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The method I use for measuring speed of sound was first discussed in this thread. Thanks for the offer to send wood to test, but I think you can do this yourself if interested. As for why some wood has strong late growth, I can only guess that the winter conditions might be good for growth... not too cold that growth shuts down, and maybe good sun and rain as well. But I don't know. I don't think that the hard growth is a structural problem, but perhaps (but not necessarily) an acoustic difference. Although I have encountered it enough times to become convinced that wide winter growth tends to have lower speed of sound, the one set that I have with the highest speed of sound (6500 m/s) has very strong winter growth lines. I would expect high density and low speed of sound to primarily hurt the high frequencies. But again, I don't have enough real experience to say for sure, just a few examples. Torrefying tends to darken wood, so the denser winter growth (which is dark because of the high percentage of wood vs. air) tends to get very dark, or visually "harder". Wood that starts out with a relatively low speed of sound generally tends to improve more, percentage-wise, than wood that starts out with a higher speed of sound, but it still doesn't "catch up" to the good stuff.
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Ditto. Crude is often mistaken for old
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I’m quite sure they were mistaken.
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I've done some "49er's" colored beadcord wraps this year!!!!
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Thoughts on this fiddle . Seller thought it was late 1600’s to 1700’s
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Newfiddleguy joined the community
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I once had a rattle I couldn't identify and it turned out to be the little sleeve that comes on the E string, which I don't use but had left on.
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Can anybody provide a link to the video where David Burgess roughs out a cello top using a gouge in competition with a violin maker who used a chainsaw like tool?
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Wasn’t a bad violin at all from the start, just what is called „tradey“, but not Turin made and now unfortunately in a heavily devalued condition.
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léo naraghi joined the community
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I have fello makers and restorers in Liverpool UK. I sold my cello, I restored to a fellow luthier, Jan Shelley. If you want I can get it off him and sell it to you. I wanted it back for a while now. He says he will sell it back to me for £500. As he has worked on it himself after buying it for a pittance from myself. It's very well worth the price as it's had top notch restoration on it. It's a Galliano. More likely not. More likely a Florenzian from late 1700s. I don't really think I can play cello. I can't but on that cello I can. What upsets me is that I would love to get it back off him for myself as just restored a Tourte cello bow, and I spent so ling on the cello. It's big. Very easy to play and it took me many months of day in day out restoration. No back cracks, however, the centre seem had to be drawn back together, the neck was broken and Jeffrey Holmes, as well as others told me how to repair it successfully and I managed to do so. If this is worthwhile me keeping I would but I don't have time to become a cellust, shamefully. I would love that instrument back though myself. So it is good. Very good. Ya!
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Thanks for your reply Steve. So just to make sure I understand, you feel your finish has low build per coat and is soft and flexible once cured?
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hello,I have question,I would like to know for violin mould form, if you should use a power tools(scroll saw , bandsaws or..... )instead of Fred saw which one would you choose thanks
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This afternoon the low C came in the mail. I have one around the basement somewhere; I used it to be sure that the holes in the tailpiece were big enough for them. I'll find it now. I put the string on and set it lower at the bridge. (I had a spare D string on before) Then the rattle came back. I put my ear right up to the tailpiece; it was not on the C, but on the G still. Then it stopped again. Odd. Never tried Helicore strings. I don't think that they sound that bad. I hear the body more than I hear the strings, at least on the lower strings. "They" say that they are bright. I don't hear that at all. Not like Zyex! They have a nice, flexible feel to them. The tension is supposed to be high. I was worried about that, the viola isn't built like a battleship, and there is 25% more tension. But tuning it up to pitch, the projection is still 35 mm. Yeah, the neck could have pulled up, and the belly could have sunk, but if they did, they did it equally. It is still about 382 long. I'm happy. It sounds good, and I got the playability right; I think. I've only done about 10 so what do I know? Especially since I don't play! Maybe that's the last of the mystery rattle? It isn't loud enough to be noticed, it sounds like a slinky.
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Well I am a little disappointed, I thought the F holes looked kind of neatly done.
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Maybe because they liked the look.
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Of course these look like a perdfect sondpost crack beside a bassbar crack; sometimes they can be hard to spot from inside, but can open up more wide with time. Is there a patch at the back's soundpost region or isn't? In each case it would have to be carved out, the crack had to be cleaned and closed in register in a cast before fitting another (better) patch, most probably the same had to be done with the belly. So it might be questionable if the instrument (which will be heavily devaluated in each case) is wort the costs or effort. I guess what Deans wanted to say was: An old rag from Torino is rarely the holy Shroud of Turin, an old violin purchased there isn't very often made by the school of Torino.
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I wish I could get closer. The brown strip looks like leather but I can’t think why anyone would go to the trouble of cutting thin leather strips and then alternating it with simple string, when metal wire of some kind would be far quicker.
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Indeed i was hasty to assume.
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"to my not so trained eye it shares many similarities with the Giovanni Celoniato 1726 made in Turin" Honestly not seeing a significant similarity... Celoniato/Celonatus violin
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Brilliant!! Was the case covered in a peculiar thick leather with large scales?
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The words, "field expedient", come to mind.
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That is a really bad touch up, and it seems last layer was done recently, although the patch wood by now has almost blended with the original which means the crack has been there for a while... At the end i still satisfied with what i got, although it will be a lot of work to get it to a nice good looking state. Im thinking about reworking the post crack and remove the red shellac that was applied above the original oil varnish, but it will be a challenge
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Hi Doug; The clamp in the thread I linked required about 8 mm clearance and have an in-line bottom pad. The fiddle was opened half way into the C bout (about as far as one would open an instrument for a "NY neck lift" except from the bottom end). The top can be held open using a sound post or dowel about halfway up the lower bout during the procedure. The advantages I note are in ease of cleat location, controlling contact, controlling grain direction and clean-up. Certainly not the only way to skin a cat, though. I do have some clamps requiring less clearance, but 8mm was an easy stretch in this case. The clamps you linked to look like they'd only require about 5 mm, but they do have a slightly raised bottom pad.... maybe not enough to worry about though. Like David, I tend to be on the conservative side when it comes to top removal... maybe less so when it comes to partial opening of the seams, but in the case I illustrated the crack was 8 cm and heading for the sound post area on a top with relatively wide grain. It's been absolutely fine and remained pretty much undetectable from the outside for 6 years now (as have a few others I needed to attend to that winter).
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The post crack is showing on the back, the long crack where it looks like someone scraped the varnish and then did a bad varnish touch up, and or more likely the repair at one point looked ok when it was fresh, but many years and neglect have taken the toll in the uneven patina of that area which has clearly been fuxed twith. The crack at the button isn't something I'd be thrilled about either. I suppose what it really comes down to is how much you paid for it and do you think you got an ok deal or not.
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I know this is a really old thread but it is worth noting that there is 1:1 ct scan of the rib garland on the Plowden poster. That will give you the most accurate outline. It also shows where the blocks were placed and their dimensions.
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Clearly the bow of a dental floss tycoon from Montana... Think we need more detailed up close shots, to me, based on the pic, it looks like thread.
