The Spanish Guitar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art by R.E. Brune
Brune outlines the first major exhibition of Spanish guitars ever mounted in America.
Historical Lute Construction: Practicum Part Eight by Robert Lundberg
In this episode Lundberg makes and fits the fingerboard and installs the half binding. The lute is beginning to look pretty official at this point. The entire series is 19 episodes in length.
Harp Guitar: That Extra-String Thing by Jonathon Peterson
Most people who even knew what one was thought of the harp guitar as a less-than-useless dinosaur. Then came Michael Hedges. Peterson looks back at a strange instrument who's best music might just lie in the future.
Dyer Harp Guitar: An Instrument Plan by Todd Brotherton
This is the guitar into which Michael Hedges breathed new life. The drawing is a shrunken version of GAL full-scale Instrument Plan #32. Sometimes our scaled down plans are useful for building, but this one is reduced a bit too far in order to fit it onto the magazine. Order the plan.
The Sawmill at Poussay by Gayle Miller and Ken Sribnick
Visit a water-powered French sawmill that supplies tonewood to 350 luthiers.
Free Plate Tuning, Part Two: Violins by Alan Carruth
Carruth tries to keep it light as he describes the glitter dances that should improve your violins, and even sheds light on cello plate tuning. If you feel threatened by the dryness of science just relax and give it a try. Carruth is on your side. Really. With a whole bunch of drawings. Part One was in American Lutherie #28. Part Three follows in American Lutherie #30.
Questions edited by Cyndy Burton
Many questions but only one answer this time. John Sullivan offers intonation specs for a mandolin bridge.
Electronic Answer Man by Rick Turner
A new column is born. What is pickup phase and polarity? Why do positions 2 and 4 on a 5-way Strat switch sound funky? Turner knows and tells all.
It Worked For Me
Tips about soaking unbent guitar sides, fixing the "bad" version of the Dremel tool, cleaning Levis, making clothes pins into better clamps, unwarping Tun-O-Matic bridges, and building a quickie pole lathe.
Review: The Luthier's Mercantile Catalog for Stringed Instrument Makers. Reviewed by Cyndy Burton.
Seldom does a new catalog cause so much excitement. The reviewer especially likes it for bed time reading.
Review: Identifying Wood: Accurate Results With Simple Tools by R. Bruce Hoadley. Reviewed by Nicholas Von Robison.
The reviewer decides this book isn't perfect for the DIY wood analyzer, but it will do, especially since it's the only game in town.
Review: Making Guitar 1 by Daniel Fort and Owen Riss. Reviewed by Lloyd Zsiros.
The reviewer likes this video at first, but after repeated viewing finds it comes up short. If you have all the books and still can't get motivated, perhaps this tape will help.
Violin Q & A by Michael Darnton
Darnton sheds light on asymmetrically graduated violin tops, natural drying vs. UV drying of varnish, and the market in baroque fiddles.
Product Reviews by Harry Fleishman
Another new column is born, two in one issue! Fleishman tests the Acoustech guitar pickup and gives it pretty good grades.
This issue is no longer available individually. Its contents are
included in The Big Red Book of American Lutherie, Vol. 3.
(excluding any of the Historical Lute Construction articles by
Robert Lundberg which are available in a book by the same name)
