I am an amateur luthier lurking on the list. I have been a member of
the Guild of American luthiers for 20 years. I have repaired and
restored guitars and banjos, built harps and dulcimers and ukuleles
and my wife Barbara and I are now engaged in the process of restoring
to playability an historical French hurdy-gurdy ( 18th or 19th
century, depending on whom you talk to ) cast off by the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts. Their loss is our "interesting" project. That is
why I signed onto this list in the first place.
My experience and that of every other luther of my acquaintance is
that that silicone is evil. It compromises any and every finish
ancient or modern and cannot be removed from woods or finish it it
has been applied to. Period.
Note that I do say "finish" and not "raw ebony." That is out of my
experience.
I do not think lutherie is one of the great mysteries, but I would
urge every instrument owner to be very cautious of what you do to
your instrument. I have myself seen a lovely inlaid early 20th
century guitar which sold for a third of its potential value (10K$/
30K$) because the owner chose to darken the authentic ivory bridge
with black magic marker which could not be removed.
Anyway, ...it's your instrument, enjoy it,
Best wishes, Craig Currier
On Sep 16, 2006, at 4:22 PM, Alden & Cali Hackmann wrote:
Dear Wolfgang,
This is a very generous offer, thank you. I would indeed be
interested in hearing about your technique.
I think that this is exactly the kind of discussion that should go
on this list. With your agreement I propose the following which I
think will address several issues at once.
First, the population of the list changes frequently and not
everyone is acquainted with us, so if you would be willing to start
with a short introduction of who you are and what you have been
working on. This will give everyone a context in which to put the
information. You have been doing some amazing things of which not
everyone is aware.
Second, let us go back to posting this under the topic of "Sticky
Keys" so that readers like Ben who are not interested can quickly
delete the posts.
Third, please post your techniques and materials for dealing with
sticky keys and if necessary give your reasons why you use the
particular materials and protocols.
Fourth, I will respond with the same and would like to invite the
other luthiers lurking on the list to do the same--Bela, Chris,
Helmut, Marcello, Matt, Mike, Nagy, Neil, anyone else have some input?
Finally, once we have all weighed in to our satisfaction Alden and
I will post this discussion on our FAQ. In this way we can put all
this knowledge in one place and direct any further questions about
the topic to an easily accessible place. Hopefully this will
minimize further discussion on the list while still providing a
broad spectrum of ideas from which players can make an informed
choice.
Sound okay to you?
I will ask that you be a little patient over this next week with my
reply because we are getting ready to go to OTW on Tuesday and
things are a bit hectic around here :-)
Also, anyone willing to post to this discussion should be aware
that this information will be posted to a public website rather
than just a private e-mail list and by participating you are giving
implicit permission for us to post this. (Sorry about the
legalese, I guess I worked in a law firm too long ;-) )
---------Cali
> Hi Cali,
>if you are interested how to use silicon spray in a good way for your
>instruments, please contact me off-list.
>I think it´s not so interesting for the list members.
>all the best
>Wolfgang
