Torbjörn Zethelius

Very low odds. Let's just say I wouldn't bet on that horse.

Violinmaking is a craft like cooking. You need experience and good ingredients to make good food. Violinmaking is not much different.

It depends on how you define "Great" With good set up and a little tinkering it can probably be made to sound OK.

And I thought that I'm extreme. I hope you have nature nearby to breathe in. I see a few friends on a regular basis and I'm also playing backgammon every week with a friend or in tournaments so I guess I'm fine. I inherited a cat from my mother when she passed away but he was involved in a car accident and moved on. Lately I've started playing chess with another friend and we also go out every other week to eat. Sometimes I just go out to my local café. Being among people can be refreshing even if you don't know them or talk to anybody.

Since I finish the inside before the outside, it means that if I so desire I can tune the plate from the outside. However, tuning plates is not for me.

What about Andrea Amati, was he the first to lay them out on the inside?

That's interesting, thank you for that information. It was new to me. I did notice that the 1649 'Alard' Amati has a similar golden section layout as described in my article, if I remember correctly. Yes, Stradivari made corner less instruments, but not violins. But I could be wrong, I wasn't there when he made them.

The 1 mm step looks ugly imo. I prefer to make it 0.3 mm or so. Just enough to clear the varnish surface.

I've been using this method since violin making school. Here's the article I published in 2016 on how to make the paper guide for placing the F-holes. As you can see I use the full body length as a starting point. I agree with Davide that the inside was finished because one can find the original markings on the insides of Strads. I think that most other makers such as the Amati and Guarneri laid them out on the outside. @Marty Kasprzyk My method only applies to Cremona and especially to Stradivari. Joshua Bell's Strad I think was converted, Stradivari did not make cornerless violins. Laying out f-holes.pdf

If you think that the violin has lost something in sound. Especially in the bass.

I don't do the "inside first with curtate", I don't know what you mean by that? I don't use curtate cycloids at all to be clear. They're not necessary for the way I work. I prefer using a chain for the internal arch as your image illustrates perfectly. The delta diagram I don't understand so I can't comment on it. Perhaps you can explain it a little more? The other image is more clear. Had you fitted a parabola to the internal arch instead of a circle it would have shown the close resemblance between the catenary and a parabola. Only when I work on the thicknesses (on the outside of the plates) I tend to visualise a circle because it's easier to visualise than a curtate cycloid. In my method focus is mainly about creating an acoustically designed internal space. The external as I said are the thicknesses. That's the difference between the inside first versus outside first. I hope that is clear.

Assuming that the post is in the correct place and well fitted, try to push the bottom a little bit to tighten it.

Circles are easy to visualise and they don't require elaborate templates. As far as I know Cremonese makers didn't use arching templates. There is not a single original arching template by Stradivari. Those that exist were made by Guadagnini for count Cozio di Salabue as study material. They were made from original instruments in Cozio's collection. Count Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue (1755-1840) experienced the decline in Cremonese violin making and the transition to the modern French practice of making 'artistic copies' of Italian instruments. The new method was called 'La methode Francais' while in contrast the old Italian method was named the 'Amati method'. It was because of the French method – that is still in fashion – that Cozio had the templates made.

Yes, visualise a circle when working the outside thicknesses after having finished the inside, since they are practically the same. The shadow from a straight edge is the best tool for this. Then blend it with the edge. That's how I do it. It's easy and straightforward.

When I started out carving the insides I had a ruler laid across the plate and followed the shadow. It was simple enough. But harder to teach somebody who doesn't know what they're aiming for.