XVIi

Removing a fingerboard off an older factory fiddle, intent on replacing it, I ran across these markings, and that gave me pause. We often see these Roman Numeral markings on factory fiddles (and bows) from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Apparently it was a way to keep the individually fit pieces together during the assembly process, probably not done by one person. In this instance, perhaps, one person fit fingerboards all day. Or maybe the number refers to the worker, and is a way of keeping track of pay. I don't know. Here we see XVI (little I) on both the violin neck and the underscoop of the fingerboard. You can also make out the cross-hatching on the neck, which is one method to allow for a little squeeze-out of the glue. Some folks think it helps hold the joint together. We all have our magic formulas in making.

Anyway, this fingerboard has been on the instrument for maybe 100 years, and is just now being replaced. Just a moment of respect, then on to the job.

Gluing the fingerboard

Over the past few days, amidst other projects, I started and finished the fluting around the outside of the scroll. One thing I noticed about the 1714 "Jackson" Stradivari I saw last summer was how flat the fluting was, that the sides came down quickly, the edges were sharp. I previously had thought of the fluting cross-section as a rounded trough, but seeing that particular one it was more like a rectangular trough with the bottom corners slightly filled. I tried to do something like that here.

Getting the fingerboard ready for gluing on the neck, I like to scrape just a little depression down the inside center, a little space for glue to move about. I don't like the trenches one sees in older commercial instruments, and I don't think that the "X" knife cuts do much good.



With not-so-fresh hot hide glue, I glue the fingerboard in place. The fingerboard is one of those pieces that is meant to come off, and the next person to deal with this fingerboard (possibly me, possibly someone else), would not be happy to find that I used very strong, hard-to-crack, glue.

Fitting the fingerboard

Took a couple hours this afternoon from the back-to-school rush of instrument repairs to work on my fiddle. Here is the result, a fingerboard glued to the neck.



An almost-nasty piece of ebony -- a little chippy, a bit of swirl in the grain. Simple in concept, make the bottom of the fingerboard and the top of the the neck flat, glue them together.



Once everything is flat, I lay the fingerboard on the neck, find the center, and clamp the fingerboard in place. Then I glue a couple little blocks on each side, to locate the fingerboard, and to keep it from sliding when I do glue it in place. You can see one of these little blocks below the left-most clamp in the photo above. This is not my concept, but straight from Johnson and Courtnall's The Art of Violin Making.

I'll leave the fingerboard in clamps overnight, then the next step is to start shaping the neck and root prior to fitting it to the body.

Attaching the fingerboard

Before the final shaping of the neck, the fingerboard needs to be shaped and installed. The ebony blanks come basically fingerboard-shaped, but far too bulky. With a series of planes, gouges, and scrapers, I reduce some of the mass from underneath as well as from above.



Once the fingerboard is in reasonable shape, I layout its position on the neck and then glue a few locater studs, in this case 2 on each side. This makes it easier to put the fingerboard on in the right place when the slippery hide glue is on.



I glue it on firmly, not a simple tack, because it's going to stay on. I use the fingerboard to help align the neck while fitting, and leave it on while varnishing, as was done in the old days.