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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Transitioning
  • Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 19:23:37 EDT

Lynda,

> Have you ever used swamp ash?

Alas, it's rare here in the higher ground of the South. If I could find some
growing, I could get it milled and dry it myself, but as it is, the guitar
makers scarf up every splinter of it on the market and so the price is high.
It
wouldn't do for the neck or pillar of the harp (not hard enough to hold the
pins), but it would make ideal soundbox material. I've never known anyone
using it on lutes, but it is close grained and very, very light so it seems
the
perfect wood for it.

>
> My great uncle made stringed instruments and made a cello out of a walnut
> burl. It is now in a museum.

That would be something! There's an baseless bias that cellos can only be
made out of European maple and have Swiss pine tops. Yet walnut is perhaps
the
perfect wood for the purpose.



>I do have the first
> violin he ever made.


Do you play it? I am setting up the jigs to make a few rebecs for the SCA
and Ren Faire types, but that's not nearly so demanding as making a violin.


>
> The difference in handmade instruments is, hmmmm, best way to describe it
>

And with GAT and globalism the difference is getting more and more. Gibson,
Martin, even Lyon and Healy and the like are all setting up shop in third
world countries and the result is really lousy instruments. This would be a
hard
thing to do for a living if I needed much money, which I don't. Often
someone will come into the shop with an instrument disassembled and sometimes
unglued and say "Did you have that playing yesterday?"

And I say, "Yes, but I didn't like it."

And good musicians are all nutcases (sorry, Lee). I've seen a piano tuned
electronically and a pianist grimace and retune it to the point that only God
could hear the difference. Like that, harp, lute, mandolin etc players will
be
annoyed if one glue was used over another, or the nut is made of plastic
instead of bone, or some such seemingly insignificat detail.

I'd like to get a look at that cello, though.

James




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