Hahaha - excellent, I'll see if I can remember that advice!

I'll get back to you on the Cremona violins thing. That's going to take a lot of digesting!!

But that wood density sheet is fascinating, isn't it? Some of those numbers are just what you'd expect. Maple and mahogany for example.

But pear is the same as maple? Extraordinary! As someone who has recently hand sawn both - well, my shoulder says otherwise. Now I've got to carefully trim identical sized pieces of each and then weigh them to satisfy myself over that.

Also, beech surprised me. It's readily available in good sized affordable billets: I wonder why it isn't used in instrument making? The only company I know of off the top of my head that uses beech is Hofner, who include it as part of the laminate sandwich in the necks of their Club 50 guitars.

And oak is famously deprecated as a tonewood. I've never known why - but I haven't quite the energy to make a guitar from it just to find out...

Anyhow. Food for thought. Not sure how a Forum project could be made into a joint effort across thousands of miles - but perhaps we might have the beginnings of one at some point...

Cheers - C

Ah - are you getting the "Sorry, we've encountered a problem" page?

I think that has to do with posting links on certain threads - some kind of scripting error incomprehensible to mere mortals. I encountered it earlier today and not for the first time.

But I don't think it is to do with links to Fender's competitors: once was when I was trying to link to a website selling tea (in response to a post by russianracehorse) and earlier today was a website selling acrylic blanks for making pens.

Inform Brad of the problem: he usually rectifies it quite soon.

Cheers - C

Hmmm. ...I'm off to do some more reading on that. I even have a book that might help - but I haven't dipped in to that bit yet!

Only examples I can remember of oak in guitar making are... The fingerboard on Brian May's Red Special guitar is oak. But that's a very odd guitar altogether. Not a useful case.

And I read an interview with one of the luthier Manson brothers, Andy, where he mentioned that the first acoustic guitar he ever built as a kid was made from oak, cos that's what he had available. Later he built another from more regular "tonewood" and immediately noticed the differences - and that was what got him interested in serious building. But he didn't elaborate on what those differences were!

Only reason I have it on my mind is I have a ready source of miles of neck-blank sized pieces of seasoned oak. ...Yes, I know what you're going to tell me to do next!

Cheers - C

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

(Thursday) 'Morning Jay:

OK. I've struggled my way through that page.

I'm charmed and delighted that you want to persuade me over this: very flattering. Can't help thinking, though, that (as far as I'm aware) neither of us is a fiddle player, very likely neither of us has ever or will ever lay hands on one of these famous old violins, and definitely neither of us is a violin maker.

So it's a little like two non-medical people debating the question of schizophrenia having an organic basis. I'm not sure how far we can usefully go with it. For sure, I know I wouldn't waste much time listening to my own thoughts on it...

Couple of things I do know, however. Top of that page it says: "By general consensus, no luthier since that time has been able to replicate the sound quality of these classical instruments."

Well that is absolutely and wildly wrong, at any rate! As I've mentioned to you elsewhere, my old dad is a fiddle player and an amused follower of these debates: he has shelves full (literally) of books and magazines arguing about this stuff endlessly and inconclusively. Old instruments versus new ones is one of the most hotly contested aspects of it: not a "general consensus" in sight!!!

And there's folks in laboratories and universities all over this planet investigating this stuff with mind boggling scientific methods, and for everyone who "conclusively proves" one point there is someone else who "conclusively disproves" it.

So happens I met my dad this morning and had a gossip about it. When you make that promised visit over here, not only will we have merry food and drink sessions with Nikininja, I'll also put you together with my father and you can discuss this stuff till both your heads spin!

Meantime: if you want to go further with it, my dad recommended an acquaintance of his, a gentleman called Duane Rosengard, a bass player in the Philadelphia Orchestra. (For what it's worth) my dad rates him the cleverest man in the world on this stuff: Google will find you books by him (in and out of print) and will also put you in touch with him if you want.

One more thought. It's a striking coincidence that most of these old instruments are played by many of the finest musicians in the world. It's not surprising they sound good!

Against that, some very beautiful sounds I grew up on include Heifetz playing the Sibelius, Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos, amongst others. Heifetz played a Tononi violin which (I am told) most would consider a very third rate instrument.

Arguments on all sides. No conclusions.

Cheers - C

OK!

Honestly though, I'd love to hook you up face to face with my old man. I think the two of you would enjoy each other...

Maybe sometime, huh?

Cheers - C

Warmoth

Gilmer Woods

mm-hm. I think the "encountered a problem" message comes up when you try to link to a page that has a space ("% 20") in the URL. Nothing sinister...

For example, the Gilmer home page is fine, but when you try to link to the musical instrument wood section (http://www.gilmerwood.com/Gilmerwood % 20instrument_wood.htm) it won't work.

In fact, if I type "%" followed by "20" anywhere in this post, it breaks... heh.