Posted on January 12, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips Questions: Bass Scroll Questions: Bass Scroll by Guy Rabut, Roman Barnas, and Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #89, 2007 ■ Paul W. from the Internet asks: Do you have any advice for someone who is carving his first bass scroll? I have read instructions and seen pictures, but I’m having trouble figuring out what to do after the first turn of the scroll is blocked 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.
Posted on January 11, 2010February 7, 2024 by Dale Phillips In Memoriam: Nicholas Von Robison In Memoriam: Nicholas Von Robison Passed June, 2000 by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #63, 2000 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 How well I remember the first letter we got from Nick. He told of being introduced at a party as a “Master Craftsman.” At first he was flattered, but was quickly brought back to reality when the local birdhouse tinkerer was also identified as a “Master Craftsman.” That was in 1982. Nick and I kept up a lively and voluminous correspondence for the next eighteen years. Nick was a GAL member for twenty-three years. As a kid, Nick was in a rock band with his big brother called The Hatfields, and they actually put out a single in the ’60s. He also did a stint in a hippie combo modeled along the lines of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band. His later musical taste ran to playing Japanese flutes. He worked as an amateur luthier, and then began the enormous project of singlehandedly building a good-sized wooden sailboat. He had completed a lot of the fittings and had a good start on the hull when a fire at the space he was renting deferred his dream. He often wrote of his plan to sail to Bora Bora and Tahiti. But he did get around. He spent a summer hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, and recently he had discovered sea kayaking. He was an avid fly fisherman and had some articles published in fishing magazines. And remember the big hoo-ha about the Mojave Phone Booth a year or two ago? Nick was the discoverer of the Mojave Phone Booth. It’s a long story, but a well-documented one. Photo by Dale Blindheim. Nick was a GAL True Believer. We published many of his articles over the years, and he served for a time as an Associate Editor of American Lutherie. His academic and practical knowledge of botany and wood anatomy was particularly valuable. He was our go-to guy for all wood identification questions and was the major contributor to our book Lutherie Woods and Steel String Guitars. He had a special commitment to the Guild’s benefit auction, spending hours tending the preview at conventions, as well as donating many items and paying ridiculous prices for others. The Guild owes Nick a particular debt of gratitude for talking me into getting e-mail, then hounding me into agreeing to try out a web page for the Guild. Back in the primitive 14.4k days of 1995, he developed the page, got it up on the web, and proceeded to maintain and improve it for another couple years, all as a volunteer. To date we have had more than 170,000 hits on our page, and half our annual income flows through it. I only saw Nick a few times, at GAL Conventions and once when he came through town on a vacation. Still, he was a close friend. Our correspondence covered everything from God and Man to rock ’n’ roll. They tell me Nick took his own life in the first days of June. I really can’t believe it. It just does not fit with the rest of the story. It seems a lot more like he’s finally off on that long journey to Bora Bora, and some day he’ll tell me all about it. I’m going to think of it that way.
Posted on January 6, 2010March 11, 2024 by Dale Phillips Review: The New Yorker Special by Frederick Cohen Review: The New Yorker Special by Frederick Cohen Reviewed by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 The New Yorker Special Frederick Cohen Available from Filmakers Library, Inc This charming little film is a valentine to a guy who deserves one: Jimmy D’Aquisto. Jimmy was my childhood hero, and visiting him in his shop in 1977 only built my admiration and affection for a man that to me is a genuine paradigm for luthiers. This film is far above the average coverage that luthiers generally get from journalists. You know the type: They breeze in, ask a few irrelevant questions, then write a piece that makes you seem like something between a wacko and a wizard. Frederick Cohen obviously knows something about guitars, as well as being a fine filmmaker. He has succeeded in producing a film which is perfectly suitable and entertaining for the uninitiated, yet one in which the luthier will find many informative gems half-buried. 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: From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume 1 Review: From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume I Reviewed by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #9, 1987 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume One, 2000 From the pages of Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume I Experimental Musical Instruments Out of print Ever wonder what it would sound like if the wind blew through 19' stainless-steel bands attached to your roof? If so, you are the kind of person to relish this intriguing and enlightening little effort from the different drummers over at Experimental Musical Instruments magazine. The wind instruments on the compilation provide the most “musical” (accessible) selections while the percussion instruments provide the sort of material that goes well on art-film soundtracks. Of particular value to luthiers are the four tracks which feature strange and wonderful string instruments. The Puget Sound Wind Harp is hybrid of an aeolian harp and a small house. The wind plays upon the 3/8" steel ribbons to make sounds of a predictably low frequency. The tape gives a hint of what must be a sort of tooth-rattling “om.” 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: First Bass Review: First Bass Reviewed by Tim Olsen Originally published in American Lutherie #17, 1987 First Bass 9 Fair-at-Essex Hackensack, NJ 07601 $5/year I’m looking at the premier edition of First Bass, and while one can’t help but notice that the spelling, punctuation, typesetting, and page layout are mighty loose, this is an impressive opener. The 32 pager features interviews with Jamaaladeen Tacuma, John Entwistle, and Jack Bruce, and a great little first-hand story about Jaco Pastorius giving a wild solo concert standing on a truck with amps wired to a Greenwich Village lightpole. The Winter 1989 issue went out free to almost 30,000 industry types. 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.
