Carbon fibre Cello

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

Moderators: kiwigeo, Jeremy D

Post Reply
User avatar
woodrat
Blackwood
Posts: 1155
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 6:31 am
Location: Hastings River, NSW.
Contact:

Carbon fibre Cello

Post by woodrat » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:20 am

I thought this was interesting....worth a look I think

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_gI3chGtww


John
"It's never too late to be what you might have been " - George Eliot

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by kiwigeo » Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:16 pm

Where's all the fun in that? Not one hand tool in sight and the people making the instrument look like theyre straight out of a NASA satellite assembly plant.
Martin

nnickusa
Blackwood
Posts: 902
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:07 pm
Location: Brunswick Heads, NSW

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by nnickusa » Sun Jun 10, 2012 2:04 pm

Hmmph......no splinters.....where's the fun it that????

I have seen a number of fibre guitars on ebay recently, and they look pretty cool, but I don't know......
I wish I was half the man my dog thinks I am....

Cheers,
Nick

https://www.facebook.com/pages/DMI-hand ... 744?ref=hl

User avatar
Dave White
Blackwood
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:10 am
Location: Hughenden Valley, England
Contact:

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by Dave White » Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:31 pm

A friend of mine who goes to the annual music camp - Burwell - that I go to has one of these. They sound fabulous. We were in a "One Night Stand Band" there and as it was raining all dry rehearsal spaces were taken so we had to use a portable toilet complex. Mark sat on the loo in a cubicle with his cello, proceeded to play Handel's "Water Music" and at the end stood up and pulled the chain - class :mrgreen:
Dave White
[url=http://www.defaoiteguitars.com]De Faoite Stringed Instruments[/url]

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by kiwigeo » Sun Jun 10, 2012 8:20 pm

Dave White wrote:A friend of mine who goes to the annual music camp - Burwell - that I go to has one of these. They sound fabulous. We were in a "One Night Stand Band" there and as it was raining all dry rehearsal spaces were taken so we had to use a portable toilet complex. Mark sat on the loo in a cubicle with his cello, proceeded to play Handel's "Water Music" and at the end stood up and pulled the chain - class :mrgreen:
If you owned a CF cello you wouldnt need a loo......as long as the F holes were big enough :mrgreen:

Handels Water Music played in the loo.....a perfect match.
Martin

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by charangohabsburg » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:02 pm

kiwigeo wrote:Where's all the fun in that?
I think this building process is not about fun but about an alternative way of building excellent instruments, and a bit about flushing some luthierie myths down the toilet. I'd say that the CF fingerboard has some potential to be the future standard in stringed instrument building, and if there were ready-to-build CF backs and sides for guitars commercially available, I'm sure that there would be more than just a couple of individual luthiers who would use them.
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by kiwigeo » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:17 pm

Why would I as a luthier bother spending hours building a CF guitar when a couple of "technicians" and a room full of process machinery can do just as good a job in a fraction of the time and for half the cost?

What can a luthier do with a factory made set of CF guitar components that a process worker can't??
Martin

Lee
Kauri
Posts: 35
Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 8:01 pm

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by Lee » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:32 pm

kiwigeo wrote:Why would I as a luthier bother spending hours building a CF guitar when a couple of "technicians" and a room full of process machinery can do just as good a job in a fraction of the time and for half the cost?

What can a luthier do with a factory made set of CF guitar components that a process worker can't??
Make a huge stash :mrgreen:

User avatar
Dave White
Blackwood
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:10 am
Location: Hughenden Valley, England
Contact:

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by Dave White » Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:00 pm

According to Mark it's more about the stability of the instrument and tuning in a huge variety of changing humidity situations that make CF Cellos popular with professional touring musicians. They certainly aren't cheap.
Dave White
[url=http://www.defaoiteguitars.com]De Faoite Stringed Instruments[/url]

User avatar
kiwigeo
Admin
Posts: 10582
Joined: Sat Sep 29, 2007 5:57 pm
Location: Adelaide, Sth Australia

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by kiwigeo » Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:15 pm

What fun is an instrument if you don't spend half your life tuning the thing???
Martin

User avatar
Dave White
Blackwood
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 3:10 am
Location: Hughenden Valley, England
Contact:

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by Dave White » Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:30 pm

Having seen guitars made with epoxied laminated sides, nomex core tops and using vacuum clamping techniques, this is not a million miles away and I use CF a lot in my instruments as does another maker you know and love here :roll:

Of all of the "laminating" (sorry "doubling") techniques used in guitar making laminating the fingerboard makes most sense to me and I've been using this technique a lot - an ebony or other wood of choice exterior slice glued to a slice of the same wood as the neck. You get a lighter and to my ears more interestingly acoustic fingerboard and the scarce exterior wood is used half as much - unlike double tops/backs/sides where you use twice as much of a scarce and precious material - they don't use veneer cuts, oh no :shock:

Also using materials like CF rather than an organic material like wood you have much more predictability and ability to properly model it's behaviour. Colin Symonds sampled one guitar they made and studied at Loughbourough University here in the UK in conjunction with Gordon Gilltrap and told me it was one of the best sounding acoustic guitars he had played but not one that he would want to own or make. Wood has certain "other worldly" things going for it. 8)
Dave White
[url=http://www.defaoiteguitars.com]De Faoite Stringed Instruments[/url]

User avatar
charangohabsburg
Blackwood
Posts: 1818
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2010 1:25 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by charangohabsburg » Sun Jun 10, 2012 10:34 pm

kiwigeo wrote:What can a luthier do with a factory made set of CF guitar components that a process worker can't??
It is something different, which is always fun. I don't say you had to build with it.
Some people might ask for CF back and sides just the same as they ask for a fancy wood species.
Markus

To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.

User avatar
P Bill
Blackwood
Posts: 521
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2010 8:31 am
Location: Cedar Vale, Qld Australia

Re: Carbon fibre Cello

Post by P Bill » Mon Jun 11, 2012 10:00 am

I've played a cf fiddle and heard the same fiddle played by a very good player. It sounded good, no question, but it wasn't an instrument I would ever feel much for.

Don't forget cf is very toxic . I always cut rod to length outside and down wind with full safety gear.
"Were you drying your nails or waving me good bye?" Tom Waits

Bill

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 81 guests