Michael J. Pagliaro - The String Instrument Owners Handbook

Michael Pagliaro has served as professor of instrumental music and musical instrument technology, is founder and CEO emeritus-in-counsel of Ardsley Musical Instrument Service, Ltd., and director of research and development for Contemporary Music Laboratories. He is an authority in musical instrument technology and the inventor of several musical instrument products. He is author of Everything You Should Know about Musical Instruments (1992), The Violin: How It Works (2002), The Flute: How It Works (2003), The Violin Workbook (2004), The Musical Instrument Desk Reference (Scarecrow Press, 2012), and The Instrumental Music Directors Guide to Comprehensive Program Development (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014).

The following individuals have generously contributed their talent and effort to assist in the final production of this work. My most grateful appreciation to:

My son, Michael J. Pagliaro, Jr., for his work in producing and editing the photographs.

My grandson, Michael J. Pagliaro, III, for his drawings and design contributions.

James OKeefe, artist, sculptor, and computer technology specialist for producing the computerized graphics, drawings of the ancient instruments, fingering charts, and for finessing the formatting and cover of this book.

Thomas Caserta, celebrated academic in the New York area. As a premier S.A.T. test preparation specialist, Tom applied his extensive knowledge of English grammar and usage acquired through his Jesuit education at Fordham Preparatory School and Fordham University to assist in editing the text in this book.

The following extraordinarily gifted professionals in the field of musical instrument fabrication and distribution have generously granted permission to use information and artwork from their websites. Listed in alphabetical order they are:

Bob and Mark Gollihur, double bass authorities at

http://www.gollihurmusic.com;

Scott Hershey, master luthier at

http://www.hersheyviolins.net;

Eitan Hoffer, archetier extraordinaire, specialist in the fabrication of ancient bows at

http://www.hoffer-bows.com;

Lars Kirmser, publisher and musical instrument specialist at

http://www.musictrader.com;

Gregg Miner, President, The Harp Guitar Foundation at

http://www.minermusic.com;

Otis A. Tomas, master luthier at

www.otis@fiddletree.com;

Jimmy Sang Wang, bow manufacturer at

http://www.wangbow.com.

Bennett Graff, a special note of appreciation to my editor for the support, encouragement, and technical assistance he has given me in assembling and formatting this manuscript.

Instrument Diary

This chapter is designed to document the history and maintenance of an instrument. By entering all the relevant information on a regular basis, the owner will have a reference for periodic maintenance, information for a possible sale in the future, and a history of the instrument both past and future. Not every category listed will be relevant to every instrument. Fill in those that are relevant and add any information that suits your particular situation.

My (Instrument) __________________

Instruments History

Owners name _________________________________________

Date of purchase __________________________________________

Where purchased ______________________________________

Makers label _________________________________________

Model name and number __________________________________

Date made ____________________________________________

New [] previously owned []

Previous owner(s) name(s)

__________________________________________________________

Identifying marks, label, serial number _______________________

__________________________________________________________

Sellers Information

Name ________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________

Phone ________________________________________________

Email ________________________________________________

Website ______________________________________________

List or asking price _____________________________________

Price paid ____________________________________________

Notes

N.B. When making an entry include date, action, repair, replacement or service, part serviced, brand or description of replacement part, source, technicians name and contact information, etc., keep all invoices in a file for future reference.

Maintenance Record

The Instrument General Service

String Changes

Peg

Nut

Bridge

Tailpiece

Tail Gut

Fine Tuners

Saddle

End Pin or End Button

Major Repairs

Detail the damage, cause, how repaired, by whom, cost, date.

Notes

The Bow

Rehair

Cleaning

Repair

Other

The First String Instruments

The history of musical instruments has been investigated by some of the greatest minds in musicology and academia with results mired in conflicting opinions, contradictory factoids, and a general disarray and confusion of information. Because of this conflict and confusion the following pages dealing with that history are intended to be a simple survey of the subject based on assorted points of view on each topic. In many cases the experts themselves qualify their findings with a disclaimer similar to this one.

In an attempt to avoid the endless dialog that would be required to elaborate on these issues, this first section of the survey will cover the history of non-bowed, plucked or strummed string instruments. The sections which follow will give an overview of what probably happened which resulted in the evolution of the violin family instruments we now use. Timelines preceding each section will show the sequence in which the instruments appeared.

This chapter is divided into four parts. Part 1 will deal with plucked instruments, part 2 with early bowed instruments, part 3 with the appearance of the violin family of instruments, and part 4 will cover the history of the bows.

Timeline

The following timeline shows some of the early plucked instruments in an ethereal, non-specific setting representative of the lack of their exact history. This is the first phase in the evolution of string instruments.