May 2013 blank1 (Page intentionally left blank) May 2013 EDITORIAL The Tao of Good Sound his issue of Sustain is as interesting As you probably know, the ancient yin-yang as it is contrasting. symbol represents the duality of two con- T On one side we have Helmuth trasting sides, coming into a dynamic unity. Lemme’s “Pickup Measuring Technique”, an Within the white area of the symbol there is a instructive article describing how to evaluate little of black, and vice versa. Curiously, this the objective characteristics of a pickup is something that both articles reflect: for performance and quality even you cannot measure the sub- before we even hear it. Pick- jective quality of a pickup ups are considered in with any electronic de- terms of henries, mega vices, but achieving ohms, kilohertz, and a superb tone needs millivolts. the use of quality On the other side, we materials and the have a lengthy in- best technology. terview with Ulrich The lives of the Teuffel, a luthier at men at the cen- the avant-garde of tre of these pages European lutherie, reflect that har- who believes in a more monic ambivalence, intuitive kind of engage- too. Teuffel relies on ment with the sound of technology to the point of pickups, which in this case are machining his own screws, explored in terms of non-conscious and Lemme so loves the sound of responses, human-voice-like harmonics, and guitars that he owns a wonderful collection psychoacoustics. of them. Are these two views contradictory? The an- swer is a resounding no. In fact, they are op- So, little grasshopper, leave dualities aside posed but perfectly complementary. and enjoy the ride. Leo Lospennato is luthier, author of books on lutherie and chief editor of SUSTAIN Magazine. He lives in Berlin, Germany. Visit www.lospennato.com 1 Issue #3 - 2Q/2013 Imprint Letters News In Preparation: Books and Documentaries on Guitars Málaga, Copenhagen and Berlin Guitar Fairs coming in 2014 By Cem Öcek An interview with Ulrich Teuffel Guitars From a Unique Mind By Cem Öcek Electronics Pickup Measuring Technique by Helmuth Lemme 2 May 2013 CONTENTS Industry Anatomy of a Harp Kit by Jerry Brown Thinking out loud Lutherie: Art, Science, or None of the Above By Leo Lospennato Education in lutherie From Learning to Teaching By Wim Stout Book Reviews Wandré - The Artist Of Electric Guitar By Neal Soloponte The Intern’s Column 3 Issue #3 - 2Q/2013 IMPRINT Editor in chief Leo Lospennato Advisory Council Wim Stout Helmut Lemme Website www.Sustain-Magazine.com Contributors in this issue: Frank Hebing was born in Bocholt, Germany. He works as the pedagogic project leader of the Institute for Innovative Education. In the meantime, however, he finds the time to build his own guitars. Visit http://www. frank-guitars.de Jerry Brown is the founder of Musicmak- er’s Kits, Inc. located in Stillwater, Minne- sota, USA. Visit www.harpkit.com. Helmuth Lemme, born in Germany, was building phones and electric motors already at 11. He started to develop his own pickups in 1975, and became an expert in industrial electronics. He is a guitar collector and author of several books on Cem Öcek, born in Turkey, is a computer electronics of guitars and amplifiers. engineer at HP. He is the author of two http://www.gitarrenelektronik.de books (in Turkish): “Electric Guitars” and “Amplifiers and Effect Devices of Electric Guitars”, and of many articles on new Brett Lock is a South African bass guitarist music technologies. He has been designing living in London. He has a background in and making electric and bass guitars for 20 magazine writing, editing and design. He years. and his partner Chris now own a small media company producing websites and mobile applications, but modify and Frank Filippone was born in Australia restore guitars for relaxation. where he works on all things wood: he is Visit www.tunemewhat.com a picture framer, publisher of a magazine for the framing industry, and he provides Gary Swiftis a true Rennaisance man: A quality tone woods for luthiers. As well as mechanical engineer by training, Gary was being an amateur luthier Frank has been a also a submarine officer, a public school guitar collector for many years. Visit www. teacher, a magazine editor, and a part-time southerntonewoods.com.au rock band player. These days he is getting more deeply involved in lutherie, with his sights locked on his next project: building a custom electric guitar. 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Printed in the USA - ISBN-13: 978-1500375195 4 May 2013 LETTERS First Steps into CNC technology I would like to get into CAD likely come already included with the ma- and CNC routing/milling. Can chine. One example is Mach 3. you give me any pointers to a CNC routers (also called CNC mills, or CNC Q: machines, or simply CNC’s) have become pret- CAD software that is suited to this purpose but which is not overkill ty cheap lately, around $3,000 (2,500 euro) or nor madly expensive? less, including software. That’s cheaper than -Kevin Austin, Cyprus. a “custom shop” guitar! If you plan to buy your own CNC router, then There are three types of soft- maybe you should first decide which kind of ware packages that you need machine to get, and see what software pack- in order to produce an actual age comes with it. On the other hand, if you A: piece with a CNC: are thinking of only building the CAD models 1) A computer aided design software (or and then outsourcing the actual routing to a simply “CAD”). This is the graphics software workshop, maybe it is better to talk to them that you use to create the 2D or 3D digital to see which software they use, and which file model of whatever you are trying to produce. formats they can work with. A good first step would be “Sketchup”, which is intuitive, even fun to use, and free (http:// www.sketchup.com/). There is also a pro version This issue’s cover at around $500 (400euro). One of Ulrich Teuffel’s guitar models, the Tesla. His Other packages are: Viacad 3D ($100), MoI more recognized model, the Birdfish, is discussed in ($300), Rhino ($1,000), and Alibre ($1,000). the interview in page XX. AutoCAD, the industry’s standard and the most sophisticated of them all, costs several thousands and is justified only for profession- al designers. The learning curve for AutoCad is way longer and steeper, too. STL is the standard format a CAD software saves your model into, which is supported by most programs in the steps that follow. 2) A computer aided manufacturing soft- ware (or simply “CAM”). This software takes the CAD file and translates it into a set of in- structions understandable by a CNC router in order to produce an actual piece. CAM soft- ware is available in 2D or 3D versions, too. Its output is a file ready to be fed into the CNC machine, typically in DXF format. 3) A software that controls the actual op- eration of the CNC router. This software will 5 Issue #3 - 2Q/2013 NEWS Book: The Physics of Electric Guitars ood news for our German-speaking G Fellows. The monumental work com- piled in the book “Physics of the Electric Gui- tar” (“Physik der Elektrogitarre”, available free as a PDF in German on http://bit.ly/1sEdmjh) will be available in print by the end of this year. The outcome of the research work at the laboratory of Electroacustics at the Technic University of Regensburg, in Bavaria, South Prof. Dr. Zollner sharing a discussion on the sound of guitars at Germany, this work represents the deepest, the Regensburg University labs. most technical approach ever taken on the subject. Lead by Prof. Dr.-Ing.