Posted on July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 by Dale Phillips Parametric Solid Modeling Software for Stringed Instrument Design Parametric Solid Modeling Software for Stringed Instrument Design by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #87, 2006 Most folks are awed when first witnessing a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine shaping an instrument part. Since such a demonstration makes the advantages of using this technology immediately obvious, a number of people look into acquiring these tools for their own use. A substantial portion quickly loses interest when finding out the depth of complexity of the tools needed to design and build in this manner. Computer Aided Design (CAD) software must be mastered in order to draw the parts. Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software must be mastered in order to specify how the drawings will be utilized in the machining process and to control the CNC machine. And the details of the CNC machine itself must be comprehended before real work can be performed. All of this conspires to lead all but the highly technical and/or highly motivated to the conclusion that these technologies need to be made a lot simpler and more accessible before they can be widely exploited in the industry. Adaptation and use of these technologies can be considered analogous to that of the automobile. When first introduced, the car was something only accessible to those who could understand all of the details of the machine (and repair all the parts, too), but eventually it evolved into a more commodity-like device that is usable with little or no knowledge of its inner workings. This article is an introduction to Parametric Solid Modeling (PSM), an existing second-generation CAD technology that offers potential to bring the benefits of CAD/CAM/CNC to a wider user base. A comprehensive library of parametric models of instrument parts and subassemblies could go a long way toward making these technologies generally accessible. The availability of such a library could render a number of aspects of instrument design to sequences of preparing simple drawings and filling in values in forms. No such library currently exists, but it is possible and likely that one could be developed. Folks working with PSM software in this industry undoubtedly have developed such models for their own use. I have some of my own and will use one as an example of how this technology works. 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, 2024July 9, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Online Lutherie Info Questions: Online Lutherie Info by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #68, 2001 See also, Questions: Online Lutherie Chat by Cyndy Burton R.M. Mottola of Newtonville, MA responds to the question in AL#67 regarding where to have your lutherie questions answered online: I’m sure you’ll get lots of responses that give specific URLs, but here is some background and a way to find most places where you can ask your questions. The internet is generally considered to have three basic facilities — e-mail, websites, and Usenet newsgroups. There are discussion groups on the topic of instrument making that use each of these facilities. To find those implemented as websites you can use any internet search engine to search for appropriate terms. Typing “guitar discussion” into a search engine will get you a lot of hits. Finding discussion groups implemented as e-mail mailing lists could be tricky, as there are no comprehensive search facilities for such mailing lists. Fortunately most if not all e-mail-based discussion groups have a website too, so the search specified above will find those as well. Although most folks are not familiar with Usenet, it contains probably the single largest collection of topic-specific discussion groups. Rec.music.makers.builders is the grand daddy of all instrument building discussion groups, and is a Usenet newsgroup. You can access newsgroups using special facilities included in any web browser. Or you can go to one of the Usenet specific search engines such as Deja News (http://dejanews.com) and follow instructions there for posting to and reading selected newsgroups. ◆
Posted on April 21, 2023March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Product Reviews: Ameritage Cases Product Reviews: Ameritage Cases by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #68, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Ameritage Cases My friend and mentor Jim Mouradian of Mouradian Guitars is a clever guy. He builds a thoroughly modern electric bass called the Reality. It has a trim upper horn and swoopy waist cut that you would never confuse for a ’50s-styled Fender Jazz bass. But if you were to take just the outline of the Fender and lay it over the outline of Jim’s bass, you’d notice an interesting thing. The outline of the Reality is identical to that of the Jazz in a few places, and in the places where it is different, it is always smaller. Thus Jim’s instrument fits perfectly snug inside an off-the-shelf aftermarket Jazz bass case. This detail gives Jim a lot of options when it comes to cases. Like I said, he’s a clever guy. Those of us who build instruments for which “standard” cases are not available have to have cases custom made. Some builders need custom cases simply because they don’t want their instruments seen in anything less. There are a number of custom case makers. I’d like to share my experiences with one of them. Ameritage Carrying Cases is the musical instrument division of GWW Inc., a manufacturer that makes cases for just about anything. I found them via their website and asked for quotes for four cases for acoustic-electric basses I was building. I knew that custom cases would be needed for these, and I knew they would fit into standard Jazz bass cases but would rattle around inside. This last bit of information turns out to be kind of important. You can look at an instrument case as having two major components — the outer hard shell, and the padding between the shell and the instrument. If a manufacturer has to custom build the shell, then you are looking at one expensive case. But if they can use one of their existing shells, then the only thing that is unique for your case is the padding, and that makes for a more reasonable price. My instruments would fit into the standard rectangular electric-bass case shell. 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 April 21, 2023March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Constructing an Under-Saddle Transducer Constructing an Under-Saddle Transducer by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #68, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Piezoelectric transducers or pickups (I use the terms interchangeably) are popularly used to “electrify” acoustic instruments, and are increasingly found embedded in the bridge saddles of electric instruments as well. Manufactured transducers are available from a number of sources, but this article provides instructions for making an undersaddle piezo pickup for a flattop guitar from basic materials. If you know which end of a soldering iron to grab hold of, you can build this pickup. Piezo material will generate an electrical charge when mechanically deformed. There are four types of piezo materials used in the manufacture of instrument transducers: lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic chips, PZT ceramic “bender” disks, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) plastic film, and PVDF coaxial cable. PZT chips find their way into first-generation undersaddle guitar transducers, transducers for various bowed instruments, and manufactured archtop guitar and mandolin bridges. PZT disks consist of PZT material bonded to thin brass disks, and are commonly used for soundboard pickups for flattop guitars and for bridge-mounted pickups for upright basses. PVDF film may be found in all sorts of transducers from undersaddle guitar transducers to under-bridge-foot transducers for bass viols. PVDF coax cable is manufactured just like the single-conductor shielded cable used to make instrument cables, except that instead of an insulating material between the center conductor and the outer shielding braid, we find PVDF material. It is used in manufactured undersaddle pickups for acoustic guitars and is the material that will be used to construct a transducer in this article. 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 September 2, 2022March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips A Method for the Design of the Guitar Body Outline A Method for the Design of the Guitar Body Outline by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #97, 2009 See also, Parametric Models of Guitar Cutaways by R.M. Mottola A Method For the Design Of the Guitar Body Outline Part 3: Compound Radius Curves by R.M. Mottola One of the most tedious and time consuming aspects of designing a new guitar for me is the process of designing the body outline. The body outlines of my early instruments were the results of many hours of labor, usually over the course of many weeks. This process was so time consuming that I would often forgo it entirely, opting to reuse an existing body outline as is, or scaling up a guitar outline for use in an acoustic bass guitar. But over the years I’ve settled into a method for guitar body outline design which is far less tedious and consumes far less time than did my original efforts. This method involves the use of a standard model of the guitar outline. Use of this standard model helps to make the process of developing an outline more standard as well, and this in turn has resulted in the development of techniques which save time and frustration. In this article I will be outlining the model and discussing some common guitar body types in the context of this model. In talking about the design method which makes use of the model, I’ll try to touch on some of the generic qualities of guitar body outlines and how they can be quantified in terms of the model. Finally, some of the tools and techniques of the method will be detailed. Please note that what I am discussing here is only the mechanical aspects of a body design. Issues of acoustics or ergonomics are not covered. Also note that this method works equally well with either pencil and paper or CAD drawing tools, although there are some differences in how these tools are used. 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.
