|
Guitar-Making
Videos
Q Are there any videos
available that teach you how to build an acoustic guitar?
Fern McDonald
New Glasgow, N.S., Canada
A If you are interested
in building a nylon-string guitar, Ron Fernandez offers a 110-minute
video called Classical and Flamenco Guitarmaking for $59.95
(Fernandez Music, PO Box 5153, Irvine, CA 92616; www.fernandezmusic.com).
It features a demonstration of traditional Spanish construction
techniques by builder Benito Huipe. Fernandez also sells a video
that demonstrates how to French-polish a guitar.
If you want to build an archtop guitar, you should definitely check
out Robert Benedetto's Archtop Guitar Design and Construction
series (Benedetto Guitars, RR 1, Box 1347, E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301;
[717] 223-0883; www.benedetto-guitars.com).
This 91/2-hour, five-video set ($82.50) takes you through every
step of building a guitar, including selecting the wood, carving
the top and back, finish, and setup.
If traditional flattops are more your style, check out Don MacRostie
and Dan Erlewine's Building a Herringbone Style Acoustic Guitar
($26.24). Available from Stewart-MacDonald's Guitar Shop Supply
(21 N. Shafer St, Athens, OH 45701; [800] 848-2273; www.stewmac.com),
this 84-minute video is a step-by-step guide to building a dreadnought
guitar. The video is designed to be used with the Stewart-MacDonald
guitar kit, but as long as you are starting out with prebent sides
and a precut dovetail neck joint you should find it useful. Stewart-MacDonald
also offers videos on finish, repair techniques, inlay, and setups.
And finally, if you are looking for inspiration, you should track
down Modern Luthier from Jazzbud Productions (663 Church
St., Holland, MI 49423; [616] 392-8792). In this video, Will Ackerman
interviews four of today's leading luthiers, including James Olson,
Steve Klein, Larry Henderson of Breedlove Guitars, and Michael Millard
of Froggy Bottom, who talk candidly about the pleasures and pains
of the luthier's life.
—Michael Simmons
Fingerstylist
Steve Hancoff
QI recently heard a great
recording by a fingerstyle guitar player named Steve Hancoff. Can
you tell me anything about him?
Bob Pemberton
Canyon Country, California
A Maryland-based guitarist
Steve Hancoff has released two CDs, Steel String Guitar and
New Orleans Guitar Solos, on his own Out of Time label (602
Hollywood Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20904; SHX2@aol.com).
Rooted in ragtime and early jazz, Hancoff is a creative fingerpicker
who shows a healthy dose of respect for the history of those styles.
He is currently working on a project of solo guitar arrangements
of music by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, which should be
available later this year.
—Teja Gerken
Mellow
Strings
Q Do acoustic guitar
strings get mellower as the gauge gets lower? If I had two sets
of the exact same strings but one set was .010 gauge and one was
.013, which would be mellower?
John Bauer
Seattle, Washington
A
It is difficult to get two guitarists to agree on what a
particular word means when describing tone, but I will hazard a
guess that by mellow you mean warmer and bassier, rather
than brighter and more trebly. I called Dave Collins of the string
division at Martin Guitars to ask him about the mellowness of extra-lights
(.010) versus mediums (.013). He said that on the guitar they use
to test strings, players in a wide variety of styles, including
gospel, blues, jazz, country, and bluegrass, all rated the extra-lights
as quieter and thinner sounding and the heavier strings as brighter
and louder. He thinks you might describe the less bright sound of
lighter strings as "mellower."
Peter D'Addario of D'Addario Strings agreed. "I would say that
heavier strings have a fuller, richer sound and that lighter strings
have a thinner, softer sound," he said. "I think of mellowness more
as a function of material than of gauge. I would rate 80/20 bronze
as the brightest, phosphor-bronze as smoother and warmer, and our
Flat-Top strings—the ones with the ground-down windings—as the most
mellow."
Other guitarists have said that string gauge affects volume and
playability rather than tone. The consensus is that heavier strings
are louder and fuller sounding but harder to play. Lighter strings
are thinner and quieter and more likely to buzz when played hard.
—Michael Simmons
|
