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  2. Carbon rod reinforced bridges erase this problem forever.
  3. Hi Mike, I thought you were talking about varnish meaning the layers on top of the ground. ——- For the ground, the Cremonese recipe was quite wear resistant. I am not really on top of the latest discussions. Its a different formula than the color varnish and penetrated the wood very well. Additionally it enhances the reflection and seemed to imitate color of pure gold. Both characteristics together enabled makers to use a rather thin varnish with a rather low density of pigments because the ground would somehow intensify the colors. (Part of its magic IMO) Especially what concerns the color of the ground I am convinced that it had to do with wood treatment so that makers didn’t start with white wood. I also believe that sun tanning wasn’t done for the same reason. Only the varnish needed sun light (presumably only short time) to solidify quicker. (That’s all my personal interpretation and maybe other MN members will contradict) —————- What I understand somehow from chemistry is that cooking processes bond ingredients together and this in turn is desirable for more toughness. From the 18th century on (or maybe even earlier?) there was a whole industry of carriage varnish makers working with the most wear resistant resins (mostly hard copal) by cooking oil and resin together.
  4. Hi Andreas I would like a wear resistant ground varnish, do you think a leaner mix would achieve that? The Cremonese ground is more resistant to wear or so I've read. And then a higher oil content for the color layer. I'm not familiar with Paddings products and now that he has passed, I won't get to try any of them. I did use quite a bit of turpentine so it's a watery consistency but I kind of like that. I like applying multiple thin coats. You are right about drying time. I have been putting this on a scrap of maple and it does take some time to harden. It's a good idea to apply this to a larger piece of wood. I could mix some lake pigments in this 1:1 mixture and use it for a color layer and a much leaner mix with no color for a ground layer. Then do some artificial wear to see how it behaves.
  5. I also wondered if it might have passed through Metropolitan Music, because they distributed many bows -- both silver and nickel-mounted -- stamped F N VOIRIN A PARIS. But I think these were always also stamped GERMANY or FRANCE between the eyelet mortise and the end of the stick, which I don't see in the last picture of this bow. So, I doubt that it's a Metropolitan Music bow. This could be caused by an out-of-adjustment eyelet or a mis-aligned or worn inner screw hole in the stick or possibly a few other things.
  6. If you're talking about the blade shown in your first picture, it looks a lot closer to a 45-degree bevel. It's also a toothed blade. It looks like your ribs came out good.
  7. Those untouched instruments have never been opened. To get ideas about bass bars just try different types on one and the same instrument and keep good references either as recording or as FFT graph or both.
  8. https://www.metmusic.com/about Prob one of these
  9. Yesterday
  10. Maybe violin with a warped and bent bridge could actually better than with a straight unbent one. A normal straight bridge has two main resonance modes: one resonance is a sideways rocking motion around its waist at about 3000Hz which helps increase the desirable "bridge hill" 2000-4000Hz portion of the violin's frequency response curve. The other resonance is a vertical up and down motion at about 8000Hz which may increase the violin's output in that frequency range. But a high output in this range causes the violin to sound undesirably harsh or strident. A bent bridge would have a much lower stiffness in its vertical direction which would reduce its resonance frequency. It might be possible that a certain amount of bending would get this resonance also into the desirable 2000-4000Hz range. So I suggest a PhD candidate study the effects of bridge bending on one bridge to see the amount of bending effects on the violin's sound character. Experiments might reveal there is an optimum amount of bending. It would be important to maintain the same good bridge foot fitting on the top plate which is unlike some of the photo examples shown. If this shows some promissing results the experiments could be expanded to two violins with their bridges and so on. Simultaneously to this, a computer theoretical simulation could be done to see if its theoretical model accurately predicts the experimental results. This might end up being a 150 page dissertation which gets the student their PhD degree.
  11. well the sample I had, I wont be getting the recipe for that. So I'll just try to invent something I like. If I come up with something I like and if it's 100% my own then I may be open to sharing it. But if it incorporates any information shared in confidence then I would respect that and keep it to myself. Fortunately this is an awesome forum with lots of good information already out there! I've been reading through lots of old varnish threads here on MN. And there's a link I found that seems like a reasonably good varnish, here https://www.ruschil.com/blog/making-violin-varnish Also there is a recipe in the C&J book. Stand oil or boiled linseed oil, colophony, Larch turpentine and mastic And then my idea of just a cold mix of rosin dissolved in turp with linseed oil. I made some halffast attempts at making varnish some years ago, some of it was ok. One time I cooked down some Hawthorn venice turpentine evaporating the volatiles until it was just the rosin left. Looked ok but aligatored badly, probably I just applied it too thick and didn't let it dry enough, plus at that time I wasn't washing the oil to remove mucilage. And I used hardware store turpentine which is not the best. Now I know how to process oil and use Diamond G turps, the good stuff!
  12. How is this even possible? A poorly made bridge?
  13. The other way to look at it on gross income is the cost of work and how long it takes. I am in Australia and I recently had a luthier install a new soundpost, dress the fingerboard, make a new nut and install a new bridge made by himself. It was $300 excluding taxes. Considering a tradesman here would charge $100 an hour I hope I didn’t pay the luthier less than that per hour. He also does cello lessons. Has a brick and mortar store. So not sure what the net would be.
  14. Thanks Mike, I'm really interested to learn more about this. Is the recipe a secret? If so, can you bribe your supplier?
  15. Maybe it's the photos but this doesn't look much like a Voirin. Isn't it modern?
  16. I use a LN toothed blade in my LN62 low angle plane to remove material fast and evenly. Then finish with LN scraper plane. Haven't tried a 90 thick blade for scraping but many roads lead to Rome, good work.
  17. With a proportion of almost 1:1 for linseed oil and rosin I would expect a varnish which is not very hard though it should get ‘touch dry’ after 3 days, the time linseed oil needs to solidify. Altogether, I’d expect a varnish which is not very wear resistant. Somehow I find it an interesting idea because Cremonese varnish must have been very brittle (not wear resistant) and the ‘cold fusion’ receipe promises exactly this characteristic (or: maybe better than cook-mixed receipes) I would be quite curious to see a test on a bigger wooden surface and how wear can be applied and looks like when the varnish is very thin. You might also try to dissolve the cooked resin in the absolute minimum of turpentine to make a honey like liquid and then make it brushable with the right amount of linseed oil. (Which would be very similar to the system of Koen Padding)
  18. Thanks for the feedback. Did the tech specifically say why they prefer the stick form? The round disk has two larger, round "sharp" edges as opposed to the smaller end of a smaller diameter stick, which from my perspective make it easier to apply a fine line of compound. I've gotten feedback from another luthier or two the past 5 years saying they prefer the stick, but weren't specific enough, perhaps I should have asked. Most stick compounds come in a "push up' or lip balm tube, and/or wrapped in candy foil. I'm guessing people don't wish to handle the compound directly which the tube or foil allows for no skin contact. I've prided myself on minimal, plastic-free packaging which can be labeled efficiently and economically with rubber stamps, but I do see foil (and possibly stick form) in the near future. In the meantime I'll keep cooking and pouring...
  19. My two cents : there is reason as to why the Russian hold went out of fashion. Overall, the F-B one is decidedly better. It produces better tone. 60 years ago there was still a lot of back and forth discussion between the Russian school and the East European one as to what is better and also the "why" of one or another. Very few reasons for the Russian hold and LOTS for the F-B one. The Russian bow hold does a few things better ( maybe ...) and A LOT of things much worse than the F-B one. JH got a fairly good result out of it ( not a GREAT one ) but it bit him as he aged and imitating JH's mannerisms might not be a good idea. He was exceptionally gifted musically, had the ideal arm length / hand size and practiced enormously. I remember how when I was very young I had a friend who could run backwards faster than me ahead. One should not understand from that running backwards is "faster".
  20. Good day i had a thought the other day while I was card scraping ribs. In the midst of my frustration trying to scrape the ribs to the right size I found I often scrape the edges to thin… poor technique + little experience x wood is not cheap = necessity.. and necessity is the mother of invention. I dug out a second hand block plane blade and ground it to a 90degree bevel. Popped it into my low angle block plane and I couldn’t be happier with the results… I was able to get the ribs to 1.1mm +/- .02mm.. it scraped like butter and was an absolute joy. the idea was inspired by Lie Nelson’s scraper blade for their block plane… so I didn’t just dream it up. thoughts?
  21. The printer filament suggested (PLA) is a pretty horrible acoustic material... 3x the density of spruce, half the stiffness, and undoubtedly high damping. The video sounds awful to my ears, and I suspect it would be even worse in person. I'd much rather get 10 wooden violins on eBay for the price of this plastic one. Check that... I'd rather do neither.
  22. I think what helps a lot is to have very good ear and dictee training. It also helps if you can play even simple things at very high level. Can you "pull tone" out of a violin ? People with good ear and good training can tell ANY 6 notes taken AT ONCE anywhere on the piano kbd. The "gifted" can do much more than that. You also need to have pretty good perfect pitch and be able to play the sounds in your memory. Bottom line, if one is color blind one can't judge reproductions of Mona Lisa.
  23. Just checked with a Magistrate : you will be out in two years. new experiences , new friends, time will just fly.
  24. Thank you all for so much of your time. I perhaps should've said it's an unstamped Hill bow but as I wasn't able to find any information on such fittings, started to doubt whether it was even original. It's interesting to know and it's always nice to learn something new so thank you fiddlecollector for this info. May I ask why you think the bow isn't stamped? I'm guessing it didn't meet the standard although it looks and plays great to me. It doesn't have the date on it either, only the 'C'. It's all so complex!!
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