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Cutaway
Terms
Q
Can
you explain the origins of the terms Venetian
cutaway and Florentine
cutaway?
Robert
Manzoni
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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A Venetian
and Florentine refer to the actual shape of the cutaway:
Venetian describes the rounded cutaway and Florentine the
sharp, pointed form. The original use of these terms can be
traced to early Gibson nomenclature in advertising material
and catalogs. Orville Gibson's early instruments show a very
strong stylistic influence derived from 19th-century Italian
guitar and mandolin makers, particularly from the work of
makers such as Calace, Guadagnini, and Vinaccia. Gibson likely
chose these terms to reflect the Italian influence and lend
some old-world credibility to his new instruments; there isn't
any evidence that these cutaway styles actually came from
Venice or Florence.
Gibson first used
Venetian cutaway in reference to the Super 400P, an
acoustic archtop introduced in 1939, and Florentine cutaway
first described Gibson's O style guitars in 1902 and a series
of mandolins appearing at the same time. However, the historical
origin of the pointed cutaway can be traced back as far as
19th-century French maker Georges Warnecke. One of his instruments
can be seen in The Steve Howe Guitar Collection (Backbeat
Books).
—Ian Watchorn
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Florentine
cutaway.
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Venetian
cutaway.
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Bass-Strum
Attack
Q I
am having problems equalizing the volume between my bass notes and
my downstroke strums when playing alternating-bass rhythms. My bass
notes seem to be too quiet compared to my loud, twangy strums. Switching
to heavier picks helped somewhat. Can you offer any other advice?
Marlo
Phillips
Santa Monica, California
A
Are you playing
the bass strings with downstrokes? That's the key to getting a nice,
crisp attack on alternating bass-strum patterns. This means that
your rhythm playing will consist of mostly downstrokes, with an
occasional upstroke when you do a double brush on the treble strings.
This can be a little disconcerting at first, especially if you have
been trained to strictly alternate upstrokes and downstrokes, but
it will lead to a much punchier, consistent sound.
The basic rule is to
play a downstroke on the downbeat. If I play boom-chuck boom-chuck,
it's all downstrokes. If I play boom-chuck-a boom-chuck-a,
that a is a little upstroke. Every once in a while I play
boom-a-chuck-a boom-a chuck-a, and all of those a's
are upstrokes. Otherwise it's downstroke city.
—Paul
Kotapish
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Loosening
the Strings
Q I
have a guitar that I don't play for weeks or sometimes months at
a time. Is it better to keep it fully tuned or to tune it down so
there's no tension on the neck?
David
Peterson
Rocklin, California
A If
you're really not going to play the guitar for long periods of time,
I'd loosen the strings so that they're not up to pitch but still
have some tension. It's important to store the guitar in an atmosphere
that you yourself would be comfortable in, say between 55 and 80
degrees Fahrenheit with 35–65 percent humidity. This will put
the guitar into a kind of suspended animation—not quite dead,
but certainly not in a playable state. When you do want to tune
it back up, expect to get the neck adjusted as the guitar gets used
to more than 250 pounds of tension on its top and neck. But why
do all this to a guitar that wants to be played all the time?
—Rick
Turner
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Mandolin
Resources
Q I
have been playing guitar for more than 30 years and recently bought
a mandolin. Do you know of any magazines or online publications
for the mandolin?
Robert
Morgan
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
A There
are a number of online resources and publications devoted to our
eight-stringed friend. Start with the Mandolin Cafe (www.mandolincafe.com).
You'll find links to most of the other mandolin-related sites there.
Co-Mando (www.co-mando.com)
is a good email discussion group. They have a Web page with info,
links, and digests of previous posts. The two major mandolin print
magazines also have websites: Mandolin Magazine (www.mandolinmagazine.com)
and Mandolin Quarterly (www.mandolincafe.com/strings/mq.html).
Have fun!
—Paul
Kotapish
Excerpted from
Acoustic Guitar magazine,
October
2002, No. 118.
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