Issues → September/October 2007 → Feature Stories →

New England's Finest: Musical Instruments

Find the right guitar, drum, harp made right here in New England

by Katrina A. Yeager

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Music with Pluck

Lynne Lewandowski wasn't thinking of the therapeutic benefits of harp music when she first started building this medieval instrument -- she just wanted to try making one. That was 32 years ago. Today, Lynne's harps, crafted to order of cherrywood and gut strings, are renowned among early-music performers. The shapes are a synthesis of replica designs and modern interpretations of 6th- to 15th-century instruments. (Pictured here is a 12th-century-style "zoomorphic" harp, $3,500.) Made in Bellows Falls, Vermont. 802-463-4312; sover.net/~lynneski

It's No Fluke

In 1999, a brother-and-sister team and their spouses set out to create a made-in-the-USA ukulele for a reasonable price. The result? The Fluke, a small triangular four-stringed guitar-like ukulele ($189-$435). The first 10,000 of these colorful instruments were built in Dale and Phyllis Webb's basement; now they're using a refurbished gas station as a production facility. Phyllis's brother Jim Beloff and his wife, Liz, provide the artistic direction. They also offer the Flea, an oval ukulele ($159-$335). The distinctive look of these instruments is catching on: William H. Macy, Bette Midler, and Dan Zanes play them. Available from the Magic Fluke Company, New Hartford, Connecticut. 800-459-5558, 860-496-1508; fleamarketmusic.com

Drum It Up

You don't expect to find Caribbean music in New England, let alone a crafter of Caribbean instruments. But that's exactly what we've discovered in Eric Rollnick. Eric has been creating pans (melodic instruments made from steel drums, hammered out of 55-gallon barrels) since 1992, after extensive travel and study in Trinidad and Tobago. The pans (from $950) are hung from S-hooks on stands that let them vibrate freely when hit with a rubber mallet. Made by Maccabee Panworks, North Conway, New Hampshire. 603-447-5107; ajajamusic.com

Toot Your Own Horn

When Skip Healy was a child, he often visited the grounds of Rhode Island's Varnum House Museum (with its extensive military and naval history collection) to sit on a stone bench and play his fife. Today, he's the curator and runs a fife- and flute-making shop in the carriage house. "Fifes and pipes are the people's instruments," he says. From his years of playing around the world, he has refined his design, taking in the needs of his fellow musicians, particularly traditional Irish musicians and New England and European fife-and-drum corps. His instruments are made of fine materials such as African blackwood. Fifes are priced from $300, piccolos from $400, flutes from $1,000. Available from the Healy Flute & Fife Company, East Greenwich, Rhode Island. 401-885-2502; skiphealy.com

Hats Off

The jazz drummer rides it, the marching band member crashes it, and the concert percussionist rolls it. What is it? A cymbal. In 1623, Avedis Zildjian created a secret alloy for making cymbals. When his family immigrated to America, they set up shop in the Boston area. Today, the oldest continuous family-run company in the United States is leading cymbal production with innovative sounds and cutting-edge materials, as in the Fast Splashes and Fast Crashes pictured here ($128-$312). Made in Norwell, Massachusetts, by the Avedis Zildjian Company. 781-871-2200; zildjian.com

Strummin'

In an 1840s mill in Maine, Dana Bourgeois and eight fellow craftsmen work in a shop cutting, sanding, and gluing spruce and rosewood. It's loving work from which eight acoustic guitars are made each week. Their handcrafted instruments are treasured by serious guitarists around the world, including professional musicians Ricky Skaggs, Steve Earle, Marshall Crenshaw, Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, and the Dixie Chicks. Pictured here is the Bourgeois DB jumbo cutaway guitar ($3,995). Made in Lewiston, Maine, by Bourgeois/Pantheon Guitars. Call or visit Web site for dealers. 207-786-0385; pantheonguitars.com

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