Questions tagged [lutherie]
The art of making stringed instruments.
81 questions
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Difference between Renaissance and Baroque Lutes in Relation to BWV 999
Bach's "Little Prelude" in C Minor, BWV 999, frequently played on keyboard, was originally written for lute. I asked a lutenist to play the piece, and he said he couldn't, because he played ...
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How can I create an inexpensive glossy finish to the back of my acoustic guitar?
I have an entry level acoustic guitar with a matte finish. I have a guitar lift that I want to use with it to play, but had to purchase these 3M glossy foils that I can stick to the back of the ...
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Do nitrocellulose finishes ever reach a state of inertness?
I’ve never had a guitar with a nitro finish, all my guitars have stands or hangers with some kind of rubber grip.
I just bought a neck which has a nitro finish, it was built to order, so the finish is ...
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Bleaching yellow bone saddle?
Can the inner part of cattle bone that's yellowish be bleached white?
I bought an oversized bone guitar saddle blank, which was completely white on the outside. After I cut it to shape, I noticed ...
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Length-wise crack in acoustic guitar neck - cause for concern and possible fixes?
I've "inherited" an acoustic guitar between 10 and 15 years of age. It is in very good condition except for a small crack in the neck (see picture). The crack looks like it hasn't occurred ...
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How do you apply lace edging to a lute?
I'm building a baroque lute and I'd like to seal the soundboard edging using the "lace" method where a strip of parchment is glued along the edge to hide the soundboard/bowl seam.
I'd like ...
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Potential intonation problems by having a 0.5" difference between half scale lengths?
I don't know if this is the right place to ask this but I saw someone ask a similar question here.
I'm assembling a guitar from a body I bought for cheap. Unfortunately, the body won't line up ...
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Is it usual for old violin to have an obvious line that separates the front plate into left and right?
The picture of the front plate of an old violin below shows a very obvious line that separates the front plate into left and right parts.
While I understand that the violin has a two-part front plate, ...
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Is looking at the centre spine behind the peg box of a violin a good way of discerning whether it is from Dutzenarbeit?
In some school of violin making, e.g. Mittenwald, the centre spine, if it is not from "Dutzenarbeit", should be sharp instead of ending with some delta. See the photo below. Is it also the ...
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Can you attach a backplate in a semi-hollow guitar with screws?
All semi hollow guitars I've seen have the backplates glued to the body or body "frame" in the case when the hollow is fully removed instead if carved.
I'm not a tone-freak, but, would I ...
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Why are necks thinner at the nut?
I'm sure this must have been asked before but I'm finding myself incapable of phrasing the search query correctly to find it.
Guitar and bass (and more generally all 'necked' instruments) necks are ...
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First guitar with fretboard inlays?
When did guitars first get fretboard inlays? Or were they a common feature on pre-guitar stringed instruments before the the guitar was formalised to the shape we now know and love?
Was there a ...
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When did Stradivarius become "Stradivarius!"
Instruments built by the Stradivarius family are popularly thought of amongst the pantheon of "greatest ever".1 But have they always been considered this way? Were they held in similarly ...
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How risky is it to have a maple fretboard refretted?
I was thinking of having my guitar (with a maple fretboard) refretted, but I've been looking at images of different fret wire online, and I noticed that they have some sort of teeth to keep them in ...
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Why do classical guitars necks meet the body at fret 12th and steel strings at fret 14th?
Is there a reason for this? What exactly is the reasoning behind it?
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Are these indentations on the frets of my Acoustic for intonation? Can I apply this to the frets of my Electric?
The questions are in the title, picture is below, but here are the (TL/DR) details.
About 9 months ago, I bought an electric guitar "kit" and assembled it (fun, highly recommended). This ...
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Is my truss rod broken?
Recently I have been messing around with a Squier Affinity Strat, trying to set it up properly. I tried to adjust the truss rod and it was initially too tight. So I turned it counterclockwise, in ...
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I want to make my Rabab sound louder
I have an Afghani stringed instrument. It has 3 main strings (nylon) along with drone and sympathetic strings. 20 in total.
I feel that my rabab is not creating enough sound, especially the echo a ...
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What kind of box for a hand crank music box
I usually build boxes for speakers, but I would like to build a box for a hand crank music box to have a strong resonance.
Like this : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/27/...
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Normal fret wear or particularly low-quality fret wire?
I've been playing a cheap guitar for maybe an hour every day for the past two years. At first I was very happy with the way it played, the frets were perfectly level and I was able to set it up ...
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Fixing loose strap button screw in solid-body guitar [duplicate]
I have a strap button screw in my Squier Affinity Strat that I have to re-fasten every week or so, and I'd like to carry out a more permanent repair. There is no visible damage to the screw hole or ...
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Magnetic part of pickup sticks out
I got my guitar set up and the luthier did an amazing job. However, I want to know if the magnetic part of one of the pickups sticking out is normal. Beneath the A and D strings, these parts stick out ...
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Violin bridge E-string: pad or hardened insert?
I know many (not all) violinists place a small pad or a short piece of tubing around the E-string at the bridge contact point. Some bridges have a tiny insert there, presumably of a very hard wood, ...
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Are there any violin family instruments built without a left shoulder?
On the bass and cello (and probably violin and viola as well), it seems like many aspects of proper form serve the purpose of getting ones arm over the left shoulder to play high on the fingerboard. ...
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Crack between fretboard and guitar neck
I recently adjusted the truss rod in my guitar, nothing uncommon. I increased the relief a little bit when I noticed the following crack around the 7th fret. It is, perhaps difficult to see, but I am ...
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What physical phenomenon causes stratitis?
I've heard luthiers refer to the weird sounds from a badly adjusted pickup as 'stratitis' (or 'wolf sounds'?).
What are the mechanics of stratitis? What physical phenomenon causes it to occur?
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How can I measure, or otherwise quantify, the accuracy of intonation of my classical guitar, in order to compare it with other classical guitars?
Is there an standard / common way of measuring and comparing intonation in classical guitars?
Say, if I were a luthier, which objective method would I use to decide if any given classical guitar needs ...
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Electric guitar bridge moved after one string broke
Ok so I was playing my Ibanez electric guitar when the first string broke during a bend. Afterwards the bridge seemed lifted up, like moved upwards (see image). When I tried strumming the other ...
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(Solved) Intonation Problem (Only with High E and B Strings) in Acoustic Guitar
My Acoustic Guitar's Intonation is right in place for the bottom 4 strings, But the Top two are off. Octave is 50 Cents flat in B-string and 1 semi-tone flat in E-string.
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I thought it was the ...
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Is it OK to just replace the first 4 frets instead of all 24 on an Ibanez SR-300, because the first 4 were the only ones damaged by my negligence?
Ibanez SR-300 4 String bass guitar re-fretIbanez 4-String Bassneck DR-300
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White dirt in jatoba fretboard
My brand new JemJR has weird white dust inside wood. I already tried to clean it using some paper and water. It looked perfect right after cleaning it, but it returned once the fretboard was dry.
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Anti-slip foam material used for shoulder-rest?
What's the name of the very anti-slip foam felt used in popular violin shoulder rests such as Everest, Bonmusica etc?
I have a high neck and I want to cut out another layer of that foam to adhere to ...
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On instruments that use frets, where's the best spot to press a string on, in order to minimize hand fatigue and potential for injuries?
I know this question sounds completely subjective at first sight, it even triggered the automatic "The question you're asking appears subjective and is likely to be closed" alarm, but please read ...
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How thick should rosewood be for a floating pickguard?
I'd like to make a rosewood or ebony pickguard for my archtop. I see rosewood in 2mm thickness for a reasonable price. Does anyone have experience with wooden floating pickguards? I've only seen ...
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Are intonation issues in a cheap acoustic guitar fixable?
so I am a beginner guitarist, and I have one quite good guitar, and a cheap one.
I`ve tuned it to standard tuning, and when I play the 5th fret on the E string on the cheap one, it goes like 1/4 of a ...
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How does the action (distance between fret and string) of a guitar affect the tone / sound / timbre?
When talking with or reading / watching about professionals and their setups (acoustic instruments in particular), I found that there's a heavy tendency for using higher actions, in contrast with non-...
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Is it safe to use water to clean (rosewood, ebony, maple) fretboards?
It's common to see in message boards, forums, and news groups that using water to clean a fretboard can cause problems, or is otherwise advised against. It's not normally explained why, or if it only ...
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Are hard tension strings (around 85 lbs total tension) generally safe for classical guitars without truss rod?
I know some classical guitars absolutely definitely can't handle extra-hard tension strings because they can cause the bridge to break or the neck to bend, so only guitars specifically designed for ...
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Sticker between neck and body on electric guitar
I have a Fender Highway One American strat, and after removing the neck (bolt-on), I found that there are two stickers one the base of the neck where it makes contact with the body. Will this impact ...
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Is there a way to know what is the tension range a specific classical guitar is designed for?
I have two old classical guitars with no way of knowing who made them, or finding a specification sheet, or something similar. I normally play with high or ultra high tension strings, but I don't know ...
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What should I ask my luthier about from a general maintainence perspective?
I am taking my violin to a luthier on the recommendation of my teacher (though I have been considering it for a while). Recently it has been 'sounding a bit off' - it has a forced quality to the tone, ...
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Which are the differences between the typical nylon strings, and the newer fluorocarbon (or "carbon") strings?
We all know the traditional nylon strings for the classical guitar, which in turn replaced the even more traditional gut strings.
Lately, more and more string manufacturers are introducing products ...
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Spruce vs cedar as the material of the soundboard (top, tonewoods) of the classical guitar; how do they affect the tone and sound?
Seems that two of the most common materials for the soundboard of a classical guitar (also called tonewoods) are cedar and spruce. Regarding tone, is there a significant difference between the sound a ...
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Flamenco guitar strings
Before the invention of nylon, from what material were strings made for use by flamenco players? I have tried different search engines and forae but found no answer or similar question.
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How can I design a string instrument and for it to be louder?
I'm trying to make, as a hobby, a few instruments, and watching videos on string instruments, specially compact ones, I noticed that outside of the sounds being pleasant or not, the volume was ...
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Crack on guitar neck. Possible solution?
Recently I've noticed that my guitar (classic) has some crack on the top of the neck, precisely where the neck connects to the head.
I've doing some research and it seems that it's not a big deal, and ...
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Dark-sounding 1986 Les Paul Custom - modern upgrade? or embrace yacht rock? [closed]
I'm lefty, and good lefty guitars used to be very rare. I bought the first lefty Les Paul I ever laid eyes on: a used black 1986 les paul custom. I gigged/toured in three different bands with it. It's ...
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Guqin construction and physics
I am a physicist building a Guqin, an old Chinese zither.
I try to understand its construction, how it vibrates, what are the key features to obtain a good sound.
I found only one paper on the ...
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What are the dimensions, angles of a Gibson Les Paul standard pots cavity?
I am working on building a prewired set of pots and want to mount them on a piece of plastic that can drop into the cavity of a standard les paul. I have been looking for the dimensions and found this ...
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How do I convert a Hawaiian guitar to Spanish Guitar?
I have a 4 months old hawaiian guitar. I do not like playing the Hawaiian guitar, and I want to change instruments. I have a standard bengali Hawaiian guitar with all its accessories and I want to ...