Ray and others I own a plastic Maccaferri ukulele. Apparently there were about 9 million of them sold (says Wikipedia). The 'chord-finder' gadget is not moulded onto the neck, but attaches with little hooks and straps.
It is a real instrument, loud, bright, and has good intonation. By the way: I understand from recorder players that plastic recorders sound and behave a lot like surviving ivory recorders. I sometimes use the Maccaferri as the cheapest renaissance guitar ever - though not in concerts (yet) :-)) I would be highly interested to try a plastic lute. Jelma On Sat, May 16, 2009 at 12:53 PM, William Brohinsky <tiorbin...@gmail.com> wrote: >>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 >
