A Surprising Piece Of Archtop History

[Rob MacKillop]

From the Gruhn discussion of the instrument: "The closeup of the front shows the contours of the carved spruce top -- Orville Gibson's revolutionary new way of making fretted instruments."

I'm not quite sure exactly what they are referring to as revolutionary. Any help?

[GuyBoden]

From the Gruhn discussion of the instrument: "The closeup of the front shows the contours of the carved spruce top -- Orville Gibson's revolutionary new way of making fretted instruments."

I'm not quite sure exactly what they are referring to as revolutionary. Any help?

No, but I found this interesting.

Orville Gibson "ideally, the back, rim and neck should all be carved from a single piece of wood."

Neck-Thru design?

[Rob MacKillop]

Expensive...again there is historical evidence of such an approach...I just can't think of them off hand. Might have been medieval gitterns. David Crosby got it right: "We have all been here before".