Violin Forum/Message Board

Yes, backs are different, different rules. Another discussion. Usually on the best violins the thick spot is not actually at the post, and when it is, the result isn't good. The typical late 1800s Fre ...

I don't think it would hurt. Shellac is not bad, acoustically, but you want ot avoid adding too much weight. It might mitigate some of the things I didn't like about the cedar sound.

I have always been interested in religion as an intellectual/cultural study, and as I have given myself more time off work I've had more time to read things I probably should have read years ago, and ...

It's been a while, but I think a friend of mine was using a tiny microphone as the hammer for his tap tuning, watching the notes measured at the mic location on his computer screen. Since I'm of the o ...

Thicker towards the center of the top is a mainly German idea possibly drawn from an engineering perspective to put the strength where the force (bridge) was, thinning as it was dispersed wider over t ...

You do need to make it thicker. Cedar is very light, and also tender to accidental impressions. I think that I added about 20% the time or two I used it, but I did not like the sound at all, and even ...

Thanks. For 15 years I taught a three-week summer workshop in California that brought in quite a few people, 20 per class, so there's that group. Then before that I wrote a regular column and various ...

I spring the bar about as much as I figure the bridge will be pushing the top down. That's the same idea I use for post pressure. The trick is: how much is that? No idea. I just guess.

I would make it thinner in the center, a circle about 2.5" in diameter without thinning where the post goes. Just a personal quirk that works well.

FWIW, I like the varnish color on the bottom left the best. It's easy to get too red because red builds faster than other colors so I usually start with something like that color and then add red to t ...

Yes, totally ironing out the sound of a violin by muting it is one easy way to iron out inconsistencies, but it doesn't make what most players would consider to be a "good" sound.

One of ...

If you're looking for a totally smooth look, sandpaper is the only way. If you want a nice classical texture, a scraper will do it, but before you do anything with color you need to resolve the proble ...

It's common for things to go haywire when they come apart and getting them back together can be a problem, yes.

Replacing the linings was a mistake, and I wonder what you thought was wrong with th ...

Side views nice and right.

Is it a del Gesu? DG wings flare....

Finishing the f-holes is easier after they're cut out. I try to final-shape the various surfaces approaching the hole so that the view from 90 degrees to the side is as attractive as from the front. B ...