Posted on August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Ocelot Ear and Spruceana Ocelot Ear and Spruceana by Don Musser Originally published in American Lutherie #2, 1985 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 With regard to the problem of Dalbergia nigra and related Brazilian rosewoods: True Dalbergia nigra is scarce because most of what little remains is being processed into veneer. I’ve worked with a very active importer of Brazilian exotics for several years and have seen crates containing thousands of feet of beautiful nigra, but it was all veneer. Occasionally he will run into a farmer with some miscellaneous trees or old logs of true nigra but that is rare. With the purchase of veneer he also has the option of buying backing boards and nigra lumber otherwise unsuitable (usually too hard) for slicing. I’m able to select guitar-quality boards from his shipments and resaw sets but there is never enough to meet the demand. As far as other Dalbergias from Brazil being substituted for nigra I’ve seen two that are very close, and to the unfamiliar, almost undistinguishable. 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 August 11, 2021March 5, 2024 by Dale Phillips Taking the Guitar Beyond Equal Temperament Taking the Guitar Beyond Equal Temperament by Don Musser Originally published in American Lutherie #30, 1991 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Three, 2004 If someone were to tell you that the simple C chord you just played on your perfectly intonated, handmade guitar was in fact significantly out of tune with itself, you might have a few doubts and perhaps some curiosity about just what he was talking about. If that person were Mark Rankin and he happened to have his little Martin set up with the just intonation, key-of-C fretboard, and you compared a C chord on that guitar to the C chord on your guitar, instead of doubts and curiosity you would have something else: the beginning of a revelation, a revelation not only about the guitar itself, but about the foundation of the music we play on it. Back in 1987, David Ouellette, a Eugene, Oregon musician for whom I had built several guitars in the early 1980s called and wanted a new, unconventional instrument built. It was to be a special guitar with magnetic interchangeable fretboards having staggered frets set up for alternative tunings of the scale steps within the octave. The standard guitar fretboard we all play on is based on the equal-tempered scale where the octave is divided into twelve equal half-step intervals. This equal division of the octave is good in that it allows modulation from key to key without intolerable dissonance. Its drawback, though, is that the scale intervals are tempered, i.e., harmonically inaccurate and slightly out of tune with one another. 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 7, 2021March 6, 2024 by Dale Phillips Improved X Bracing Improved X Bracing by Don Musser Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #172, 1981 and in Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars, 1997 After building a number of guitars with the standard steel string X-bracing pattern, I noticed some problems. First, even when the braces were precurved to a 25' radius, there was still a deformation just behind the bridge that was caused by the upward pull of the strings on the inner bridge plate. Energy which could have gone to sound production in the whole top was being lost to wood deformation in a small area of the top. Second, there was always a problem of creating a guitar having both an outstanding bass and treble response. Good bass response requires less or lighter bracing on the bass side of the top. A crisp, well-defined treble requires more or slightly heavier bracing on the treble side. The challenge was to be able to achieve both without retarding either. 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.
