Posted on November 29, 2024December 19, 2024 by Dale Phillips What We Do and Don’t Know About Guitar Making What We Do and Don’t Know About Guitar Making by Mark French from his 2023 GAL Convention Science and Technology Seminar presentation Originally published in American Lutherie #153, 2024 Why should you believe anything I’m about to say? I was originally trained as an aerospace engineer. I’ve spent much of my career, starting in 1985, working in […] To access this post, you must purchase Guild Membership – United States, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Canada, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 or Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 Digital Only.
Posted on July 16, 2024August 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Changing Guitar-Body Resonant Frequencies Changing Guitar-Body Resonant Frequencies by Devon Pessler, Alyssa Fernandez, and Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #152, July 2024 Two of the most important design parameters for acoustic guitars are the body volume and the soundhole diameter. Both strongly affect the lower resonant frequencies of the instrument, and most designers have at least […] To access this post, you must purchase Guild Membership – United States, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Canada, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 or Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 Digital Only.
Posted on May 28, 2024June 3, 2024 by Dale Phillips Measuring the Breaking Strength of Steel Guitar Strings Measuring the Breaking Strength of Steel Guitar Strings by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #151, 2024 Steel guitar strings have been available for at least one hundred years, and a large majority of guitars use them. Steel strings changed the design of instruments since they brought higher tension, which required stronger structures. […] To access this post, you must purchase Guild Membership – United States, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Canada, 2024 + 2025, Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 or Guild Membership – Outside U.S. and Canada, 2024 + 2025 Digital Only.
Posted on July 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Inharmonicity of Guitar Strings Inharmonicity of Guitar Strings by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #100, 2009 Strings are uniquely well suited to make music because all their resonant frequencies are very close to being integer multiples of the fundamental frequency.1 The octave is the most consonant interval and the resonant frequencies of a vibrating string are separated from one another by octaves. The expression for the resonant frequencies of an ideal string is familiar to many luthiers. 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 1, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips A Different Way of Defining Body Shapes A Different Way of Defining Body Shapes by Mark French Originally published in American Lutherie #88, 2006 As I look through American Lutherie, I am struck by the advances in the tools some of us use to make our instruments. While there will always be the traditionalists who do most of their work by hand, more of us are using computer-controlled machines to make jigs or parts. Even the musical instrument lab here at Purdue (www.metalsound.org) has its own CNC router. Large manufacturers like Taylor Guitars use CNC equipment for the majority of their building operations. An obvious advantage of all this cool stuff is that parts can be made much more precisely. However, the parts can only be as precise as the instructions that are driving the machines. Look through your favorite book on guitar making and find the section on laying out the body shape. Even the best books, like Making an Archtop Guitar by Benedetto and Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology by Cumpiano and Natelson, offer only the most basic description of the shape. It’s pretty common for the instructions to start with something like “draw a straight line on a sheet of brown wrapping paper to use as a centerline.” 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.
