Maybe someone more versed in guitar history can enlighten.
The only thing I can say from my own observation is, in musical
instrument construction in general, a lot of weight is placed on
tradition. If someone famous or highly regarded plays an instrument by
a certain maker, or made of particular materials, then everybody has to
have one! So every violinist wants a Strad or a copy of a Strad. So it
goes with guitars. I'm only guessing, but some maker must have decided
to add wood lining to the joints between the side ribs and the top and
back - perhaps he made a good part of his living repairing instruments
as many luthiers today do. The tone would have changed somewhat and the
customer must have liked it and eventually the technique spread.
On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 3:23 PM, WALSH STUART <[1]s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
wrote:
On 3/6/2017 3:50 PM, Mark Day wrote:
I should add that rag paper or cloth was used for reinforcement
of
joints on the backs of all of these early stringed instruments
in lieu
of wood.
Thanks. I'd forgotten about the use of cloth for reinforcement of
the backs.
It would seem, then, that many flat-backed, plucked instruments,
including folk instruments, after about 1800 have a lot more
internal wood for joining back and soundboard to the sides than in
earlier times. I wonder what caused the change?
Stuart
On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Mark Day
<[1][2]lautenmac...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I can't remember exactly where I read it, but I suspect it
was
either
in David Van Edwards "Build your own Renaissance Lute"
CD
course, or
"Historical Lute Construction" by Robert Lundberg, that the
lack
of
lining between the soundboard and ribs is to keep the top
as
light and
flexible as possible, and to make it easier to remove the
top in
the
future for repair.
In fact the overall construction philosophy of lutes,
vihuelas,
viols,
Renaissance and Baroque guitars, seems to be light. As
far as
the
backs are concerned, I suppose it was also in keeping with
the
light
philosophy and if these instruments didn't suffer
catastrophic
failure
due to inadequate glue surface between the back and sides
under
normal
use, then linings aren't really needed. Modern guitars are
built
much
more heavily than their ancestors.
On Mon, Feb 27, 2017 at 3:20 PM, WALSH STUART
<[1][2][3]s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
wrote:
This is a very basic question and I may have got things
confused!
Whenever I see constructional details of flat-backed
plucked
instruments after about 1800 or so they all seem to use
either
solid
linings, or kerfing or tentallones to join the top and
the back
to
the sides. This is true (I think) of all guitars,
flat-backed
mandolins, ukuleles bandurrias, timples... etc....they
all use
extra
wood attached to the insides of the ribs.
But at least some earlier (flat-backed, plucked)
instruments
don't.
Have I got that right? If so, why do (some) earlier
instruments
just have soundboard and backs glued to the sides?
Grateful for any insights
Stuart
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