>And many years ago - before the main early music revival and >Ovation-Maccaferro (Sp?) made a serious plastic guitar. >Maccafero, of course, was the luthier made famous by Django Rheinhardt.
Very correct, Daniel, although it would have been more germane to the point if you had also mentioned Maccaferri's plastic reeds, which were enough of a success that they continued to be made through WWII despite rationing. (They had the endorsement of Benny Goodman!) As for his plastic guitars, one biographer says, "Alas, his Maccaferri plastic guitars, while conceived as a serious musical instrument, were not a market success." The article goes on to note that his plastic Ukes (with the Arthur Godfrey 'Chord Finder', basically an button-driven autoharp arrangement moulded into the neck over the fingerboard) _was_ a success. http://www.lutherie.net/mario_en.html I have no doubt that a good quality plastic uke will be readily accepted in the world-at-large, again, as the plastic recorder was accepted and has, indeed, grown both in volume and quality. These days, it is not outside reason for a semi-pro to consider a good Aulos or Yamaha plastic alto or tenor for solo work, and whole successful scholastic programs are based on inexpensive, but workable instruments. (With the reverse pressure from the fact that an important part of the art of playing recorder is dealing with the vagueries of wood, undulating bore shape, and fingerings which are individual to each historical recorder!) I could go on. Probably the best, and shortest, example is in plastic reeds, in which Maccaferri had such a hit. For the single-reed instruments, plastic reeds can be a godsend, and companies like Rico make many varieties, now. For the doublereeds... well, other than "Keep one in the case for emergencies, then don't have emergencies," there isn't much to say. They're both reeds, but in one case, applying high technology materials worked well, and in the other, it has never caught on. (A side note, parallel to the "Try parts of lutes and an association with real luthiers": for double reed instruments, pantograph reed profile copying machines are viable and useful. Bloody expensive, and you have to have something to copy, but at least you get something that, with a bit of tweaking, you can play music on.) So I reiterate: plastic lutes don't seem to me to be a wise way to try to establish rapid-prototyping as a viable manufacturing approach. Your mileage may vary. ray To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
