Post by davewhite on Jan 22, 2013 14:52:23 GMT
1. Cunning Plans
In this series of articles I want share with you my views and philosophies that guide and form the way I make acoustic steel string instruments. I have been making them for a little over ten years now and the main thing that I have learned is that there is no absolute “right” way of doing things – there a lots of ways that work and many of them are completely contradictory to other methods that also work. I’ve also learned to keep an open and inquisitive mind – you can learn new things from “old lags” that have been building guitars for decades but also from brand new “kids on the block” who approach things sometimes without the baggage that that brings. By and large the steel stringed instrument building community is a very open and sharing one taking the view that by pooling knowledge everybody gains and you create an innovative and evolutionary environment – this is very liberating indeed. I have benefited from this and in these articles hope to add and put back something into this knowledge pool but also want to stress that these are just my views and beliefs and not an attempt to set them up as the “one and true way”. I also hope that it will stimulate debate and help this new Forum develop its own identity as a thriving “Magazine” for acoustic instruments and people that love them.
I’m going to start with “Cunning Plans” and the importance of the understanding of first principles, but first a little about me and how I came to make steel stringed instruments. Since the age of 12, when I mimed to Beatles records using a cricket bat, I knew I wanted to play guitar. When I got my first one that year, a Musima nylon string that I still have, I was in heaven. Over the years I progressed onto steel string acoustic instruments, and guitars and music have been my lifesavers and stress relief - along with Irish flutes/whistles where I "dabble" from time to time. As my guitar collection grew I became increasingly more fascinated with the beautiful woods they were made from and what made them sound and play the way they did. I wanted to see if I could create instruments of my own and take and shape a sound of my own. I then spent a good few years researching all I could find on the internet about making guitars and reading all the guitar making books I could get my hands on. I bought an Appalacian Dulcimer kit and that had me hooked. I always do things my way and learn by understanding the principles so I did not want to buy a kit or plans and wanted to design my own instruments. My first two creations in 2002, "Nancy" and "William" were conceived as a matching pair of small bodied guitar and guitar-bouzouki and their naming comes from the frequency of appearances in traditional English songs and their design was dictated by the size of some wonderful pieces of Old Rio Rosewood I found in Isaac Lord in High Wycombe plus two spruce guitar top sets. The backs were six joined pieces and the necks had 16 frets clear of the body so you could say they were unique but there were influences there from the great maker Stefan Sobell who I very much admire.
Since then I have only ever made one instrument from a set of plans that I have not drawn up myself and that was a copy of a 8 course Heiber lute that I made under the guidance of my good friend Colin Symonds so that I could properly call myself a “luthier”. A lot of would be guitar makers when first starting out look for sets of instrument plans as do established makers when they venture into new territory such as Baritones, Acoustic lap slide guitars, Harp guitars or multi-scale instruments. My question has not been “where do I find plans for . . .” but “what do I need to understand to make plans for . . .” and by taking this route you learn the first principles that dictate the instruments design rather than follow set plans. Why is this so important – well basically you are free to design and build any instrument that you want having decided what it is you want the instrument to do using these principles. I can understand that when starting out it’s a scary enough prospect having to make your first instrument and a set of plans is one less thing to be afraid of but if you don’t understand why the plans are as they are and develop a mindset that thinks the instrument will no longer work if you stray a micro-millimetre away from the plan I think it is an opportunity missed. You don’t need detailed draftsman’s plans either to make an instrument – mine are basic “skeletons” sketched out on lining wallpaper and they will sometimes get changed in the process of making the instrument.
So with a pencil and blank piece of paper in front of you where do you begin and what is the first of the “first principles” that you need to understand? In the next article I’ll talk about scale length which is where for me it all begins.
In this series of articles I want share with you my views and philosophies that guide and form the way I make acoustic steel string instruments. I have been making them for a little over ten years now and the main thing that I have learned is that there is no absolute “right” way of doing things – there a lots of ways that work and many of them are completely contradictory to other methods that also work. I’ve also learned to keep an open and inquisitive mind – you can learn new things from “old lags” that have been building guitars for decades but also from brand new “kids on the block” who approach things sometimes without the baggage that that brings. By and large the steel stringed instrument building community is a very open and sharing one taking the view that by pooling knowledge everybody gains and you create an innovative and evolutionary environment – this is very liberating indeed. I have benefited from this and in these articles hope to add and put back something into this knowledge pool but also want to stress that these are just my views and beliefs and not an attempt to set them up as the “one and true way”. I also hope that it will stimulate debate and help this new Forum develop its own identity as a thriving “Magazine” for acoustic instruments and people that love them.
I’m going to start with “Cunning Plans” and the importance of the understanding of first principles, but first a little about me and how I came to make steel stringed instruments. Since the age of 12, when I mimed to Beatles records using a cricket bat, I knew I wanted to play guitar. When I got my first one that year, a Musima nylon string that I still have, I was in heaven. Over the years I progressed onto steel string acoustic instruments, and guitars and music have been my lifesavers and stress relief - along with Irish flutes/whistles where I "dabble" from time to time. As my guitar collection grew I became increasingly more fascinated with the beautiful woods they were made from and what made them sound and play the way they did. I wanted to see if I could create instruments of my own and take and shape a sound of my own. I then spent a good few years researching all I could find on the internet about making guitars and reading all the guitar making books I could get my hands on. I bought an Appalacian Dulcimer kit and that had me hooked. I always do things my way and learn by understanding the principles so I did not want to buy a kit or plans and wanted to design my own instruments. My first two creations in 2002, "Nancy" and "William" were conceived as a matching pair of small bodied guitar and guitar-bouzouki and their naming comes from the frequency of appearances in traditional English songs and their design was dictated by the size of some wonderful pieces of Old Rio Rosewood I found in Isaac Lord in High Wycombe plus two spruce guitar top sets. The backs were six joined pieces and the necks had 16 frets clear of the body so you could say they were unique but there were influences there from the great maker Stefan Sobell who I very much admire.
Since then I have only ever made one instrument from a set of plans that I have not drawn up myself and that was a copy of a 8 course Heiber lute that I made under the guidance of my good friend Colin Symonds so that I could properly call myself a “luthier”. A lot of would be guitar makers when first starting out look for sets of instrument plans as do established makers when they venture into new territory such as Baritones, Acoustic lap slide guitars, Harp guitars or multi-scale instruments. My question has not been “where do I find plans for . . .” but “what do I need to understand to make plans for . . .” and by taking this route you learn the first principles that dictate the instruments design rather than follow set plans. Why is this so important – well basically you are free to design and build any instrument that you want having decided what it is you want the instrument to do using these principles. I can understand that when starting out it’s a scary enough prospect having to make your first instrument and a set of plans is one less thing to be afraid of but if you don’t understand why the plans are as they are and develop a mindset that thinks the instrument will no longer work if you stray a micro-millimetre away from the plan I think it is an opportunity missed. You don’t need detailed draftsman’s plans either to make an instrument – mine are basic “skeletons” sketched out on lining wallpaper and they will sometimes get changed in the process of making the instrument.
So with a pencil and blank piece of paper in front of you where do you begin and what is the first of the “first principles” that you need to understand? In the next article I’ll talk about scale length which is where for me it all begins.
Jo whoever he is.
