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  2. Ernest Martel
    How your varnish will perform? What does that mean? If this is the method you learned from the workshop and you are are happy with the results why ask how it will perform under different conditions? What conditions? Did you not ask that in the workshop?
  3. twcellist
    Hi. Happy news! I was able to get the Victor Gardener cello! I'm loving it and I wanted to share my pictures!
  4. Jim Bress
    Yes I am. However, My post was to give an example for the discussion. I’m happy to subject my sample or additional samples to explore how this varnish will perform under different conditions.
  5. scordatura
    Yes there are quite a few paintings that are marvelous in terms of portraiture but abstract (taking the high road) in the depictions of instruments. Going to Cremona this summer. If I see any apparitions of Antonio I will do my best to capture them with my camera!
  6. Andrew Victor
    I play cello and the "chin instruments." I have never played a 5-string cello but I did own a 5-string violin for a few years and found it very disorienting. It is one thing to spend your life bowing 2 outside strings and 2 inside strings; 2 outside and 3 inside strings completely changes your universe. I suggest asking at the PEGBOX forum about how the makers and other luthiers set up the bridge, fingerboard and neck for 5-string cellos and how that relates to their customers who order them. Also, you could check at the Internet Cello society: tps://www.tapatalk.com/groups/cellofun/
  7. Ernest Martel
    Are you happy with that result?
  8. scordatura
    For what it is worth, I was told that the Paul Crowley violin was 24K.
  9. Ernest Martel
    Sorry the varnish books I'm talking about are these....
  10. scordatura
    Just looked at your listings. It says 2 of your varnish book listings are sold.
  11. Jim Bress
    I’m not completely sure what this thread is really about. Whether it’s trying to prove, disprove, or explore “Roger Hargrave’s” varnish as he described in the Making a Bass blog. For reference, I just finished a cook about the same time this thread started. I think this batch is a good representation of the varnish I think we’re talking about. Joe Thrift taught me how to make it, so it’s Roger’s varnish two cooks removed. The rib stock started “white” and sealed with clear (platina) shellac. Over the last 10 days I applied 4 finger pat layers as thin as I could apply evenly, the same as if I was varnishing a fiddle. The last layer was applied 4 days ago. That’s approximately 240 hrs. In the UV box. The thickness of the varnish is thinner than my ability to measure. Just trying to give context to the conversation, whatever the conversation is actually about.
  12. Ernest Martel
    Please check the Luthiers Exchange for the varnish books (which dispels fact from fiction) still available for sale.
  13. Andreas Preuss started following The Strad: Is this a true portrait of Stradivarius?
  14. Andreas Preuss
    Even the greatest artists didn't know how to paint a violin realistically (at least I can't remember ever having seen one) In any case, I agree, it doesn't matter. His 'portrait' are the masterworks he left behind.
  15. Ernest Martel
  16. Ernest Martel
  17. Andreas Preuss
    @ctanzio i agree, the sand method is somewhat time consuming. You can use the simple method as well and it is sufficient. The only reason why I switched to the sand salt method is that the oil gets thinner and more fluid. The author of the method claims that silicon is added from the sand to the oil, but there I have some doubts.
  18. DR. S
    For me it is his cellos that really set him apart. I have played several of his violas and violins and the contemporary instruments I own, by relatively unknown makers are considerably better (not just my opinion.) I also find his violas physically difficult to play, heavy with a thick neck. I know one professional who had to replace his Caron viola because of physical problems caused by the instrument. But still, his cellos are etherial.
  19. Adrian Lopez
    Yes, I thought the same thing when I saw it, but maybe the artist was better with faces than with fiddles.
  20. joerobson
    Photos...I guess I need a new phone... Commercial boiled linseed oil is just raw linseed oil with an indeterminate amount of cobalt drier added. Problems there.... on we go, Joe
  21. Don Noon
    Even if it is a portrait of Strad, while sortof cool, it really doesn't matter what he looked like. Even if it is a portrait of Strad, judging by the look of the fiddle he's holding, the artist can't make a good likeness anyway.
  22. Michael_Molnar
    How about taking better photos? What about BLO for varnish making?
  23. Rue
    Aren't musicians entertainers by default?
  24. Rue
    Cool! He's much shorter them I imagined! Makes it all more "real"...
  25. PhilipKT
    I was excited to look, but as the page was loading, I realized that it does not matter. Stradivari is a myth. A real person, just like Jesus or Paul or Herod Antipas or Mohammed or any other person from antiquity of whom no authentic likeness exists, but who cares? What he did is quite literally for all time. As long as human civilization exists, there will be Stradivarius.
  26. A432
    FWIW, Eugene Altschuller advised me (mid-1970s) to never play a Mozart concerto as an orchestra audition piece, because no matter how you played it, somebody on the committee would insist it was too slow/too fast/too romantic/too matter-of-fact & so on. In his experience, with Mozart, there was no pleasing everybody, which is what you have to do in that situation. This despite seeing Mozart 4 sometimes as a mandatory since then.
  27. MarkBouquet
    I don't think the Patagonia video applies to PhilipKT's situation. The zipper in the video is separable, like on a jacket. The zipper on PhilipKT's case only slides to the open position then stops, with the two sides still attached together. My vote is still for trashing the case.
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