Violin Forum/Message Board

[Romanelli]

Hello,
sorry for my english. I am a romanian sculptor, and i wanna start now to build a violin.I have all templates, a Stradivarius template, and almost all materials.
For the back and sides(ribs) i will use a "sycamore maple", one pice, verry dry and old, with verry nice texture.
Can sameone tell me if i can use for front, face plate, another wood than spruce? Can i use LIME tree wood, i used for sculpures and is verry nice and soft material.
Another question, for fingerboard can i use walnut tree wood or cherry wood? They are verry nice like texture and verry hard.
We have here a lot of spurce, but i just asking if i can use another woods, that is all. Any way, now i working for back, ribs, neck....is a log way to face.
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Desiderius Romanelli

[M.Lange]

Spruce is the preferred wood for the tops of stringed instruments, because it is very light and strong. There are some violins with backs that are not made from maple, but poplar or willow.
All the violins I have seen so far, had spruce tops.
I'd recommend to use spruce. Also because you can't use the measurements (thicknesses) from other violins as a guideline, if you use another wood.

Matthias

[jethro]

I think I would not risk anything on the front other than spruce.
I think you could do other woods for the finger board as long as the
wood is pretty hard so the strings don't wear it fast. I have used brazilian
cherry and it worked well. I made a whole neck and ribs from cherry
and it worked OK. You might try websearching under "fiddlemaking"
since fiddlers seem to be more likely to like nontraditional woods than
classical violin players.
Tim