The interest in tap tuning has grown tremendously over the past five years and many builders cite my book, The Art of Tap Tuning, as the source for tap tuning inspiration and information.

As most of you know, one of the interesting features of the Gibson F5 mandolins that were signed by Lloyd Loar in the early 1920s is that they were tap tuned - a key attribute that gives these instruments their unusual rich and powerful tone.

In February of 2006, the California Bluegrass Association (CBA) held a "LoarFest" in Bakersfield, California during which 25 owners of Loar-signed F5s (including the one in our possession) brought their mandolins for all to see and hear. As we listened to each of the instruments being played in the same room, it was both interesting and unusual to note that each instrument had a very similar tone. Aside from the fact that most of the instruments had different types of strings, and were being played by different people with different picking styles and different types of picks, there was a common thread among all the instruments unlike what one might hear from any grouping of 25 other mandolins. It was uncanny.

The similarity of tone in the F5s wasn't coincidence - it was very much by design, and the key attribute was the fact that these instruments were tap tuned.

As I think most of you know, tap tuning is the art adjusting the stiffness of the wood and the size of the apertures to literally tune the various parts of the instrument to specific notes. The process is much as if you were making xylophone bars and had to remove wood until you arrived at the desired frequency for each bar.

But what is most interesting is that the concert pitch Loar was applying in the 1920s was not the same as the concert pitch we use today. In Loar's time, concert pitch was C=256 (when C=256, A=431). Today, concert pitch is A=440 (adopted as the standard in 1971). So, here we have the case of Loar requesting that F5s were tuned to notes in the 1920s that we don't use in 2010. In fact, C=256 is actually a quarter-tone off of A=440. This poses a very interesting question. Is what Loar was hearing in 1920 different from what we hear today?"

The answer is most probably, "yes!"

Loar did experience A=440 since the change to that concert pitch as the standard was being considered by leading worldwide music organizations before Loar's death in 1943. (In fact, I have owned several of Loar's personal keyboard instruments some of which he had tuned to C=256 and others tuned to A=440.)

As an interesting and surprising experiment, tuning the strings of a Loar-signed F5 to concert pitch C=256 (A=431) yields an instrument that doesn't really sound very good. Same strings, same pick, same player, just tuned down a bit - but the result is a big difference in tone. So, when tuning the F5s in the early 1920s using C=256 as concert pitch, Loar was hearing something different from what we are hearing today. Hmmmm.

If the subject interests you, I wrote an in-depth white paper about three years ago entitled What Was Loar Hearing? You might want to read it to get a better idea of what was going on with tap tuning and concert pitches of the day. The white paper is free and can be downloaded from the downloads page on our web site (eighth document from the bottom of the page).

One of the tricky parts of preparing soundboards and backboards is carving the scrolls. In addition to shaping the volute properly, the low area of the soundboard and backboard near the scroll has to be shaped down close to the scroll and this requires forcing your gouges and chisels in the direction of the scroll. If the chisel slips or exits from the wood when you didn't expect it to, there is a good chance the chisel will ding the scroll. When working on the soundboard, where the wood is a bit more delicate than the maple backboard, if the chisel were to exit with too much force, and strike the side of the scroll, there is a chance it could crack the scroll.

An easy way to protect the scroll from damage is to place a leather caul in the scroll's opening. The leather caul will act as both a protector and shock absorber. It will also help protect the cutting edge of your chisels. As an added feature, you will be able to work more confidently knowing that you have better control of where your chisel will end up.

As with any tool, stay focused on where your hands and fingers are. Unfortunately, inserting a leather caul in the scroll's cutout doesn't give your free hand any more protection.