Gluing the ribs to the back.

With the back basically finished (a little external clean-up to do), it's time to glue the ribs to the back. First step is to loosen up the blocks from the form. A few taps with the hammer break the weak glue joint. Then, split out the excess portions of the blocks to give some 'wiggle-room'.



With just a little flexing, the rib assembly slides out.



Now, I can clean up the linings, which I roughly shaped with a knife prior to removal from the form, and trim the blocks down to their final shape. With that done, a little fresh hide-glue and a quick clamping.



Starting to see a box here! Now to finish the top and get it glued into place.

Making Friday

I'm trying to keep the discipline of dedicating Fridays to my new making, and was relatively successful today. Hoped to glue the back onto the ribs by the end of the day, but I still have the edgework to do, on the ledge next that will be next to the ribs, so maybe will do that when I'm fresh. Later.

So here's the mess on the bench at the end of the day.

Party damage 3

Fitting a fingerboard to a well-loved, and well-used, neck presents challenges different than new making. A violin neck and fingerboard have more or less standard dimensions, proportions, curves. A violin that has been played is worn. In this one, for example, the thumb-side of the neck is much more worn than the other, finger, side. Rather than being straight, it deviates inward about a millimeter, and not perfectly even, either. The fingerside has similar wear, though not as dramatic.

When I fit the fingerboard, I want to get the top curvature even, which aids in positioning notes, the longwise length with some relief, to make it feel easier to play, and I'd like to get the sides gently curved in the vertical direction, which also aids in the feel, but relatively straight along the sides, which helps in accuracy. A new fingerboard on an old neck is something like putting a new clutch in a car. The driver is accustomed to working with the old feel, and will often kill the engine leaving the mechanics' shop. Of course, one can adjust the clutch, or the fingerboard, to the owner's desire, but there usually is a little retraining that takes place. Hopefully, it is short, and the owner will soon enjoy the new set-up.



Fitting the old neck heel to the new block involves cutting out a mortise, then fitting all the edges tightly. It is a time-consuming task, because you must constantly check the various angles involved -- side to side, up and down, and the angle relative to the plane of the ribs. This old neck-heel was particularly challenging. It has been modified over the years, with bits added on, and actually not much of a dovetail shape to the edges along the ribs. Furthermore, at some time, the neck itself was planed to give a significant tilt towards the e-string side. This was fashionable a few decades back, but most makers now keep the top of the neck parallel with the rib-plane. Just one more thing to keep in mind.

When it's all fit, I make a new batch of hide glue and glue the neck in place.



At the same time, I glue the saddle, at the tailpiece end, in, clamped with rubber-bands here.

With a new fingerboard, a new nut is in order.



Finally, time to do a set-up. Put the soundpost in place, find a replacement G-string (the old one was damaged in the accident), string it up, and make some adjustments. Make sure everything works under tension. I still have cosmetic touch-up work to do in this before it goes back to the owner.

Party damage, part 2

After getting all the old glue, splinters, and dirt cleaned out, it's time to fit a new neck block. This one is made from willow, a tree that blew over some 10 years ago. Sections of it had been saved, with wax applied to the end grain, and then I was given a few chunks, when the owner realized he didn't really know what to do with all that willow.

With the block securely glued to the back and ribs, it's time to glue to top back in place. I glued & cleated the cracks, and have applied the initial layers of touch-up varnish.

After the workshop, after Weiser, back to reality...

Finally catching up on sleep after 3 weeks of long, but good, hours.

The Southern California Violin Makers Workshop was terrific, as usual. I spent 2 weeks there, at the campus of Pomona College in Claremont, California. Basically a fantasy world for violin makers. One of the high points for me was that I was able to play a 1714 Stradivari violin and a 1742 Guarneri del Gesu violin, one after the other. Of the two, the Strad was my favorite. I generally hate my tone on the e-string, but on this Strad, I liked it. People use the word 'silvery' or 'shimmering' to describe these Strad e-strings, and it always sounded a bit overblown to me. I was wrong. There really is something there, hard to describe.

In addition to those two, one of the bow-maker students brought his 1733 Bergonzi violin, another classic Cremonese instrument. He has owned it for 61 years, and according Michael Darnton, it was in amazing shape. Lots of varnish, excellent edges, well-tended after.

But the most important part of the workshop is that many of us have become good friends. We share a common interest, and enjoy learning from each other. Michael Darnton is an excellent teacher, with a tremendous amount of knowledge. I spent most of the time experimenting with edgework, though I did get my two plates in fairly decent shape by the end. You can compare these to their state in my previous post, "pre-workshop rush!"

It's hard to pick among the photos I took, but if you want to see more, please go to my flickr set here The grounds of the campus are beautiful as well.

After two weeks at the workshop, I flew home, loaded up the shop, and took it up to the National Old-time Fiddlers' Contest in Weiser, Idaho. Again as usual, Phil (my bow-maker friend) and I had a great time with wonderful folks. Plenty of good fiddlers played my two fiddles, making them sound pretty, and giving me good feedback. I hope to have several more to offer at next year's contest.

Now, back to work.

pre-workshop rush!

An end-of-the-day shot. I'm frantically trying to get stuff in shape for the workshop, which starts Monday. Leveling up the rib garland. Adding wings to the block of maple that will be the neck, pegbox, and scroll -- they're just to be able to get it to a square shape and will eventually be cut away. My front and back, I'm planing across grain to flatten. The back is co-operating, but the top has a bit of a twist to it. I have a short block plane and a long joiner plane -- really need to get a decent mid-sized plane for this particular job.

I also need to organize some of my tools, so I can ship some tomorrow to the workshop, those that I won't need for a couple days. They will probably arrive mid-week.

In additon, I have someone coming by tonight to drop off a bow that needs to be rehaired by tomorrow noon. Contest going on that day, and they noticed that the hair was a bit thin.

Neck on the Medieval Fiddle

I got the neck set last week, and had hoped to use an old cello fingerboard -- but it didn't have thick enough wood to do what I wanted. Also, I'm leaving for the violinmaker's workshop on Sunday, and so this will have to be it for the Medieval fiddle until after the Weiser fiddle contest. I had hoped to be able to mess about with it there. Oh well.