Gluing the top on the Medieval fiddle.

This is the second top I made for this flat-topped Medieval fiddle. Thin, fragile spruce. Maybe a bad choice on my part. The plans called for two cross braces, but looking at it, flexing it, with the two braces in place, I decided I wanted some sort of bass-bar. After all, the plans do call for a soundpost. Guessing on the brace dimensions -- it is an experiment.



After cleaning up the rib-side edge a little, with final shaping to follow, I glued the top to the ribs. It's a box!

ribs, bent not broken

The title is a bad attempt to parody James Bond...

Between repair work and yard work -- it's spring! -- I haven't put as much time into making as I would like. Here I have the c-bout ribs bent and glued into place, the upper treble rib, and I am in the process of shaping the curve on the upper bass-side rib. This maple has more curl than what I've used before, so bending the tight curves on the c-bouts was a challenge. Easy to crack a rib.



The ribs are glued to the block surfaces but not, hopefully, to the mould. Previously, I had run a layer of shellac around the edge of the mould, and actually a bit of the upper and lower surfaces. This catches the camera flash much differently than the bare plywood, and doesn't look so good. After I get this rib garland off, I might have to just shellac the whole thing so it looks better in photos!

Working on the blocks

Here we have all 6 blocks glue-tacked onto the form -- the plywood. The metal template shows how the blocks need to be trimmed before the ribs can be placed. The metal template was also used to create the plywood form (or mould). It was based on the Stradivari "Red Diamond" violin. In 2006, after a decade of working on my own doing mostly repair work, I finally took the opportunity to attend a violin-makers workshop, this one in Eureka, California, and taught by Boyd Poulsen. He had worked in the Hans Weishaar shop, which was where the Red Diamond was restored after it was washed out to sea near Santa Monica. (see www.cozio.com/Instrument.aspx?id=1039). I made my template from one Boyd had. I was able to attend the workshop one more year, 2007, again for a week of making. Unfortunately, that was the last year for the workshop. Fortunately, I was able to get into Michael Darnton's workshop in Southern California (see jbviolin.com/workshop/). Unfortunately, I no longer had access to the Red Diamond shapes, but by then, Strad Magazine had put out a nice poster on the Titian Stradivari, which was close to this form. I made a few modifications to the outline, which certainly could have been errors of mine when making the original Red Diamond. I don't know if they were made on the same Strad form or not.



I don't actually use the corner templates to form the curves of the corners. In fact, the original Stradivari corner templates don't seem to fit original Stardivari corners, so I think there is some doubt that the templates were actually used (or even made) by Stradivari. What I am doing now is to square up off the corner block cut-outs and sketch in the corners. This is probably not a very good method, but it is a method and seems to give reasonable results.



Here I have cut out the C-bout curves on the blocks of the treble side of the instument. Holding it up to an outside light, at arm's length or further, is a good way to see problems in the curves. Here the top curve seems to drop a bit too far on the outside, but part of that is that the outside of the block is still rough and too wide. I'll fit the C-bout ribs before trimming the outside of the corner blocks.

Starting the 3rd fiddle

I have been busy trying to catch up with repair work, and finally forced myself to take a half-hour or so at the end of the day and get the next violin started.



Here I am in the midst of splitting out and squaring up some willow from a tree that blew down years ago. I square up 5 sides fairly well, not so much the outer edge, as it's going to get trimmed off anyway, carefully, to form the outside curve.

After they are reasonably nice, I glue and clamp the neck and endblocks in place. Hope to get a couple corner blocks, at least, in place tomorrow.

2nd dance for the new fiddle.

We don't get many photos of our band at gigs, but my wife, who was the caller, managed to catch this one of us playing a waltz version of the Loch Tay Boatman Song at the Victorian Ball last night in Boise, Idaho. My violin has been strung up a couple weeks now, and this is the second dance that I've used it.



In the time that it's been strung up, I've cut a new soundpost for it -- the first one was just a little short, or perhaps became a bit short as the plates moved -- swapped the old metal Wittner tailpiece for a lighter composite tailpiece, and replaced the mediocre old Zyex strings with Dominants. I am not a perlon string player, or haven't been, using mainly steel strings. But I find that when I go to the violin-makers workshop in the summer, that many makers there use Dominants, so I'm trying to get used to them -- what they sound like, how they behave -- to make comparisons better.

I should add that in addition to using a fiddle I made, I am wearing a kilt my sister made for me last year.

St. Patrick's Day tune

I've made a little video here of the new fiddle being played, unfortunately by me -- but it might give some idea of how it sounds.



Sure the image is a little dark, but otherwise you might be able to see me! :-)

Strung up

Spent time yesterday (Antonio Vivaldi's 332nd birthday) putting on the fittings (pegs, bridge, soundpost, and such). Didn't have the tailpiece I wanted, so used a metal one. Didn't have the strings I wanted, so used a set of Zyex (old formulation) I had lying about. But really, there is so much settling in that takes place the first week, not to mention the adjusting that I am prone to do -- move the soundpost this way, re-tune, listen, move the post again -- so the first set of strings is badly abused anyway.



I played it at band rehearsal last night, and both Tim and Bill thought it sounded better than my previous violin. I thought the A was dull, and that my other violin was easier to play -- but it has several months of playing on it now, and I am a believer of the "playing-in" effect. This morning, strung up less than 24 hours, I think it already sounds better.

In a few days, I'll post a video, with me scratching out a tune.