Violin Forum/Message Board

jethro · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 178

this is my 2-nd violin , a sort of "blonde girl" .... made to Strobel's specifications , oil varnish.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3406582814
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3405783139
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3405777413
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3405785763

This is my first one. Pretty crude, from The ossman book .....
back is glue ground , then tinted shellack the oil varnish.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3406612256
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jethroluthier/3406616152

I couldn't figure out how to do the "img" feature....

Hope this works..... (?)
Tim

Jack H. · Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:34 pm Post subject:

Looks Very nice Jethro!
Keep up the fine work!!!

Mikes · Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject:

Excellent Jethro, your violins are looking very nice! Maybe stray away from the Strobel model for your next one?

Mike S

jethro · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 178

I am about 1/2 way through violin 3 so I am committed to strobel on it.
I like the strobel result allthough it is VERY LOUD... allmost too loud.
"Violino" strings are the only ones which seem to "calm" the vollume
down, but they seem to be resistive past about 1/2 way up the neck
in the high positions. Tried dominants but didn't like the sound or price.
Running helicores on it now. They don't seem ideal either. Loud !
I have not tried real gut yet !

I have 2 really nice backs that the center joints failed. I may re-join
them and design another inside mold which is about 1/4 inch narrower
to fit the backs. Any idea how I should account for the narrowness ?
Should I make the ribs a little thick to maintain the air vollume ?
or should I keep the ribs normal and raise the plate frequencys a little ?
Seems like I have seen some of the 16-th century violins that appeared
to be narower than average. Don't remember what they were.
Hate to let beautifull backs go to waste !

Tim

ChameleonMan · Member Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 41 Location: Florida, US

Your violin is absolutely magnificent! Great job!

M.Lange · Member Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 81 Location: Germany

Very nice work!
The corners may be a little bit too long for the Strobel model. But that's not a problem, as long as you don't hit it with the frog when playing the e-string. Laughing

Matthias

jethro · Member Joined: 07 Apr 2007 Posts: 178

The corners and purfling are better on #2 than on 1. But I have noticed that the corner outline on #2 while much better is still lacking the beauty
and grace of many I see in pictures. It seems like a VERY small change in the curves in the corners causes that certain perfect shape to be visualy
astheticly lost. I guess It will get better with more made !
Also the topography of the plates as you near the edge (channel) seems
to be visualy sensative too. The first violin all most didn't have a channel.
But at each step through the build my choices were throw it away or keep going and see where the think took me. Glad I didn't smash it like in the
"red Violin" movie !

Now building the back plate for #3 using a 1 piece back.

Thanks for the comments !
Tim