Posted on January 2, 2020May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips New Directions in Violin Making New Directions in Violin Making by Joseph Curtin from his 2008 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 I started violin making as a frustrated player. My viola teacher’s husband was a viola maker, and at some point I just switched rooms. Otto Erdesz was his name, and he was a kind of crazy genius. I had a very informal education with him, which I realize now was good in some ways. He used to say, “If you take my advice, you do what you want.” The first instrument I made was a viola based on an asymmetrical model of his which had the upper bout cut away so you could reach higher positions. It seemed like a very good idea. He made about twenty of them, and then got frustrated at the resistance of musicians. Just the fact that it was different was a disadvantage. I moved into traditional violin making, which means more or less making copies of instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries. Trying to do that well, trying to do that in a beautiful way and a faithful way and a way that sounds good, is an absolutely fascinating technical challenge. It’s very useful to have the limits provided by these traditions. But after twenty years I started to feel that making another Guarneri copy was a little boring. My mother is a painter and my father is a photographer, so I come from a visual arts background. In the visual arts, the general idea is to do something different each time. It would be embarrassing to do the same painting twice. With crafts, there’s an emphasis on repetition of forms. I think there can be a balance between those approaches in instrument making. And I think there is much more openness now to new design ideas among violin makers, and I’m sure among guitar makers too. I’ll show the work of various makers, including myself. I don’t want to give the impression that this is a major movement. It’s small, but hopefully it will grow. It’s fun to spend some of your time following your imagination as much as the traditions. 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, 2019May 14, 2025 by Dale Phillips Meet the Maker: Douglas Martin Meet the Maker: Douglas Martin by Barbara Goldowsky previously published in American Lutherie #90, 2007 The violin is about the only man-made device that is made today exactly as it has been for the past 300 years. Now, finally, a revolution may be under way, according to Joseph Curtin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, the craftsman who just recently was awarded the first MacArthur Fellowship ever granted to a violin maker. The cause of his startling statement is a balsa-wood violin that produces the powerful sound and excellent response everyone in the profession strives for. The unusual instrument’s creator is Douglas Martin, an amateur maker from Maine, who first introduced it to colleagues in July 2004. Since then, Mr. Martin’s work has sparked such enthusiasm that a special “Festival of Innovation” has been added to the Violin Society of America’s upcoming convention, from November 10–13, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The new program’s goal is “to explore the future evolution of the violin — to inspire makers to follow their creative dreams wherever they may lead,” according to Fan Tao, a research scientist and a director of the VSA. In the society’s most recent newsletter, Mr. Curtin, also a director, claims that the traditional violin is “obsolete,” and urges members to “judge for yourself — join in the arguments, hoot or applaud — but don’t let the revolution start without you!” 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, 2019May 23, 2025 by Dale Phillips Accidental Exotics Accidental Exotics by Mike Brittain previously published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 My interest in guitars started when I was four years old and spotted a baritone uke at my granddad’s house. I started playing guitar at eight and played in garage bands until I went into business as a cabinet maker in 1971 at age eighteen. In 1975 I decided to build a guitar. It looked similar to a guitar, but was not an object to be proud of. However, I persisted and eventually built twenty-three guitars in the next eight years. I was a GAL member during some of that time and got a lot of inspiration from many GAL authors and members. In 1983 I decided to quit building guitars to concentrate on my growing cabinet business. In 1997 my granddad passed away. He knew how much that ukulele meant to me, so he left it to me. That inspired me to start building again. For the first time in fifteen years, I opened the case of my guitar #23. To my surprise, I was pretty impressed. It looked good and sounded good, and there were no cracks. My first new project was based on the baritone uke, and I gave it to my dad in honor of my granddad. At that point I was hooked on building again. In 1999 I sold my business and started attending classes with Charles Fox, Cameron Carr, Greg Byers, Jeff Elliott, and Cyndy Burton. I have spent the last four years working with Augie and Donna LoPrinzi. I have been fortunate to spend time learning from my lutherie heroes. 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 16, 2010June 9, 2025 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Ray Tunquist In Memoriam: Ray Tunquist August 25, 1917 – November 7, 2010 by Tom Bednark Originally published in American Lutherie #130, 2017 A man of great importance to the art of guitar making passed away six years ago at the age of ninety-three. Raymond Elwood Tunquist of New York was a sawyer of excellence, a WWII pilot, and wonderful gentleman. Perfection of cut was his mission. For over fifty years he cut guitar-making materials of Brazilian and Indian rosewood, mahogany, and ebony for C.F. Martin, Fender, Gibson, and other makers. If you have a Martin from the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, or ’70s, chances are Ray and his 72"-diameter bulbous-back veneer saw cut the wood. The mill yard often had stacks of rosewood and mahogany logs of great size and quality waiting to be cut by the master of sawyers. Doll Lumber and Veneer was started by Ray’s father-in-law. Mr. Doll was a German immigrant who lived in Brooklyn, New York, with his family. He started the saw mill in Brooklyn in the 1920s. Exotic wood logs came into the USA from all around the world and were cut by Mr. Doll into lumber and veneers. Ray married into the family and learned his craft in the late 1930s. Clients were log buyers and importers and Doll was known for quality of cut and better-than-average yield. J.H. Montheath, Albert Constantine, and Martin Guitar were on the client list. Two saws were used in the mill: a 60" bandsaw and the 72" circular saw, each using a carriage-and-rail system to carry the logs to be cut. The big saw had sixteen fine-tooth blade sections attached to the back so that the face was dead flat. It was powered by a 150 hp diesel engine and could cut 1/16" × 16" veneers 12' long. Ray Tunquist prepares to make a first cut. All photos by Tom Bednark. Jesse, a workman at the Doll Lumber and Veneer Company mill, rolls in a small Brazilian rosewood log. James Boyce inspects the bulbous-back veneer saw. Jim was one of the GAL’s earliest members and one of our first advertisers. He passed away in September 2015. Ray had a pilot’s license, and when he was called to service in 1942 he became a flying instructor at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennet field for about eighteen months. Then in 1944 he was assigned to transport aircraft manufactured on the East Coast to the west. He was qualified to fly Hellcats, Bearcats, Corsairs, and other aircraft. Altogether his service lasted over four years. Back to work at the mill, Ray cut thousands of logs of all species: teak, mahoganies, rosewoods, zebrawood, ebony, lignum vitae, oaks, pines, poplar, and more. The quartersawn white oak in the Frank Lloyd Wright Room at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was cut and dried by Ray. Brazilian rosewood logs were purchased by the mill to be resawn and sold to Martin and other guitar makers. The bulbous-back veneer saw would produce flitches of veneers 5/32" thick, 5"–11" wide and 8'–10' long. Those swirl patterns you see inside old Martins tell you it came off the big circular saw. In the late 1940s the mill was moved to upstate New York for more mill space and a rural lifestyle. A kiln was also built to dry the lumber. After the 1966 Brazilian log embargo, Indian rosewood was processed. Most Indian logs were 8'–10' long and were 30" or more in diameter, ranging up to about 46". The largest log cut at Doll that I saw was mahogany, 40' long by 64" diameter. We cut the log into 10' lengths, scored the center of one end with a chainsaw, and spilt it using a giant forklift. Thousands of quartered sets came out of this log. I still have a small flitch of twenty or so sheets, 14" wide and 10' long. The sawn guitar wood was stickered for air drying. When it was dry it was restacked into flitches and shipped. The Doll and Tunquist families were most likely the only families in the country to heat their homes with rosewood and other exotic wood waste! They were thrifty old timers. Ray was a great, wonderful, very smart man who worked at the mill until the age of ninety-one. He was short on words and opinion, but a true craftsman and teacher. May Ray rest in peace and may the music produced by his wood-cutting efforts sound sweetly to all.
Posted on January 11, 2010May 27, 2025 by Dale Phillips Review: Acoustics of Wood by Voichita Buchur Review: Acoustics of Wood by Voichita Buchur reviewed by Nicholas Von Robison Originally published in American Lutherie #57, 1999 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Five, 2008 Acoustics of Wood Voichita Buchur CRC Press, 1995 ISBN 0849348013 Voichita Buchur’s book Acoustics of Wood is a synthesis of over fifty years of work by the scientific community into the physics of how this complex material responds to vibrational wave stimuli. With almost 800 references into the literature and about ten years from inception to its being published in 1995, it is a tremendous resource for the luthier’s understanding of his/her main material. I don’t get the feel from the text that the author is a maker herself, even though she is a member of the Catgut Acoustical Society. The book is heavily weighted towards violin family instruments, but this doesn’t make the book any less valuable to guitar makers. After a short, well written, general discussion on the anatomical structure of wood (macro, micro, and molecular), a brief outline is presented dividing the book into three major sections. Part One explores the physical phenomena associated with the effects of acoustic waves in forests (windbreaks to attenuate noise) and architectural acoustics (concert halls, office buildings, restaurants) with wood being used as a construction material and insulator in conjunction with other nonwood materials. A survey of six European concert halls and their geometrical, acoustical, and construction data is pretty interesting. 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.
