Ervin Somogyi is a respected guitar maker and lutherie teacher. He’s been everywhere and done everything. He has lost everything and come back for more. He has numerous credits as a GAL author and convention presenter, and is the author of The Responsive Guitar.
▪ bio current as of 2014
2014
AL#119 p.71 read this article
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Steve was a guitarist, luthier, scholar, author, and experimenter who was a GAL member for twenty years and a regular at our conventions. He will be missed. Steve Newberry (Jan 2, 1928 – Aug 8, 2014).
2006
AL#88 p.64
Ervin Somogyi
▪ The Northern California Association of Luthiers built a public display of how guitars are created. This is the story of how it came about. With one real long photo.
2006
AL#87 p.60 read this article
Ervin Somogyi
▪ The reviewer is wildly enthusiastic about this book that seems to cover every aspect of the American guitar.
2006
AL#85 p.54
Ervin Somogyi
▪ If a simple formulation of wooden parts was all it took to make a guitar there would be no small shops and no handbuilders. The factories would get it right and their efficiency would rule out the little guys. But the factories don’t, and the little guys haven’t been. Somogyi takes a shot at explaining why this is so.
2005
AL#81 p.65 BRB7 p.498
Ervin Somogyi
▪ You know how you see new cars being shipped to the dealer’s lot with big sheets of protective film on them so the bug spalts will peel off? Similar thought here. Paper protectors are made for polished pegheads.
2005
AL#82 p.51
Ervin Somogyi
▪ So you’ve made a guitar but it’s not all you hoped for. You have the opportunity to discuss it with your peers and they all have a cure. Unhappily the methods of correction don’t jibe. Somogyi finally got a response he could live with. It saved his guitar and eventually turned into an unexpected sale. The whole trick is in lucking into the right guy to talk to.
2004
AL#80 p.4 BRB7 p.228
Ervin Somogyi
▪ The author not only explains how the traditional lute rose is carved, but demonstrates how the technique might be used other than as a rosette. With 17 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
2001
AL#68 p.69 BRB6 p.205
Ervin Somogyi
▪ The differences in the characteristics of the top woods European spruce, Sitka spruce, Engelmann spruce, and western red cedar.
2002
AL#69 p.46
Ervin Somogyi
▪ The wry Somogyi presents some little-known information that may not improve your work but will nicely occupy your mind as you carve a neck for the 50th time, or whatever. The meaning of many words has drifted so far from the roots of those words that, in the strictest sense, we no longer know what we are talking about, even though we continue to communicate very nicely. Mostly. A fun piece.
1999
AL#60 p.19 BRB5 p.417
Ervin Somogyi
▪ How important is the grain orientation of your braces? Is quartersawn wood really the stiffest? Somogyi ran a small series of tests that suggest that information we all trust and take for granted may be little more than lutherie mythology. With 3 photos and a chart.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1999
AL#58 p.49
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Why do you lutherize? Really, why? Luthiers may be more inclined to look inward than others, but they’re no more inclined to talk about what they find there than anyone else. Somogyi’s eloquent confession might spark the rest of us into talking more deeply about our art and craft.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1998
AL#54 p.16
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Until the Asian market crisis many American luthiers thought that dealing their instruments in Japan would provide the best of living opportunities. Much of Somogyi’s production goes to Japan, and in 1997 he visited Japan at the invitation of his distributor to visit dealers and attend the “NAMM show” of the Orient. Here’s what business and lutherie in Japan is really like. With 10 photos.
1996
AL#48 p.22 BRB4 p.394
Ervin Somogyi
▪ This 1995 convention lecture covers the physical nature of the neck. Not how to do the work, but how to make a neck for maximum playability and instrument performance. Both steel string and classical guitars are discussed. With 1 photo and a slough of diagrams.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1995
AL#43 p.65
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Recognizing the accomplishments of the volunteer work of NCAL (Northern California Association of Luthiers) with a special award, the Swiss Army Banjo.
1995
AL#41 p.54
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi believes that ethics is a cloudy but deep issue that all luthiers must contend with. Simply trying to do your best work is not the end of the issue.
1993
AL#36 p.12 BRB3 p.393
Ervin Somogyi Colin Kaminski
▪ Many of us suffer periods of lutherie burnout, but few as dramatically as Somogyi, whose house and shop were lost in a great California fire. This interview offers early background information and an update of how he has coped since the fire.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1993
AL#36 p.16 BRB3 p.396
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi delves into many of the technical considerations of guitar design and construction. With a large number of drawings.
1993
AL#34 p.4
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi was burned out of house and shop during the Oakland Hills Firestorm. He describes his plight and how the Crafts Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) helped rescue him. If you need such help, or if you would like to contribute to CERF, Somogyi tells how.
1991
AL#28 p.6
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi lost his home and shop in the Oakland Hills fire of 1991.
1991
AL#27 p.4 BRB3 p.80
Chris Brandt R.E. Brune Jeffrey R. Elliott Richard Schneider Ervin Somogyi David Wilson
▪ A look inside the shops of six professional luthiers, featuring floor plans, tooling descriptions, notes on lighting and specialized machinery, and ideas about how work space can help (or hurt) your lifestyle. With a good Q&A segment and 63 photos.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s fifty best articles published before 2010.
1990
LT p.114
Steve Andersen Chris Brandt R.E. Brune Ted Davis Jeffrey R. Elliott James Flynn Bob Gleason Hideo Kamimoto Robert Lundberg Frederick C. Lyman Jr. John Monteleone Robert Ruck Richard Schneider Ervin Somogyi Al Stancel Robert Steinegger Janet Toon
▪ Seventeen established luthiers were asked to list ten hand tools, five power tools, and five supplies used as tools. This info was used to determine the most essential tools, including specifics, model and size, source, and any special uses.
1988
AL#14 p.46 BRB2 p.66
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi saves a stash of warped rosewood guitar sets by clamping them between aluminum plates and heating them with a clothes iron.
1987
AL#11 p.32 BRB1 p.474
Max Krimmel Jean Larrivee Bruce Ross Ervin Somogyi Robert Steinegger
▪ Such panel discussions are always interesting, but this one especially so, mostly because three of the five panelists run one-man shops. The questions (and even many answers) don’t seem to change much from year to year, but it’s good to hear from some smaller voices in the industry for a change.
1986
AL#8 p.41
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi relates two tales of dealing with the public.
1986
AL#5 p.26 BRB1 p.172
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi describes his adventure of buying guitar tops in Germany, and the extent to which bowed instruments dominate the German market.
1986
AL#5 p.27 BRB1 p.176
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi uses personal experience to compare Sitka and European spruces.
1985
AL#1 p.52
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi comments briefly on the relative merits of oil stones and water stones.
1984
GALQ Vol.12#3 p.20
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi promotes steel string guitars through the medium of bluegrass festivals.
1983
DS#259 BRB1 p.122
Ervin Somogyi
▪ Somogyi wrote this scary little article in 1983, but if you think that the chemicals luthiers encounter have gotten friendlier you better think again. The compounds that have been making people sick for decades are still out there, and regulation doesn’t seem to have made much of an impact. You’ll have to be your own safety cop, and this article is a good place to begin.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.
1983
GALQ Vol.11#2 p.20
Ervin Somogyi
▪ On February 26 and 27, the Western Forestry Center presented its annual handmade musical instruments show.
1980
DS#160
Ervin Somogyi
▪ A list of the most common chemicals used by luthiers which have a high rating for chemical toxicity, including acetone, benzene, aniline, lacquer thinner, esters, methanol, and paint strippers.
1979
DS#108 LW p.43
Ervin Somogyi
▪ If the dust in your shop is out of control, then so is your health.
This article has been nominated as one of the Guild’s best articles published before 2010.