge and divider. I began my drawing adventure almost five years ago by following the guidelines for the geometric design of the Model G in Sacconi’s book and soon discovered errors. Even so, I was convinced that it would be worthwhile to use a classical Cremonese approach based on geometry because I wanted to see if I could integrate it with Hutchins and Schelleng’s scaling theories used for the New Violin Family. While the acoustical aspects of the exercise are not germane here, I worked to realize a design system that would essentially produce a second generation of octet instruments close to a classical Cremonese violin in the style of the Model G Stradivari. My goal was to impart a greater uniformity to the octet family’s models, but to keep this article within bounds I have confined my remarks to the violin. There are those who question whether geometric design really played an important role in violin design and suggest that the model outline could be designed freehand. Others allow that some sort of geometrical or proportion scheme was used, but that it was not based on the golden section. A few ask why one can’t just get a good photo of a good model and enlarge or reduce it at the local copy center. You can (and I did at first), but because strange things start to happen in the larger and smaller instruments during the scaling process, straight scaling does not hold up. Still others, including Sacconi, stress that the eye was the final arbiter of any design, no matter how it was derived. I will attempt to address all of these points in this series of articles. 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 25, 2021May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-Holes Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Two: f-Holes with Robert J. Spear Originally published in American Lutherie #94, 2008 see also, Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part One: Mold and Template by Robert J. Spear Geometric Design of the Stradivari Model G Violin, Part Three: The Scroll by Robert J. Spear The Cremonese design for the f-holes of a violin, at first glance, would appear to be based on the same design philosophy as the body and to make extensive use of the golden section. A. Thomas King, in his article “The Cremonese System for Positioning the f-Holes” in The Strad, shows rather convincingly that golden-section divisions based on the distance between the pins on the body was employed to fix the location of the f-hole eyes, which further reinforces this idea. However, when it comes to f-holes, I would like to suggest that there are a couple of additional jokers in the deck. First, the late Cremonese f-hole is derived from an earlier system of design, and some of the important parts of the predecessor system remain in use; second, an entirely different modulus is used for the f-holes than for the body; and, third, little is based on the golden section. The Forma G violin, upon which my model is based, is not quite the longest violin Stradivari ever made, but it is the widest. The most notable increase in width is in the center bout, which has another direct impact on the design of the f-hole and its placement. King notes that there is a general method for most Cremonese violins and a specialized adaptation for Stradivari violins. King explained the rather unintuitive step of taking the golden section of the distance between the locating pins in the top as the modulus for positioning the f-holes. I have used his approach here because it has many good points of correlation, and because I found an additional correlation that has convinced me even further that his hypothesis is correct. 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 September 22, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Wonders of the Lutherie World: The Great Oregon Prairie Fiddle Wonders of the Lutherie World The Great Oregon Prairie Fiddle by Peggy Stuart Originally published in American Lutherie #15, 1988 Long ago, when European settlers first began to hew out a rough existence in the wild Pacific Northwest, they found some really big trees growing there. Their response, prompted by the insistent urgings of western culture, was to make really big fiddles! 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 September 22, 2021May 6, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Paul Schuback Story The Paul Schuback Story from his 1986 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Paul Schuback was born in Barbados in the West Indies in 1946 and moved to the United States at the age of nine months. Through his experiences and training, he lived in thirty-three different homes before the age of twenty. His interest in musical instruments began when he was quite young, when he took up the violin at the age of seven. At the age of nine he began playing the cello, joining a youth symphony orchestra in Utah at the age of fifteen. Then, before graduating high school, he began his career as a luthier with a three-year apprenticeship to master Rene Morizot, in Mirecourt, France. Following this, he specialized in violin making in Mittenwald, Germany. He then became a graduate in bow making at the Morizot Freres again in Mirecourt, France. He continued his studies by researching historical instruments in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. From 1968 to 1971 he worked as journeyman in the Peter Paul Prier violin shop in Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Portland, Oregon, where he established his own workshop and where he resides today. 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.
