Posted on April 22, 2023March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips The Luthier’s Library The Luthier’s Library by Fred Battershell Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Quarterly, Volume 3, #5 & #6, 1975 The Successful Craftsman — Making Your Craft Your Business by Alex Bealer Published by Barre Publishing Distributed by Crown Publishers, New York 288 pp. $9.95 Here is a book that promises a great deal and delivers nothing of lasting value; and in so doing, manages to betray it’s author’s profession: advertising. Yes, fellow luthiers, here is ad executive Alex Bealer telling you how to gain fame and fortune from your chosen craft. The blurb on the inside jacket cover of this book modestly advises the reader that this book... “answers some very tough questions facing the artist/merchant.” Questions such as how to find suppliers, how to market your product, how to price your wares, and where to work are alleged to be answered completely in this book. They are not. Like so much of the products produced by the advertising industry, this book is actually a systematic collection of half-truths and some very half-answers. 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, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Luthier’s Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers Review: The Luthier’s Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers Reviewed by Frederick Battershell Originally published in American Lutherie #4, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Luthier’s Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers The Luthier’s Mercantile P.O. Box 774, 412 Moore Lane Healdsburg, CA 95448 $19.50 + $3.50 (1999) If confession is good for one’s soul, then I must come forward and confess: I am an unabashed bibliophile! Yup! My library/bedroom is piled from floor to ceiling with books, catalogs, brochures, broadsides... anything at all connected (even remotely) with instrument making, music theory, cooking, philosophy, woodworking, boat building, toolmaking, and on and on. These are read and reread; each time they yield small portions of knowledge, personal insight, and genuine enjoyment. While I’m on the subject of genuine enjoyment, let me tell you about The Luthier’s Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers. Here is either a book that wants to be a catalog, or a catalog that wants to be a book. The staff at TLM deserve a loud bravo! for their combined efforts at getting this catalog together in a thoroughly enjoyable and readable format. 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, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Technique of Violin Making by H.S. Wake Review: The Technique of Violin Making by H.S. Wake Reviewed by Frederick Battershell Originally published in American Lutherie #3, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The Technique of Violin Making H.S. Wake published by H. S. Wake, 1973 $23 from Stewart-MacDonald (1999) The good news about privately-published books is they make hitherto obscure information available to the public. The bad news is these privately-published books are seldom reviewed, and as a result of this lack of constructive criticism, are apt to be poorly written. The author may be more intent on presenting his point of view than with enabling his readers to understand what he is trying to say. The Technique of Violin Making has some of these faults. 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 4, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The Strad Facsimile — An Illustrated Guide to Violin Making by Edwin John Ward Review: The Strad Facsimile — An Illustrated Guide to Violin Making by Edwin John Ward Reviewed by Frederick Battershell Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2001 The Strad Facsimile — An Illustrated Guide to Violin Making Edwin John Ward S.E. Ward, Kaneohe, Hawaii, 1984 Out of print (1999) Reviewing any book can be a formidable task. Reviewing a book about violin construction can be downright hazardous! Consider for a moment the possible dangers: irreversible brain damage from attempting to understand the logic of the author; hearing loss from attempts by the reviewer at duplicating the electronic plate-tuning tricks so beloved of some contemporary makers; and last, but certainly not least, near blindness from trying to read the incredibly small type of some of these books. Fortunately, the work of a book reviewer isn’t always this bad. Every now and then, a book is written that appears to be a serious attempt at communicating basic knowledge about a subject to its reader. The Strad Facsimile — An Illustrated Guide To Violin Making by Edwin John Ward is just such a book. The Strad Facsimile is a straightforward, but somewhat concise attempt at describing exactly how Edwin John Ward goes about constructing a Strad pattern violin. This book does have some limitations. It assumes the reader has a good grasp of basic hand-woodworking skills. It does not provide the reader with any information on comparative methods of violin making. The reader is left to do his/her own research into the alternative schools of violin-making technique. 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.
