Posted on January 16, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Peter Kyvelos In Memoriam: Peter Kyvelos November 2, 1943 – April 2, 2017 by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #130, 2017 Luthier Peter Kyvelos, one of the foremost experts on the Middle Eastern oud, died on April 2, 2017, after a series of illnesses. He grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, during the ’40s and ’50s. He credits his early interest in woodworking and other craft to his parents, who involved him in home repair and craft projects from an early age. He attended San Francisco State University, majoring in fine art and graduating with a BFA degree. He studied woodworking in college and completed his first oud in a woodworking class. He graduated in 1970 and moved back to Massachusetts to open his shop, Unique Strings, in Belmont in 1971. In over forty years he built hundreds of ouds by hand, using primarily hand building methods. As is often the case with luthiers that dedicate themselves to one particular instrument, Peter’s intense study of the oud resulted in worldwide recognition as the expert of that instrument. It also earned him a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. Photo by R.M. Mottola I spent considerable time with Peter in his shop over the course of the two years I collected information for the two part American Lutherie article, “Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos,” that appeared in AL#94 and AL#95 in 2008. His shop was something of a clubhouse for the many Middle Eastern musicians that lived in the area. He sold and repaired both bowed and plucked instruments, but it was oud building that was his real passion. The highly prized ouds Peter Kyvelos built were of his own design, a design which was influenced by those makers he considered to be the best of the historical builders. He now has joined their ranks.
Posted on January 14, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Left-Brain Lutherie by David C. Hurd, PhD Review: Left-Brain Lutherie by David C. Hurd, PhD Reviewed by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #81, 2005 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Seven, 2015 Left-Brain Lutherie Using Physics and Engineering Concepts for Building Guitar Family Instruments: An Introductory Guide to Their Practical Application David C. Hurd, PhD ISBN 0-9760883-0-4 Ukuleles by Kawika, Inc. www.ukuleles.com A prepublication copy of David Hurd’s Left-Brain Lutherie was given to AL for review. A draft of the following review was sent to the author prior to publication so that any factual errors in the review could be corrected. During the early 1980s I worked at a small engineering company that made instrumentation used in biomedical research. As the company grew, the product line expanded to include devices used in other fields, including analytical chemistry and materials science. I count the time I spent on this job as some of the most precious in my life, in no small part because it provided the opportunity to spend a good deal of time with research scientists and to be directly involved in some of their efforts. This contact taught me the value of scientific methodological inquiry, and it shaped my consideration for the folks who do this work as some of the most creative and open-minded people to be found. That scientists are smart, careful, and highly analytical fits well with the general image of those in the field. But the fact that they approach their research subjects with high levels of openness, objectivity, and general creativity unfortunately somehow gets lost in the general stereotype of scientists. 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 12, 2010March 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound; An Introduction to Psychoacoustics edited by Perry R. Cook Review: Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound; An Introduction to Psychoacoustics edited by Perry R. Cook Reviewed by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #67, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound; An Introduction to Psychoacoustics Edited by Perry R. Cook The MIT Press, 2001 ISBN 978-0262531900 Wisdom, like beauty, is where you find it, and a beautiful bit of wisdom is tucked into AL#42. Here is found a thought, presented in a letter by Pamela Stanley-Rees. On the topic of the frequency response of instruments, Ms. Stanley-Rees opines that it is wise to always consider the response characteristics of the human ear and auditory system when evaluating the response characteristics of an instrument. She states: “Without the man in the loop, all of our instruments are just trees that have had a bad day.” This thought as presented by Ms. Stanley-Rees is axiomatic, to me at least, and I try to let it inform my own design work. There is little sense in putting effort into working on aspects of the tone of an instrument that, although measurable and therefore present, cannot be perceived by human beings listening to that instrument. The problem this presents to the designers of musical instruments of course is that in addition to what we know and learn about instrument design, we must also learn something about how the human auditory system perceives musical sound. 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 10, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality Questions: Fret Shape and Tonality by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #76, 2003 R.M. Mottola of Newton, MA answers Earles L. Mc Caul’s question regarding the effects of guitar fret shape upon intonation and tonality. The short answer is no effects whatsoever. There is a good (but highly technical) article on this subject by Steve Newberry in The Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Two, p. 106, “Fret Crown Radius: A Cause of Pitch Error?”
Posted on January 1, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud, Part Two Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos, Part Two by R.M. Mottola previously published in American Lutherie #95, 2008 See Also, “Constructing the Middle Eastern Oud with Peter Kyvelos, Part One” by R.M. Mottola The Top The top of the oud is “flat” and features ladder bracing and one to three sound holes with fretwork rosettes in them. However, the top is constructed to either passively encourage or actively shape the kind of bellied-in-front-of-the-bridge, humped-up-behind-the-bridge distortion common to all instruments with string anchors at the glued on bridge. More on this in a bit. Peter uses German spruce for his tops and he generally joins and then thickness sands tops well in advance of building, inventorying the joined tops for years before actually using them (Photo 1). Finished top thickness will average around 2MM, depending on the stiffness of the wood, so tops are thickness sanded accordingly at this point. The first steps in preparing the top are to cut it to shape and then mark and cut channels for the sound hole purfling (Photo 2). He uses a custom made fly cutter to cut the channels. His purfling scheme is pretty simple, and he generally uses black and white fiber violin purfling strips for this. The ends of the purfling strips are mitered and dry fitted before being glued. There is no fingerboard extension to hide the butt joint, so this work is a bit finicky (Photo 3). The purfling is glued into the channels and then scraped down once the glue dries. Then the sound holes are cut out. 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.
