Customer Reviews

Making Wood Folk Instruments

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This is really two books. The first part covers a variety of simple insturments aimed at children. A few, such as the psalter, could me more complex if you wished. The second part presents some more complex insturments, including hammered and mountain dulcimers, a banjo, country fiddle, and celtic harp. This are not for the faint of heart, especially the harp. If you want some step-by-step instructions on making a simple, but quality folk insturment, either as an introduction to insturment making or as your final goal, this is a good place to start (I bought it for the mountain dulcimer instructions alone).

This was the first book that I had ever seen that seemed to offer full plans(well, yes, you need a photocopier with "zoom" features, but it still qualifies) and instructions for a nice-sized Celtic-style harp. I purchased the first edition of this book, and began to make the instrument. I found, however, that some parts of his harp instructions suffer from poor editing or printing errors. One paragraph mentions an appendix section that does not exist in the book. Others promised more coverage of finishing or building details that were never included, i.e. the rest he mentions for supporting the harp to make it easier to play is never detailed, though he did infer that there were plans/instructions later in the book. It is likely a very simple piece to make, but I think that his instructions should have been more complete. While his instructions are still useful for the beginning luthier, and you might still find it possible to complete the harp project, I would still be very cautious about using this book as your sole source for the more complex instruments. When the second edition became available, I had hoped that these errors would have been corrected, or at least removed. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. No editing seems to have been performed, at least not in the harp section. I cannot speak for the other instrument sections, as I haven't built them, though their instructions aren't as involved as the harp instructions. Any budding harp-builders out there might want to first go and purchase from a company that sells harp kits, just to get an idea of the materials/effort needed. Hopefully this will give you the confidence needed to build one from scratch later, using Waring's book as part of your reference materials. ... The main thing is to enjoy what you create. Even with mistakes, viewing and playing your hand-crafted instrument can still provide you with a sense of pride and accomplishment, because you went though the effort. Good luck to those who take on this challenge.

This book covers a wide range of possible instruments. At the low end are items that are unlikely to interest your child, such as a bleach bottle banjo and rubber band harp. At the high end are real instruments which require significant woodworking experience and time, such as tear-drop fiddle and celtic harp. In between, however, are a few projects, primarily woodwind and percussion, which would be manageable to do with and for your kids. I think that, given the price, there are enough different projects in the book that it is worth getting if you enjoy making things and have kids who are interested in experiencing different kinds of musical instruments.

Making Wood Folk Instruments is a great reference book. If you're looking for detailed "how to" book, you may want to look elsewhere. But if you just need a spark of imagination or want to see what the end of the journey looks like - this is a reasonable expense.

I found myself distracted by the decidedly outdated photographs, but was still intrigued by the ideas and simple instruments demonstrated within the book. I built a mountain dulcimer from the project pages, and with just a few modifications it is a very nice instrument.

Get it. Use it. Keep it around. You'll use it again.

I ordered a used book and it came as an old library book.
This book is very good. It really gives detailed real world plans. I havent started yet but I want to make at least two of the harder dulcimers.