(Book). Siminoff's Luthier Glossary is a first-edition compendium of more than 800 technical terms used in the design, construction, and production of string musical instruments. The handy 6"x9" softcover text is intended for all levels of builders from beginners to advanced, and features descriptions of parts, techniques, tools, adhesives, finishes, machinery, woods, stains, acoustics, and legal terms. The Appendix includes numerous valuable data tables along with two dozen color plates to help recognize the tonewoods and decorative woods used in luthierie.

The saz or bağlama, a generic name for long-necked lutes in Turkey, plays an important role in Turkish musical culture. This volume focusses on the instrument's cultural-historical background while briefly discussing various saz or bağlama types and their construction, tuning, and playing techniques.

Tanbûrs are long-necked lute-like instruments played in the art, Sûfî, and folk musical traditions along the Silk Road and beyond. This book provides a detailed study of the history of the tanbûr, its role in Ottoman music, construction and playing technique.

This book is divided into two main parts: ‘The Tanbûr Tradition’ discusses the origin, history, construction and playing techniques of tanbûrs; ‘The Tanbûr Family’ focusses on long-necked lutes as a family of musical instruments. After a short introduction, the construction, playing technique, and musical traditions are discussed.

(Book). An essential item for the instrument builder, The Luthier's Handbook explores the secrets and science behind making good-sounding acoustic stringed instruments. Renowned author Roger H. Siminoff brings to the table more than four decades of luthiery experience and shares the time-tested philosophies, tips and technology of the craft. As the ideal complement to other books on building instruments, this text describes the structural and acoustical attributes of air chambers; what to listen for when tap-tuning; selecting a good piece of wood; placement of the braces and tone bars and how to tune them; how to select the right strings; what to consider in bridge design concepts; and much more. Includes a free String Gauge Calculator for determining the right set of strings.

(Book). The Ultimate Bluegrass Mandolin Construction Manual is the most complete step-by-step treatise ever written on building an acoustical string instrument. Siminoff, a renowned author and luthier, applies over four decades of experience to guide beginners to pros through detailed chapters on wood selection, cutting, carving, shaping, assembly, inlays, fretting, binding and assembly of an F-style mandolin. A special highlight is an in-depth chapter on the art of tap tuning. This fully-illustrated manual boasts more than 250 photos, a full-color section on the staining and finishing processes, numerous detailed illustrations, and a bonus set of 20 full-size blueprints. Spiral bound.