Category Archives: tension

Effect of String Tension on Archtop Guitar Action Height

2023
AL#150 p.14               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ When you tighten the strings on an archtop guitar, the neck lifts forward and the action height increases. At the same time, the bridge pushes the top down and the action height decreases. It’s a win-win! So you can just feel lucky about it and proceed naively along your life path, or you can do what Elmendorp did: get a bucket of water, a piece of wire, and a dial indicator; collect some data; then crunch the numbers.

Reducing Frequency Error in Electric Guitars

2023
AL#150 p.38               
Mark French   Devon Pessler   Alyssa Fernandez                                                                                   

▪ Ya talk about rabbit holes. Research into guitar intonation just gets deeper and deeper. This article homes in on individual string compensation at the nut, plus small adjustments to the position of the 1st and 2nd frets. Industrial strength data collection. Heed the eggheads.

Guitar Evolution’s Missing Link: The Early 5-String

2022
AL#147 p.28               
James Buckland                                                                                           

▪ Baroque guitars were 5-course instruments. That is, they had ten strings in five pairs. Then suddenly here comes the 19th century and guitars had six single strings. Yadda yadda, now it’s today and everything is normal. The real story is a lot more interesting than that and it actually involves a “missing link;” the 5-string guitar. Luthier, guitarist, and scholar Buckland lays it all out for us.

Small is Beautiful: the Piccolo Balalaika

2022
AL#145 p.42               
Sjaak Elmendorp                                                                                           

▪ Here’s the story of a big guy and his little balalaika. After rashly promising a friend that he would make a balalaika although he knew nothing about the distinctively triangular Russian instrument. We’ve all been there, right? Sjaak went on to explore and build the rare descant member of the family. Mentions balalaika player Jan Van der Hoogt.

Delving into the Vagaries and Mysteries of Early Gibson Guitar Strings By Way of the Harp Guitar

2019
AL#137 p.32               
Gregg Miner                                                                                           

▪ Ready for an Americana-infused, vintage-lutherie, history-detective-style nerdfest? Yes, that old joker Orville Gibson is still full of surprises, even now, a century after his death. We have a lot to learn about string material, tension, intention, and nomenclature. Not to mention marketing and musical snobbery.

A Field Guide to Mandolins

2017
AL#132 p.30               
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ Mandolins have come in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and styles in over 350 years of history. And while you are not likely to stumble upon the kind of mandolin that Vivaldi wrote for, you may find yourself looking at a century-old American factory-made cutie like this Smurf-head Regal, resplendent in muliple pearloids. This article gives you a quick introduction to the rich diversity in the great Family of Man(dolin).

Inharmonicity of Guitar Strings

2009
AL#100 p.48               read this article
Mark French                                                                                           

▪ Guitar strings need to be the “wrong” length in order to sound “right.” The gloriously simple math of Pythagoras doesn’t accomplish this. French uses lasers and spreadsheets, more numbers, and Greek letters to attempt to get closer.

Review: Folk Harp Design and Construction by Jeremy H. Brown

2005
AL#83 p.52   BRB7 p.532            read this article
C.F. Casey                                                                                           

▪ The reviewer notes that this book is more about harp construction theory than about actual construction techniques, but decides that that is where the emphasis should be. He notes that the section of string length vs. string tension is especially useful, and that the book as a whole should have an important place on any harp makers’ reference shelf.

Forces on Archtop Guitars

2003
AL#74 p.30   BRB7 p.56            
Franz Elferink                                                                                           

▪ A variety of forces begun by simple string tension not only make our instruments function but may eventually tear them apart. With a little math we can determine what those forces are and sort of decide if our archtops are beefy enough to withstand them. With 3 drawings.

What Happens If I Make It Bigger?

2003
AL#73 p.36   BRB7 p.14            
Jon Sevy                                                                                           

▪ This piece is aptly subtitled “Rules of thumb for approximating changes in the size of braces, tops, and strings,” which sums it up nicely. Our teachers promised us that math wouldn’t be irrelevant in our futures, and here their words come back to bite us. Sevy obviously believed them, and here presents some “easy” formulas for calculating the results of changes in size we might make in our instruments.

Questions: Playability Variables

1998
AL#56 p.64   BRB5 p.309            
Jeffrey R. Elliott                                                                                           

▪ The variables that influence the ‘feel’ or playability of instruments with the same scale length, string gauge, and setup.

Scale Length and Tone

1997
AL#51 p.6   BRB5 p.86            
Ralph Novak                                                                                           

▪ Scale length is seldom used as a design criterion to achieve a given tone, but Novak shows that a given set of strings behaves differently according to the scale length it is stretched over. There are reasons to change other than player comfort. Impress your friends with your knowledge of the evil clang tone. With 6 graphs and 2 photos.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

GAL Instrument Plan #39: Hammered Dulcimer

1995
AL#41 p.29   BRB4 p.137            
Debbie Suran   Nicholas Von Robison                                                                                       

▪ Suran’s design allows for the least amount of tension over the side bridges, which contributes to instrument stability. A full-scale instrument plan. See the GAL website for a low-rez preview.

A New Look at Harp Guitars

1993
AL#34 p.24   BRB3 p.334   ALA6 p.30         
Jonathon Peterson                                                                                           

▪ In AL#29 Peterson looked back at the harp guitar. This time he takes a forward look. A number of luthiers find fascination and a new potential in the big beast, and this is the best look at their results to date. With 28 photos and 8 detailed drawings. Also available is GAL full-scale Plan #34, the Klein solidbody electric harp guitar.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

Letter to the Editor: Error in Letter of AL#4

1986
AL#5 p.7               
Michael Knutson                                                                                           

▪ Knutson makes a correction to his earlier letter about wire strength and string tension printed in AL#4 (which was a response to an article in AL#2).

String Tension and Gauges

1985
AL#2 p.42   BRB1 p.78            
Graham McDonald                                                                                           

▪ McDonald gives formulae and graphs to determine appropriate steel string gauges for nonstandard scale lengths.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

Calculating String Tension

1980
DS#144   LW p.106            read this article
Max Krimmel                                                                                           

▪ To use this article you’ll need a gram scale, a Hz frequency chart, and a calculator. You can figure for yourself what some of the string makers won’t tell you.

This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.

String Metals and Windings

1975
DS#17   BRB2 p.105            
Joseph Valentich                                                                                           

▪ The scale of instrument and string tension, string materials and string winding, core wire and wrapping wire size, and acoustic and electric strings for application to ethnic fretted instruments.