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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
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Cyoi? 8 j-lealy paetories.
AN INTERESTING EXTRACT FROM A NEWSPAPER
DESCRIPTION.
step, however, a few yards further and
the shapeless things have begun to take
on pretty outlines. The guitar " bodies," with
their artistically bent lines, are here in process
of development. The bottoms and the covers
are being glued on, the rims being enforced and
enlarged artificially, because otherwise the
joints wouldn't fit and there wouldn't be enough
for the glued wood to hold on to. You see the
heart-shaped opening in the face part of the
mandolin, and you perceive pretty specimens of
inlaid work and all sorts of embellishments and
ornamentation for guitar and mandolin. Over
all and everything hovers the pungent, aromatic
odor of rosewood, due to a fatty gum that is pe-
culiar to this tropical wood and that permeates
its every pore. So full of this odoriferous gum,
in fact, is this rosewood, that every thin slab
and strip of it, even after drying for years, has
to be pressed over hot iron before being used in
order to get as much more of the stuff out as
possible. And after undergoing this process of
scorching, the wood still retains too much of the
gum, and this, later on, when the instrument
has perhaps been in use for years, often develops
into a serious defect, the wood cracking and
splitting.
And that is a reminder that we still owe the
drying-room a visit. No artificial heat is em-
ployed for the purpose of seasoning any of the
score of different varieties of wood stapled there.
Nothing but the atmosphere—the common,
every-day kind of air—is allowed to play around
here. This is because it has been ascertained
that artificial heat is injurious to wood when
kept for seasoning. But every precaution is
used to have the air dry each slab and sheet and
piece of wood as thoroughly as possible. There
are racks erected and shelves run through them,
with slender wooden pins sticking out at narrow
intervals. Each slab is inserted between two
such pins, so that the air can play all around it.
There are 2,400 pieces of wood on each rack.
Among these there are guitar bottoms and tops,
sawed off the same slab and showing exactly
the same design—knot, grain, shade, etc., so
that two always will fit together exactly. Some
there are here, too, that have been allowed to
season five years and over, kept here and re-
served for some specially fine guitars, ordered
for the purpose. There are likewise some oak
guitars, 16th century finish, an innovation due
to Chicago, and very effective.
In the adjoining room a whole row of glueing
presses are suspended from the ceiling. The
men having charge of them do nothing but glue
on the tops and bottoms of guitars, then placing
them under the presses and leaving them there
for one and one-half hours, by which time the
glue is dry. This process, too, is accelerated
by a special system—doing everything needful in
the hot way.
It is wonderful, too, to observe the man whose
domain is the cutting and insertion of finger-
boards on the different instruments. There are
three different scales—one for guitar, one for
mandolin, and one for zither—employed by him.
Bach of these scales is adjusted to the one ten-
thousandth part of an inch. The man simply
places the neck or finger-board of the instru-
il
THE HIGHEST TYPE."
STUCK
HANDS
UANUFACTUEED BY
171 AND 173 SO. CANAL STREET,
CHICAGO.
THE
Sterling Company,
MANUFACTURERS OF
Pianos and Organs,
DERBY, CONN.
It is admitted by all that no piano ever put upon the
market has met with such success as THE STERLING
and thousands will testify to their superiority of work-
manship and durability. Why ? Because they ar» made
just as perfect as a piano can be made.
THE STERLING ORGAN has always taken the lead, and
the improvements made this year puts it far ahead of
all otheis. ISPSe-d for Catalogue.
Hal!et& Davis Pianos
ment under a tooth-wheel and turns a crank.
The machine is so perfectly adjusted that it will
cut each scale at one crack, and each cut is
exactly as deep as the rest, so that the metal
bands can now be inserted without any further
trouble, and with the assurance that the finger-
board must now be mathematically exact—a
consideration of the first importance, as every
musician and amateur knows full well. In
another room a skilled artisan is found whose
sole work is to turn the bone, ivory and ebony
keys, buttons, knobs, etc., required on the
different musical instruments. He, too, turns
out very pretty objects of artistic design—his
own—such as stars, harps, lyres, etc., and his
work is by no means of small account.
MAKING THE HARPS.—At last we arrive at
the big work-shop where the harps are turned
out. This silver throated instrument, for many
centuries the royal one, and which has come
down to us practically in the same shape which
the ancient Goths had given to their harps as
warriors swept down upon the domains of the
Roman eagle, has of late, again become the
fashion, and the demand for it is increasing day
by day. As to its sonorousness there is no
doubt, but there are two difficulties in the way
of its popular success, viz. : The great expense
and the difficulty of playing it. A fine harp,
made from an artistic drawing and pretty carv-
ings, having six octaves of compass and pedals
as well, will cost from $600 to $1,000, hence is
as expensive as a piano. Bnt then it is really
a work of art. The column, handsomely carved
and gilt, bent so that the strings—all drawing
the same way—will not make it deviate, is
alone a job. The great difficulty, though, in
the correct building of a harp, is the connection
of the pedals with the respective strings in each
octave, lowering or heightening the tone. The
neck of the harp, too, is required to be of extra-
ordinary strength. Hence it is made up often
layers of wood, each of different grain, and all
glued together. Some harps have been made
here in Chicago during the past few years
which are considered the acme of perfection and
elegance by competent judges. In the organ
department, too, many interesting sights are to
be met with. There, for example, is an organ
—still without its case— which is played vigor-
ously upon by the man who has to test its
every part. It cost $1,000, and is intended for
a niche in the house of a wealthy Chicago
citizen, There is another^ organ, fora chapel,
price $3,000.
A PIANO formerly owned by President Lin-
coln, and which when new cost $650, has been
shipped by C. R. Ferry, musical instrument
dealer, of Freeport, 111., to the Libby Prison
Association, at Chicago.
MAJOR MOORE'S music store, Mitchell, S. D.,
on North Main street, was robbed of $70 worth
of musical goods last week.
THE Brownie Music Co. has been organized
at Chicago, with $3,000 capital ; S. G. Pratt,
Fred. A. Gritzer and C. A. McKenna, interested.
C. C. SEEBOLD, music dealer of Middleburg,
will open up another music Store in Sunbury,
Pa., in a few weeks.
CHAUNCEY PARKER, of Newark, has been
appointed receiver of the Huner Piano Co., at
13th street and University Place, in place of
Chas. F. Dodd.
GRAND, SQUARE AND UPRIGHT.
Indorsed by Liszt, Gottschalk, Wehli, Bendel, Straus, Soro, Abt,
Paulus, Titiens, Heilbron and Germany's Greatest Masters.
Established over Half a Century.
BOSTON, MASS.