String Theory is always delighted when the big papers write stories about String Theory, even when it's about scientists debunking string theory, our preferred explanation of everything. Sometimes, like yesterday, a string really is a string. The New York Times offers a spectacular look inside cutting-edge violin making and lutherie. Stringed instrument makers, immaculately patient and beatific people most of them, have been pounding at the door of Stradivari's secret vault for centuries, and this piece suggests they're finally hearing splinters start to crack, with the help of science. And it must be a trend, because Canada.com writes today about Toronto cellist Shauna Rolston and her carbon fibre cello. "No one has an idea, if they went behind a screen, that it's not a wooden cello," she is quoted as saying.
Guitar builders like RainSong have been having success with carbon guitars for some time, and I've played some of them and been knocked out by their punch and clarity. I noticed Tim Stafford of Blue Highway playing a carbon/graphite guitar at IBMA, so if it passes the bluegrass picker test, it must have something going for it. But as it happens, I'm much more enthralled by real wood-working luthiers this week, since I just met Manuel Delgado, a third-generation Mexican-American luthier who recently moved from East L.A. to East Nashville. I have a story coming in Fretboard Journal about him, but in the meantime I put together this radio story for WPLN. He's the guy in the picture.
Comments