Posted on August 11, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Electric Violins: The New Frontier Electric Violins: The New Frontier by George Manno Originally published in American Lutherie #12, 1987 In the past, my contributions to this journal have been of the more traditional subject matter. From repairing cracks to varnish recipes, I lend my knowledge of the violin to all our readers. Although this article is not about the traditional violin, I have the same enthusiasm to share the following information with you. Twenty years ago, electrifying a violin was a simple matter of attaching a DeArmond pickup clamp to the tailpiece and plugging the cord into an amplifier. Not much attention was given to the quality of sound that came out of the speaker. Players were more concerned that the violin could be heard over the drums and other electric instruments. 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 11, 2021May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips A Case of Explosion Damage A Case of Explosion Damage by Keith Davis Originally published in American Lutherie #15, 1988 In the course of operating a violin shop we have seen all sorts of typical and not-so-typical repair jobs come in, as every shop does. The average day brings a dropped soundpost, a broken bridge, some cracks and so forth. But we were recently called on to repair a series of problems in the instruments of the high school orchestra following a natural gas explosion . On January 13, 1988 a leak in an underground line allowed gas to build up in the boys’ locker room and weight room of the West Iron County High School. When a coach flipped a light switch the resulting spark apparently set off the explosion, which injured approximately twenty students and staff. The orchestra had stored their instruments in a nearby room and the explosion and shock wave following it caused many of the instruments’ soundposts to either fall or shift position. It is our opinion that the position of the instrument at the time determined whether the post fell or was relocated. Several bridges broke, both violins and ‘celli being so affected. As a point of interest, no viola damage was reported. 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 11, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips Floyd Floyd by Nicholas von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #37, 1994 KERplunkit! I reduced speed hoping the noise would go away, but no such luck. I had been traveling up US 395 from Los Angeles, and for the last half-hour I had not seen another vehicle, village, or even a gas station. Just dust, sage, and a few billboards. Then, RANDSBURG — 35 MPH. I dutifully slowed and glimpsing a hand-painted GARAGE sign, pulled over and shut her down in front of the big double doors. I squatted behind the left rear wheel and saw that the rubber bushing on the shock absorber had deteriorated and come off, so that the shock was metal-to-metal on the stud. Sensing a presence beside me, I turned, and was about six inches away from a pock-marked face with three days of salt-and-pepper stubble. He grinned — no teeth and purple gums. I caught a whiff of unwashed socks and potato skins. Another nanosecond and the potato smell registered as vodka. 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 11, 2021May 16, 2025 by Dale Phillips The Anti-Murphy Concert The Anti-Murphy Concert by Alan Carruth Originally published in American Lutherie #39, 1994 I recently had the privilege of attending a somewhat unusual concert by the Tokyo String Quartet, with some acoustics experiments thrown in. Or maybe it was a physics lecture with live accompaniment? And then there was the quiz show part... I guess I’d better explain. The whole thing seems to have started with the coming together of a number of good ideas. One of the first was a plan by the Acoustical Society of America to produce an educational video on acoustics for grades K–12. This, of course, would require money to do, and the suggestion was made that a benefit concert be held. The members of the Tokyo String Quartet were contacted, and graciously consented. So far, so simple. But remember, we’re dealing with acousticians here. Why not use the opportunity to do a little research? For one thing, while the acoustics of empty halls are reasonably well understood, nobody is really sure what happens when you put in the audience. Since the object of most concert promoters is to have as large an audience as possible, and nobody likes to listen to music in an acoustically lousy hall, it seemed like a good subject for an experiment. And how about that violin thing; you know old vs. new and all? And while we’re at it... 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 11, 2021May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Violin Free Plate Mode Tuning Reprised Violin Free Plate Mode Tuning Reprised by Edgar B. Singleton Originally published in American Lutherie #103, 2010 In the early stages of violin building, the outline of the top and back plates are established, as is the contour of the outside surfaces. Wood is removed from the underside of each plate until the thickness of the plate is a millimeter or so thicker than expected to be in the final form. The f-holes are cut; the bass bar and purfling are installed. The time has then come to graduate the plates, i.e., regulate the thickness of the plates in an attempt to assure that the finished violin will have all of the desired characteristics. Some builders “graduate to thickness” by carefully copying thickness measurements from important old violins. They listen to the pitches of tap tones and have learned ways to adjust these pitches. They have also learned to bend and twist the plates in their hands with the goal of assessing elastic properties, using experience to relate these “felt” properties to the finished violin.1 These processes involve as much art as science and require many years of carefully evaluated experience. This experience is very difficult to articulate to the novice builder. One process associated with graduating the plates that is related to tap tones is referred to as “free plate mode tuning.”2 3 4 5 The following exposition is intended to help instrument builders, familiar with the material contained in the above references, understand the basis of free plate mode tuning as it is based on some simple physics and to provide a technique to fine tune each mode (tap tone) individually. The purpose of this paper is to give the builder a new basis on which to visualize where, and to understand why, to remove wood if one wishes to tune the free plates of a violin. 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.
