Lutherie notesby Francesco Verginelli
Building, articles, materials and experience, gathered over time.
My name is Francesco Verginelli and since 2010 I have been building ukuleles and stringed instruments in Rome. fvguitars is my workshop notebook: lutherie notes where I gather what I have learnt about wood, about tools, and about my own mistakes.
In the Lutherie section you will find the articles proper — choosing and seasoning wood, how sound travels through a soundboard, koa and mahogany compared, bridge compensation, French polishing. Resources holds the practical tools: the fretboard calculator, the universal tuner, full-scale 1:1 plans to print, CITES paperwork.
This is not a catalogue. It is working material, written for people who build. If you are looking for a commissioned instrument, that lives at verginelliukulele.it.
Lutherie
Wood
07- 01
The structure of the trunk
Anatomy of the tree trunk for lutherie: bark, phloem, cambium, sapwood, heartwood, pith and medullary rays explained in detail. - 02
Moisture and wood
Wood moisture in lutherie: fibre saturation point, seasoning and equilibrium point. How dry wood needs to be to build instruments. - 03
Cutting and seasoning the wood
Felling, cutting into boards and seasoning of wood: tangential and radial cuts, natural and artificial drying, final moisture content for lutherie. - 04
The propagation of sound
How wood propagates sound: speed of propagation, damping of the vibratory motion and specific acoustic resistance in woods for musical instruments. - 05
Woods for back and sides
A guide to the woods for guitar back and sides: rosewoods, maples, mahoganies, acacias and walnuts compared, with their tonal and aesthetic characteristics. - 06
Soundboards
The woods for guitar soundboards: Italian spruce, Sitka, Engelmann, Adirondack, cedar, koa, mahogany and other tonewoods compared. - 07
Tonewood of resonance
The resonance wood of the Paneveggio Forest: Norway spruce (Picea abies) for soundboards, the resonance cycle and moon wood (Mondholz).
Utilities
07- 01
Koa
Hawaiian koa (Acacia koa) for ukuleles and guitars: technical data, sustainability, aesthetics, tone and uses in lutherie of this prized tonewood. - 02
CITES
CITES and lutherie: woods under the convention, required documents and the procedure to request the re-export certificate for a musical instrument leaving the EU. - 03
Compensation
Compensation in fretted string instruments: equal temperament, saddle and bridge placement for correct intonation of guitar and ukulele. - 04
The mold
Building the mold for the body of a guitar or ukulele: plexiglass template, choice of materials and working by hand or with a router and flush-trim bit. - 05
French polishing
French polishing with shellac: ingredients, preparing the solutions, building the pad and all the finishing stages for wooden instruments. - 06
Ukulele in koa or in mahogany?
Koa or mahogany for a ukulele? The two tonewoods compared: aesthetics, weight and mechanical characteristics of Honduras mahogany and, above all, their different tonal response. - 07
A day at Paneveggio
A day in the Paneveggio Forest stocking up on resonance Norway spruce for ukuleles: choosing the logs, the xylotheque and the special Travignolo spruce.
Resources
- 01
Fretboard calculator
freeFret positions for a given scale length, based on equal temperament. Print and CSV export. - 02
CITES documentation
freeRegulations and forms for exporting instruments that contain protected woods. Downloadable PDFs. - 03
Lutherie links
freeSuppliers of wood, tools and materials, grouped by region: Italy, Europe, USA. - 04
Universal Tuner
freeA free universal chromatic tuner for any stringed instrument. Real-time detection, 440 and 432 Hz reference, cents deviation. Built at a luthier's bench. - 05
Construction plans
paidFull-size PDF construction plans for the ukulele: soprano, concert, tenor. Original VerginelliUkulele drawings. - 06
Bottega
paidThe workshop notebook turned into a program: records for instruments, finishes and invoices, a dated journal and full-text search, all local. - 07
Diario di Costruzione di un Ukulele Soprano
paidThe book documenting, step by step, the hand-building of a soprano ukulele: technical data, hundreds of photographs and streaming video lessons. By Francesco Verginelli, published by Volontè & Co. Italian text only.
Contact
For any enquiry, write to me using the form below. I'll be glad to reply.
