Does a solid wood top refer to a single piece of wood? I remember the salesman telling me that the Yamaha I bought, as opposed to another I had been looking at, would improve with age because of the wood on the top. Yet the top is clearly two pieces of wood stuck together.
Eric Chaskes
Gaithersburg, MD
In a solid top, the thickness is all one piece of wood, rather than layers of thin veneers. In other words, the underside of a solid top is the same piece of wood as what you see from the outside. On a laminated top, the outside and the underside look similar, but between these two layers is another thin ply whose grain runs in a different direction. You can often tell if a guitar's top is solid by checking the grain at the edge of the soundhole; if it's a smooth continuation of the top grain, you're probably looking at a solid piece of wood.
Even solid guitar tops have a seam down the middle, and usually the wood surface on the right and left sides of this center seam are mirror images of each other. This is because a solid top started out as one thick piece of wood, which was then sawn down the middle and opened like a book. This is what instrument builders call a book-matched set.
On large instruments such as guitars, this practice ensures even grain spacing and strength across a wide surface. But even violins have book-matched tops, so the practice is clearly rooted as much in tradition and the aesthetic desire for symmetry as it is in the need for structural consistency. An even-grained, perfectly quartersawn block of spruce wide enough to carve a one-piece violin top wouldn't be hard to find, but no violin builder would think of making a quality violin with a one-piece top.
--Richard Johnston
Do music publishing companies have the right to charge venues a fee when the only folks performing there are playing their own music--songs to which these companies have no publishing rights? If so, why? Where can I read more about publishing and the business side of music?
Loren Depping
Lincoln City, Oregon
I believe that you are referring to performing rights organizations--namely ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated), and SESAC (formerly known as Society of European Stage Authors and Composers)--rather than music publishing companies. Performing rights organizations collect licensing fees for the public performance of copyrighted musical compositions. They have the right to collect fees only for pieces that have been registered with their organizations. Therefore, if the people performing in a given venue are playing only pieces that have not been registered--such as original or public-domain material--the venue is not required to pay any licensing fee.
Theses organizations invest a lot of time and money into monitoring the music played at public venues. The safest bet for a venue is to the pay the licensing fee; even if most of the material performed is original or public domain, as soon as someone sings "Happy Birthday" or a Bob Dylan song, performing rights organizations can file an infringement suit. Even if a musician is performing one of his own compositions, if it has been registered with one of these organizations, the venue must pay a licensing fee.
One of the best and most up-to-date sources of information regarding music publishing, performing rights organizations, and other music business issues is The Musician's Business and Legal Guide (Prentice-Hall), by Mark Halloran. This guide includes sample forms and contracts, as well as addresses for all of the performing rights organizations.
--Dylan Schorer
How can I acquire rare Mississippi John Hurt and Reverend Robert Wilkins recordings? I am also curious about any other alternating-bass blues fingerpickers from the same period. Players like Hurt and Wilkins continue to be influential, but they are sadly lost in the whirl of popularity commanded by Delta slide players like Robert Johnson and Son House.
Jacob A. Humbert
South Royalton, Vermont
Mississippi John Hurt recordings are plentiful and not too difficult to find. My two favorite CDs are Mississippi John Hurt: 1928 Sessions (Yazoo, 13 Laight St., Sixth Floor, New York, NY 10013) and Best of Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard, 1299 Ocean Ave., Suite 800, Santa Monica, CA 90401), which has the best of his recordings from the '60s.
Robert Wilkins recordings aren't as plentiful, but there are at least two good CDs available: The Original Rolling Stone (Yazoo), a collection of Wilkins' recordings from the early '30s, and Remember Me (Gene's Records, PO Box 7778, Silver Springs, MD 20907), made up of recordings from the '60s.
There are quite a few other pickers you should check out, including Furry Lewis, Bo Carter, Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Boy Hawkins, and Elizabeth Cotten, all of whom used alternating bass much of the time. Yazoo Records has some great anthologies that introduce six or eight blues players at a time.
--Dale Miller
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