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       Jul 27-Aug. 1, 2014
       Oct 19-24, 2014

Hard to believe that it is December, and Christmas is just around the corner.

We've had an exciting year and have greatly enjoyed communicating and working with you on your luthierie projects. And, we're appreciative for the photos and feedback (both by email and on Facebook) that we've been getting from you on the many great mandolins built with our kits and parts. We take great pleasure in hearing your success stories, and it is heart-warming to share the joy of luthierie with you.

For those of you using StroboSoft for tap tuning, we've made some very important changes and updates to our instruction sheet. I'm hopeful that this new information will make it easier for you to use StroboSoft, and I believe that it will allow you to be more effective when tuning the bodies of your instruments. One point we've clarified is how to better understand when the system is accumulating data during the "average taps" process, compared to when it is reporting its findings. This seems to have been an area of confusion. A free download is available on our website - or if you like, you can just email me and put "StroboSoft Instructions" in the subject line and I'll gladly send you a copy.

We're very proud of our extensive line of mandolin tuning machines, and we believe that it is possibly the most extensive line of mandolin and mandola machines available anywhere. These include F4, F5, H5, A1-5, and our heralded F5 Loar machines, and many of these are available in either a standard (round gear above worm) or an "inverted" (round gear below worm) configuration. (To learn more about the differences between F4 and F5 machines, as well as the differences between inverted and non-inverted machines, please visit our guide.)

Our machines are made in Japan by Gotoh and I consider this brand to be one of the better machines on the market. Their gears are precision cut with a 16:1 ratio, the design and shape of the backstrap most closely resembles the original Gibson machines, and the Gotoh machines are the only ones on the market that have a spring-loaded Delrin washer between the post and the backstrap for smooth trouble-free tuning. Within a month or so, we'll have the specs for each of these machines posted along with the corresponding machines on our on-line store, and we've just posted a PDF spec sheet of all of our tuners on our website. Or, please don't hesitate to email me and put "Tuning machine specs" in the heading - I'll be glad to send you a PDF copy.

While on the subject of additional information, there are two interesting areas in our web site that I'd like to call to your attention. One is the Product Information section. The Product Information section is broken down into several categories of parts and services and explains them in great detail, including several links that go to more pages of expanded information. The Product Information section supports our on-line store by providing more background information about our parts and services; I think you'll find this section both useful and informative. The other section is the Instruction Sheets (Free PDF Downloads). This page has numerous documents and white papers in PDF form, as well as some fret scale calculators; the downloadable documents are free, and they are there for you.

40 years ago this month (December, 1973), I began assembling a team to create, promote, and produce Pickin' Magazine (which made its debut in February of 1974). It was my key focus to develop the most exciting and valuable content for folks into bluegrass and old time country music. In addition to my interest in bluegrass, my work as a luthier helped to give Pickin' a luthierie focus and we often went above and beyond to bring our readers some nifty stuff. One such nifty item was the Peghead Poster that was bound into our June 1974 "instrument issue."

Once our subscribers got their copies in the mail there followed a hot demand for posters for folks who were not subscribers, so we produced them as a separate poster project until our first run was sold out. That poster has become a collector's piece with some of them selling for as high as $90 to $100 on eBay and elsewhere. Over the years I've been asked repeatedly to reproduce them but with so many other projects on my plate, the poster project kept being put on the "back burner." Realizing that this December was our 40-year Anniversary of the creation of Pickin', both Amy and Kali implored me to again make these posters available so that folks could get them in time for a Holiday gift.

And so, it is with great pleasure, fanfare, and a drum roll that I am excited to announce the re-issue of a limited run of the famed Pickin' Magazine Peghead Poster - you can learn more about our special offer at the end of this newsletter. (The original poster was 17˝ x 22˝. We're reproduced the image the same size, but on paper that is 18˝ x 24˝ to allow room for framing.)

So, from all of us here at Siminoff Banjo and Mandolin, we're sending our belated thoughts for a wonderful Channukah, our warmest wishes for a great Christmas, and here's wishing a healthy, happy, and prosperous luthierie-filled New Year to you and your family.

Roger, Kali, Amy, Nolan, Rosemary, and Ken

The topic of Virzi Tone Producers comes up often, and I'm frequently asked what it is, what it does, whether it really makes a difference or not, and why Gibson installed them. We have quite a bit about the history of the Virzi Brothers and the development of their Tone Producer in our website. This month, I'd like to focus on some surrounding issues.

The Virzi Tone Producer is a thin wooden plate (.090˝ thick) made of wide grain spruce. The purpose of the tone producer was to provide the instrument with a plate that was suspended from its center rather than around its edges (as the soundboard is). Plates supported in their center vibrate in very different modes from those supported around their edges, and center-supported plates typically evoke stronger upper partials. Envision for a moment the high-hat on a drum set and think of how sensitive it is - and consider what happens if you hold it along the edge and then tap it - that's the same principle.

Lloyd Loar was very interested in what Virzi was doing, and he sent them his August Diehl viola to have a tone producer installed. He was excited about the results and wrote about it on page 23 of the Virzi Brother's catalog. This viola - which is in my possession - has a rich warm sound and you can read more about it in our website. Loar's personal F5 mandolin also has a Virzi Tone Producer installed. Clearly, the rich tone provided by the Tone Producer was something that Loar favored for the styles of music he was playing.

During Loar's tenure at Gibson (1918 through 1924), he helped to cement a relationship between Virzi and Gibson so that Gibson could offer Tone Producers as an option in its line of mandolins, mandolas, and guitars. Many A3, A4, F4, and F5 mandolins, H5 mandolas, and L5 guitars were made with Virzi Tone Producers installed. When Loar left Gibson at the end of 1924, the arrangement with Gibson ended and the 1925 accessory catalog (printed in late 1924) had "CANCELLED" rubber stamped across the Virzi page. Some have surmised that Loar had a special "arrangement" with Virzi that was distasteful to the company, and that's why the relationship with Virzi ended when Loar left Gibson, but we have no conclusive evidence to substantiate this.

While the Virzi Tone Producer does have a major affect on the tone of the instrument, not all players like a Virzi - it is an acquired taste. It is important to consider that the Tone Producer was designed for classical performance and not for bluegrass. Instruments with them sound warm, deep, full, and rich with overtones. Many Virzi's, like the one pictured above, have been taken out of Gibson instruments at the request of the owner. The result is typically an instrument with greater amplitude and more "chop" - something not desirable for the music these instruments were originally designed for.


This particular Tone Producer was crudely made and features very wide grain spruce - an important feature to allow the plate to be as flexible as possible. I was actually surprised to find this very crudely constructed tone producer inside a fine F5 mandolin. (The front two feet are reconstructions; I had to damage the original feet to remove the Tone Producer from the F5 it was originally in.)

(If you are interested in trying a Tone Producer in one of your instruments, we manufacture replicas, which are available in our online store.)

A carefully sanded and shaped soundboard or backboard is a beautiful sight, especially if it is well contoured, and free of bumps, dimples, and depressions. Getting the surface to be both bump- and dimple-free is an art, and the process can be greatly aided by throwing a bit of light on the subject.

At the outset, creating good shapes and contours can be aided by backing your sandpaper with a leather caul so that you sand down the high spots and slide over the dimples (until everything is level). But no matter how hard you try there are always those few dimples that show up after the finish is applied because the reflections of a bright finish tend to accentuate any defect in the finish.

One way to evaluate the surface of the soundboard or backboard during sanding is to work in a bright light and allow the shadows to reveal any imperfections. You will find that a bright spotlight - or the sun as in the case of this photo - will reveal much more than the fluorescent light over your bench (fluorescent lights provide a broad splay of light that softens shadows and hides defects). A direct spotlight, or the sun, presents hard shadows and will help to reveal every detail and flaw.


Working the contours to ensure that all curvatures are well blended should be the primary objective. As you work the curvatures, any bumps and depressions should disappear. The bright light will help to reveal any surface imperfections and also help you to see any surface scratches from previous sandings of coarse sandpaper.

Work globally as you sand and do not concentrate on small areas. The more global your sanding movements, the move even your curvatures will be.

Move the instrument around in the light and turn the instrument in several directions - it's a very helpful way to see any imperfections, bumps, or low spots.

Q: Some builders say it is best to put the backboard on first so you can clean up glue that oozes out of the lining, and I know you suggest putting the soundboard on first. Which way is the right way, and can you explain the benefits of either method?

A: The short answer is that the right way is whatever works best for you. The long answer deals with your building process and your approach to connecting the neck, as well as any considerations to doing tap tuning.

I like putting the soundboard on first so that the rim is attached to the soundboard, and neck is attached to the headblock before we tap tune. Also, if you are using a V-joint, the neck has to be doweled from the bottom of the headblock, and you can't dowel it if the backboard is in place.

Further, the building technique I recommend calls for a fixture to cradle the soundboard when attaching the neck. This fixture has a pre-determined height for the cradle that ensures the precise neck pitch, neck attitude (left and right alignment to centerline), and bridge height each and every time. Using this fixture and neck joining method also dictates that the backboard goes on last.

Some builders who use dovetail joints like to attach the neck to a fully closed body, but I don't feel that this gives you a good opportunity to see how the bottom of the neck heel fits in the dovetail, and in some cases this method results in filling the joint with a lot of glue (which is a very wrong things to do). So, even when using dovetail joints, I prefer to put the backboard on last.

As to controlling "squeeze out," it's a pretty simple matter to first attach soundboard, and then attach the backboard, and when the spool clamps are in place, reach through the f-holes with long swabs and clean up any squeeze out. Actually, some builders (like Santa Cruz Guitar Company) attach the soundboard and backboard at the same time. They are careful about the amount of glue they apply, how and where they apply it, and get no visible squeeze out.

In our Luthierie Camps, all of our Campers learn to attach the backboard last, and they rarely experience any unsightly squeeze out.
Have a question? Be sure to send it in and we'll answer it in an upcoming issue. We won't post your name, and chances are, if you have a question, someone else probably needs the same answer!