Posted on January 11, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Replying to Keith Hill’s Opinion Column Letter: Replying to Keith Hill's Opinion Column by David J. Cohen, Ph.D. Originally published in American Lutherie #64, 2000 Dear Tim: I’m led to wonder at the origin of some of Keith Hill’s ideas in his Opinion column in AL#63. In his first paragraph, he divided practitioners of lutherie and other crafts into those who love the craft — “good guys” — and those who love being involved in the craft — “bad guys.” I think such questioning of motives is divisive. If I was put off by his first paragraph, his third and sixth paragraphs got to me personally. As a lifelong chemist, chemical educator, and avocational aficionado of musical acoustics and lutherie, I did take umbrage at his labeling of acoustical physics as “pseudo-science.” So I want to be careful not to attack him personally. He expressed his opinion well. I think his opinion deserves a response that is considered and not angry. 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 11, 2010May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Violin String Tension Letter: Violin String Tension by Ernest Nussbaum Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 Dear Tim: I’d like to point out that the article “Fiddle Facts” contains at least two non-facts. 1) The author says that raising the pitch of a violin’s “A” string to 442 (presumably from 440) is an increase of 0.05%. Wrong: it’s 0.5%. 2) More serious: He says that string tension is thereby increased by 10%. He should have said 1%. (Raising the frequency increases tension according to the square of the raise, i.e., (442/440)2 which is 1.009 or about 1.01 — therefore 1% higher. Maybe it’s bad for old violins to replace gut strings with steel. On ’cellos it seems to do no harm in most cases.
Posted on January 10, 2010May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Letter: Guitar Dimensions and Harmonics Letter: Guitar Dimensions and Harmonics by Joe D. Franklin Originally published in American Lutherie #66, 2001 GAL Members, The resonant chamber or soundbox on a guitar is the greater half of its tonal success. If the air enclosed in this box can resonate naturally at some harmonic of the speed of sound, then you have a winner. This is the only part of the guitar that is capable of maintaining polyphony at a level amplitude or volume throughout any given song. Two designs from the past have met these standards, the 1864 Torres and the 1935 Hauser/Torres, and later the 1943 Hauser that used an inversion on the concept of where the fundamental bass might reside. 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: Physics and Music by Neville H. Fletcher Review: Physics and Music by Neville H. Fletcher Reviewed by Thomas D. Rossing Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Physics and Music Neville H. Fletcher Heinemann Educational Books 70 Court St., Portsmouth, NH 03801 Out of print (1999) Neville Fletcher is one of the world’s foremost authorities on musical acoustics. In 1976, he wrote this delightful forty-eight-page book to supplement high school physics courses in Australia. For some time it was difficult to obtain, but now it available in the USA for $4.95 per copy. The book begins with a brief history of musical acoustics, followed by brief chapters on Hearing and Music; Vibrating Systems; Strings, Drums, and Bells: Overtones and Sounds; Air Cavities and Pipes; and Horns. Then it treats Stringed Instruments and Wind Instruments, and concludes with three chapters on Musical Sounds, Harmony, and Tuning and Temperament. If it appears that these interesting topics are treated with too much brevity, remember the audience for which it was written. You will be happy to know, however, that Professor Fletcher is collaborating (with Arnold Tubis and myself) in writing a much more comprehensive treatment of musical instruments (to be published by Springer Verlag). 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 21, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: The Science of Sound by Thomas D. Rossing Review: The Science of Sound by Thomas D. Rossing Reviewed by Paul Wyszkowski Originally published in American Lutherie #3, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Science of Sound Thomas D. Rossing 637 pages Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1982 $76.70 from amazon.com (1999) If you missed reading Tom Rossing’s articles on guitar acoustics in the GAL Quarterly, you may not know that he is a professor of physics at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. His field of specialization is, as you may have guessed, acoustics and particularly musical acoustics. In fact, he has taught musical acoustics for over twenty years. “This book,” says Tom in his preface, “is intended to be an introduction to acoustics written in nontechnical language, primarily for students without college level physics and mathematics.” He notes that the word “sound” refers to two distinct phenomena: (1) the sensation of sound, that is, the conscious experience of hearing, and (2) vibrations in a physical medium which can cause the sensation of sound. (Making this distinction he points out, answers once and for all the old riddle: If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a 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.
