Posted on March 13, 2020March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Sustainability: An Issue Confronting Luthiers Sustainability: An Issue Confronting Luthiers by John Curtis from his 1992 GAL Convention lecture Originally published in American Lutherie #33, 1993 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 All around us we see people whose livelihoods are undergoing change. For some the change is minor; for others it is cataclysmic. How would you like to be a furrier or a slide-rule manufacturer? While most people can conceive of life without a mink coat, these same people have trouble conceiving of a world without musical instruments. What can we do to keep building instruments that sound great and keep our customers happy? Let’s look at where we are and where we want to be a few generations down the line. A few items in our favor are: ▶ People would have low tolerance in a world without music. It would be hard to celebrate, to dance, sing the blues, or create a common ground among people. ▶ We are learning to manage our forests sustainably. ▶ There are other woods that would probably make very good instruments until we can ensure the survival and healthy propagation of species which have come to be preferred over the ages, even though this ensured survival will probably not happen in our lifetimes. ▶ Support for woodworkers who “source” their raw materials more responsibly is growing among consumers. ▶ Methods of verifying claims of sustainably-produced woods is starting to reward producers and users. ▶ Changes in the trade have begun to be seen as opportunities and not obstacles. ▶ There are organizations ready to help luthiers make adjustments: crafts organizations, schools of design, the media, galleries, forest-products laboratories, even CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). 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 March 5, 2020March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Building a Plywood Bass Building a Plywood Bass by Richard Ennis Originally published in American Lutherie #3, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 see also, In Praise of the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Here is the basic design of one of the more unusual instruments I build in my workshop. This plywood three-quarter double bass of approximately 90 liters is built to a design that increases durability and ease of transport with reduced cost and maintenance. It has proved to be very popular with musicians and attracts the attention of nonmusicians as well. The demand for an instrument such as this is widespread. Quality double basses are scarce and very expensive, and certainly beyond the reach of beginners, schools, part-time bands, and those musicians who might take it up as a second instrument. An instrument of this design can be easily purchased and cared for and makes an ideal community instrument. 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 March 3, 2020March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Red (Spruce) Scare The Red (Spruce) Scare by Ted Davis Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 Did you ever feel that Murphy (you know, the one who wrote Murphy’s laws) lived close by and visited your work area every time you opened the door? He seems to be a permanent fixture in my shop. Anytime two things can go wrong, the worst one always does! But that rascal must have taken a vacation recently. Let me relate the events of the last few months and see if you don’t agree. One Sunday while visiting a friend, I picked up the Sunday paper, a luxury I long ago gave up for financial reasons. An article on acid rain in the Great Smoky National Park struck my eye. As I read, I learned that a young PhD candidate was studying the effects of acid rain on the red spruce (Picea rubens) in the park. I reflected on how often I had coveted these magnificent spruces. A single log would give me a lifetime of tonewood. I had even visited park headquarters and inquired about obtaining a piece of a fallen tree. The answer was not “no,” but emphatically “no!” All trees must stay in the park and be left to decay naturally. 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 9, 2020March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Praise of the Plywood Bass In Praise of the Plywood Bass by Frederick C. Lyman, Jr. Originally published in American Lutherie #4, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 see also, Building a Plywood Bass by Richard Ennis It has been said that in order to produce fine wines, one must have had generations of alcoholics in one’s family. Only then can one approach the problem with the necessary patience, devotion, and understanding that will result in superior, classic vintages. Mere cleverness or mere industry will not suffice; one has to be locked into the project by the merciless and irreversible forces of destiny. Similarly, those who are involved in the production of bass sounds seem to require a kind of demonic motivation. They must be attuned, in a special way, to the pulsations of the subaudible register, the tone-feelings that seem to arise from the nether regions. From this unholy obsession with the depths of auditory sensibility comes a fundamental understanding which will forever elude the fiddlers and flautists. What we mean is that bassists have a deep need to make those sounds, and they will find a way to do it. It’s not a question of what is practical or expedient or wise: Bassists are driven. They have a pathological fascination with deep sounds; they are not well without them. 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 9, 2020March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Wood Terms and Taxonomy Taxonomy and Nomenclature by Nicholas Von Robison previously published in Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1994 See also, “Glossary of Basic Wood Terms” by Nicholas Von Robison “Top 40 Wood List” by Nicholas Von Robison The art and craft of lutherie is a set of skills and knowledge that one acquires through study, practical experience, and, too frequently, bone-headed obstinacy. Like many of the more interesting human endeavors, its learning curves never really reach a plateau simply because these are curves of multidimensions. Branches of erudition and arcane knowledge shoot off all over the place leading who knows where. It is not uncommon for the luthier, in the quest to build the perfect instrument, to wind up acquiring some knowledge of such diverse subjects as physics, metallurgy, chemistry, computer science, industrial design, economics, and so on. Since lutherie involves more than a generalized knowledge of wood and timber, some awareness of botanical and taxonomic naming systems is needed, especially in these days of alternative and vanishing wood species. The practice of classifying and assigning names to living things is called taxonomy. It is a system that is hierarchical in nature and begins very broadly by placing all organisms in either the plant or animal kingdom. Actually, taxonomists have concluded that there should be five separate kingdoms, but for our purposes, let’s keep it simple and only ask whether an organism is a plant or an animal. The plant kingdom is subdivided into major divisions or phyla (phylum when singular). The division Spermatophyta, which contains all seed plants (and the only one we are interested in here), is separated into two broad groups based on seed type. One group is the gymnosperms, which have exposed seeds; the other is the angiosperms, whose seeds are covered or encapsulated. These groups are further divided into orders, families, genera (genus when singular), and species (also species when singular). Thus, the classification of Sitka spruce is: 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.
