American Lutherie #136 Spring 2019 On this issue’s cover we see legendary lutherie teacher Charles Fox during an intensive two-week session at his American School of Lutherie. Photo by Mark French American Lutherie #136 – Spring 2019$8.00 – $10.00 Choose Membership Status Choose an optionMemberNon-memberClear American Lutherie #136 - Spring 2019 quantity Add to cart SKU: N/A Category: American Lutherie Additional information Additional information Choose Membership Status Member, Non-member Related products American Lutherie #110 – Summer 2012 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #115 – Fall 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #116 – Winter 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options A Smashed Top and a Shattered Headstock from his 2017 GAL Convention slide show by Kerry Char A cool old guitar got well and truly smashed in an incident involving large and excited dogs. Better call Char! Kerry Char, that is. He jumps right in to remove the top, take off the braces, and then put the whole thing back together and polish it up nice before you can say “Kalamazoo!” On this issue’s cover we see legendary lutherie teacher Charles Fox during an intensive two-week session at his American School of Lutherie. Photo by Mark French American Lutherie #136 – Spring 2019$8.00 – $10.00 Choose Membership Status Choose an optionMemberNon-memberClear American Lutherie #136 - Spring 2019 quantity Add to cart SKU: N/A Category: American Lutherie Additional information Additional information Choose Membership Status Member, Non-member Related products American Lutherie #114 – Summer 2013 $5.00 – $7.00 Select options American Lutherie #134 Summer 2018 $8.00 – $10.00 Select options American Lutherie #130 – Summer 2017 $8.00 – $10.00 Select options The back cover shows part of the workshop of the late Robert Ruck. Photo by Federico Sheppard Bob Ruck as I Knew Him by Federico Sheppard Robert Ruck was one of the young self-starters who founded the American Lutherie Boom, and he remained a leading light in the movement until the end of his life. Federico Sheppard was an aquaintence and admirer who became closer to Ruck when they spent time together at Federico’s place on the Camino de Santiago in Spain one summer. In this article, Federico presents a photo tour of Ruck’s shop in Eugene Oregon and explains some of the tools and techniques we see. Mechanical Impedance by Mark French We all know what “impedance” is, right? It’s that stuff... the force that... well, what is it really? Turns out it’s something like pushing a kid on a swing at the wrong time. And it has a lot to do with the resonances of acoustic instruments, which has a lot to do with how they sound. Anyway, Professor Mark gives us the scoop. Our Man in Manhattan The American Guitars of the Tatay Family by January Williams Before there were cheap Spanish guitars from Asian factories, there were cheap Spanish guitars from hard-working Spanish luthiers using traditional methods. If there was an inexpensive classical guitar kicking around your house or dorm room before about 1965, it might very well have been a Tatay. The family business was in Valencia, Spain, but they had an outpost in New York where one of the brothers turned out instruments at an amazing pace. Tatay Instrument Identification and Dating Guide by January Williams There are Tatay guitars, and then there are Tatay guitars. They could be from Valencia or New York; from one of four generations of the family; from one maker or his brother, father, son, uncle, or cousin. This article helps you sort them out. Meet the Maker: Shaun Newman by Mike Gluyas Although he had fallen in love with the classical guitar the first time he heard one as a teenager, Shaun Newman was already well along in a career as a language teacher when he first tried to make one. He was lucky enough to find a mentor in his corner of England, and he has been making and restoring an impressive variety of fine instruments for the last thirty years. Case Study of a 1935 Guitar by Cremonese Luthier Luigi Digiuni by Massimo Maddaloni, Lizabeth Jane Hella, and Giacomo Parimbelli From the time that the violin was invented, Cremona was the world center for the highest quality string instrument making, until it gradually became known for lower-quality mass production of fiddles. After its dark age, Cremona has more recently seen a renaissance of its lutherie heritage. This article looks at an unusual guitar made by a Cremonese luthier in the 1930s and sees echoes of the old masters in its design. Measuring Scale Length of Fretted Instruments by R.M.Mottola What’s the scale length? Isn’t it just twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret? Yeah, kinda, but there can be a lot of complicating factors when working on old instruments. Like maybe the nut position was compensated, or just cut wrong. Or maybe the 12th fret was a little off. The fret positions might have been calculated using the old rule of 18. Here’s how to find out what’s really going on. Delrin Frets by Harry Fleishman Many years ago, innovative classical guitar maker Richard Schneider made instruments with frets made of rod stock set in wide saw kerfs. Fleishman updates the idea by having round-bottomed slots cut by CNC and laying in Delrin rod. A Guitar is Born Attending Charles Fox’s “Hands-On Guitar Making” Course by Mark French Author Mark French has made a lot of guitars over the years, but when he wanted to up his game he attended an intensive two-week course by the dean of all American lutherie teachers, Charles Fox. Four students each built a guitar in the white from scratch and strung it up. It Worked for Me by Steve Dickerson, Peter Grafton, and Doug Berch A shallow secondary outside form can be helpful for making cutaway guitars. A table saw can fuction as a jig to clamp top and back plates while joining their center seams. Inexpensive golden taklon pain brushes are great for glue. Review: Martinez’ 34 Classical Guitars in Life Size by Peter Tsiorba It’s called a book, but the format is a box of thirty-four folded sheets, each one a life-size photo poster of a famous guitar. Our reviewer takes a close look. Letters from our readers Guitars don’t always have twelve equally-spaced frets per octave. They almost always do, but not always. Here’s another take on the possibilities, which attempts to come closer to the beautiful dream of just intonation. Questions edited by R.M. Mottola What’s the deal with deep V-shaped necks on old guitars? Can you still get Bradley signal generators? How much clamping force do different types of clamps exert? Web Extras View photo gallery for this issue of American Lutherie. American Lutherie #138 – Winter 2019 American Lutherie #137 – Summer 2019 American Lutherie #136 – Spring 2019 American Lutherie #135 – Winter 2018 American Lutherie #134 – Summer 2018 American Lutherie #133 – Spring 2018 American Lutherie #132 – Winter 2017 American Lutherie #131 – Fall 2017 American Lutherie #130 – Summer 2017 American Lutherie #129 – Spring 2017 Journal
