Posted on August 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Letter: Statistical Listening Test Letter: Statistical Listening Test by Kenny Hill Originally published in American Lutherie #98, 2009 Hi Tim, What do you do when a “scientific” study directly contradicts your own experience? Which are you more inclined to believe, a statistical body of “evidence,” or your own ears? This is my dilemma now, having read R.M. Mottola’s paper on his statistical listening test with soundports (AL#97). This experiment seems at first glance to be thorough and well designed. In his conclusion he states that there is no perceivable difference between port open and port closed. This is followed by the comment that this may be “of practical value to those considering adding soundports.” 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 July 8, 2022May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Our Great Spherical Friend, Part One Our Great Spherical Friend, Part One by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #6, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 See also, Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Two by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Three by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Improving the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. We are referring to the cloud of gases, still largely beneficent, that surrounds our planet. This immense mass must be immensely and massively frustrated. Because, while it constantly tries to find a state of peaceful repose and equilibrium, it is just as constantly subjected to agitation by forces large and small. The earth whirls beneath it, the sun warms it on one side at a time, various objects in space tug at it, and innumerable minor annoyances are inflicted upon it by the residents of Earth. By far the worst of the minor offenders are the members of the human race, who should really be more grateful to their spherical friend. Instead, they have craftily discerned that the atmosphere that surrounds them is indeed indefatigable in its effort to reach an equilibrous state. With fiendish zeal they have invented devices for the sole purpose of agitating their friend. Some of these torture implements are known as “musical instruments” and are accorded a special reverence by those who create and use them (some of whom, however perversely, even banding together in special societies to promote these activities). 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 July 8, 2022May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Two Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Two by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #7, 1986 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 See also, Our Great Spherical Friend, Part One by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Three by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Improving the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our intent, in the design of a musical instrument, should be to keep in mind this theoretical correspondence between the atmosphere and the instrument, and to realize it in as much detail as possible. The objective is the possibility of the highest degree of control of the final tone production, with a minimum amount of effort and anguish by the performer. Music differs from other atmospheric sounds. The tones are related to emotions and are arranged in such a way as to project a panoply of emotional changes and thereby tell a story or take the listener on a sort of emotional trip. The success of a musical instrument lies in the extent to which it can be made to facilitate this kind of expression. However, the instrument is first and foremost a physical device, and its expressive properties are supported by its acoustical properties, which are in turn supported by its structural properties. Because the instrument is in a state of tension, it must have a certain structural strength, adequate to give it a basis of firm tonality. 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 July 8, 2022May 20, 2025 by Dale Phillips Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Three Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Three by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 See also, Our Great Spherical Friend, Part One by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Two by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Improving the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our great spherical friend, the Earth’s atmosphere, is the medium through which sound waves are transmitted from the source to whatever auditor may be present. The relative frequency of the waves, in the audible spectrum, is influenced by the physical characteristics of the sound source, for example, its size. A low-pitched sound may be most efficiently propagated by a relatively large surface area that can exert relatively small forces (per unit of area) onto a wide atmospheric front, which offers the correct amount of resistance to this kind of push. As the sounds go up in pitch, the source becomes smaller, faster-moving, and more forceful per unit of area. But there must always be some area of atmospheric contact. The physical energy that is put into a stringed musical instrument, whether by finger, plectrum, bow, or whatever, is not at that stage in the form that is needed to agitate the atmosphere in the desired musical way. It has to be converted to this form (or forms) by the intervening action and reaction of the instrument. For example, the stretching and releasing of a string by the act of plucking, does not in itself accomplish much in the way of compressions and rarefactions in the surrounding air. Feeble sounds may be detected by listening very closely to the event; but for us to have musically useful sounds, more vibrating surface area must contact the atmosphere. In our sophisticated violin-type instruments, the energy undergoes a rather complex series of conversions. 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 July 8, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Improving the Plywood Bass Improving the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #10, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 See also, Our Great Spherical Friend, Part One by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Two by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Our Great Spherical Friend, Part Three by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. In our quest for a way to build an inexpensive but musically useful string bass instrument, we have gone on a brief detour. We have decided to explore a bit further an area mentioned in previous articles: the plywood bass. Could there be a way to improve an existing bass of this type, to raise it above the barely acceptable level in tonal response and playability? Our conclusion, after one experiment, is yes and no. Yes, we think that an average Kay bass (the most common brand) can be altered so as to broaden its range of tonal capability and extend its useful register. No, we can’t work a miracle, it remains basically a hunk of plywood. The job we did on it turned out to be quite a lot of trouble, and like many such experiments it suggests further ways to proceed with the quest. But it seems unlikely that we can ever give this fiddle any real quality. 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.
