2009
AL#98 p.57 read this article
Ahanali Jahandideh Mitra Jahandideh Hadi Abbaszadeh Samad Jahandideh
▪ The Kamanche is a Persian bowed instrument with a skin head. The authors use a ratio of the value of phi to define its size, a trick violin makers have used for a long time. With one photo and 4 drawings.
2009
AL#98 p.44
Thomas Johnson
▪ The instruments are the igil and the morin khuur. They may figure prominently on the top of the pops in Tuva, but we bet you’ve never heard of them. Obscure instruments are fun and exotic, just like foreign places (where the heck is Tuva, anyway?). Both are fretless and played with a bow. One is covered in goat or fish skin and one is not. Either would have looked right in place in “Conan the Barbarian”. That’s a compliment, not a slight. Full scale plans are available as GAL plan #60. With 4 photos and a mini-plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
2008
AL#93 p.7
David Golber
▪ Go to a slaughterhouse and get membrane from the internal organs. You want pericardium, not peritoneum.
2003
AL#73 p.50 BRB7 p.24
Nathan Stinnette George Wunderlich
▪ Wunderlich builds minstrel banjos, recreations of banjos made before the various factories turned them into standardized items that standardized the way we all think about the banjo. With 6 photos.
1992
AL#32 p.47 BRB3 p.257 read this article
Harold Turner
▪ Build a banjo and scare the congregation, and not with music. Luthier humor, and more good local color. Turner was there when the banjo bomb was invented. A shrinking calf skin head was the culprit.
1990
AL#23 p.28 BRB2 p.411
James Hillier
▪ The kibangala is a seven string, four-course instrument carved from solid wood that utilizes a skin head. The plan is a shrunken version of our full-scale Plan #28.
1987
AL#12 p.18 BRB1 p.452 read this article
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ Robison offers description, anecdotes, 4 photos, and a drawing of an instrument that might be crudely described as a Japanese 3-string banjo. The plans are a shrunken version of our full-scale Plan #16.
1987
AL#12 p.19 BRB1 p.453
Nicholas Von Robison
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1987
AL#10 p.30 BRB1 p.382 read this article
Nasser Shirazi
▪ The tar (or Persian banjo) is a classical Iranian instrument, the body of which is carved from a mulberry log and covered in lambskin. The neck traditionally incorporates rams horn and camel bone. Exotic, fascinating, wonderfully politically incorrect. Some alternate materials are listed for those who can’t wait for their camel to die. With 6 photos, 2 sketches, and a scaled down version of GAL Plan #14.
1987
AL#10 p.32 BRB1 p.385
Nasser Shirazi
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1986
AL#8 p.5
David Golber
▪ Golber adds information to the Shirazi article about the Persian kamanche (AL#4). Specifically, what kind of skin is traditionally used for the soundboard of the instrument.
1985
AL#4 p.27 BRB1 p.126 read this article
Nasser Shirazi
▪ Shirazi offers a history of the Persian bowed instrument as well as plans and construction advice. The kamanche is a four-stringed neck attached to a gourd. The plans are a reduced version of our full-scale Plan #9.
1985
AL#4 p.28 BRB1 p.131
Nasser Shirazi
▪ A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.
1985
AL#2 p.46 read this article
Topher Gayle
▪ A jig for holding a natural-skin head at tension while it is being glued to a drum.
1978
DS#76 BRB2 p.244
Kirk Hogan
▪ Mounting a skin head on a banjo has become a lost art. Here’s how to do it. Includes 4 drawings.