Violin Forum/Message Board

[sebastiaan56]

My experience is in guitars and bent top mandolins. I understand the importance of using historical instruments as guides for making excellent instruments today but as I educate myself on violin making techniques I cant help but do comparisons between how various instruments are made. So some questions;

- Kerfed linings. Why arent they being exploited instead of the bent and carved linings used in violins? for some examples see here http://www.lmii.com/carttwo/thirdproducts.asp?NameProdHeader=Kerfing The linings could be cut into the triangular profile and kerfing would make forming much easier. Is there an acoustic reason?

- Side thickness. Is there a reason why 1.2mm is so preferred? Apart from workability I would have thought 1.5-1.8mm would give a much more rigid structure with little weight penalty.

Thanks in advance,

[Benedict White]

Well... I can't answer all your questions but on the lining, violin makers use solid thin stuff because they can. They do after all have all the tools to bend them to shape etc, because they need them to bend the ribs. Why do anything different? Besides which it means you don't actually have to buy from anywhere in particular.

As for why so thin on the sides... well, why not. Violins are fairly strong as it is. Why use thicker?

[FiddleDoug]

The kerfed linings are at least twice as big as those used on violins (4 x the mass?). Violin linings bend quite nicely, so why go to the trouble of trying to do all those tiny kerf cuts. As for rib thickness, more mass = more damping, and trying to bend maple ribs that thick would be way more difficult. You can't improve on 400 years of violin making experience very easily!
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Doug Wall

www.wallindependent.com