Dwight Brown

Thanks Man, I remain confused, but I appreciate having Maestronet here with its cast of characters. I will get my act together here presently and put up a post of my latest viola, an Ultralite by the esteemed Joseph Curtin. I'm just trying to get to school every day and teach my kids. So far the wave of refugees has not effected us at all at school. DLB

I've always been kind of puzzled by the esthetics of violin making. When someone makes an instrument for me I tell them to make it the way they feel it or the way that makes sense for them. Other instruments seem to have different ideas. I think most classical guitars are finished in a totaly flawless way with a rather mirror finish and bows tend to be very cleanly finished. I am rather at sea about it myself and understand it kind of like quantum mechanics.......poorly (damn electrons anyway) There I just used quite a few words to say very little. I think the concept is very hard to put in words or codify. DLB Yes, That Del Rio, TX

I'm fond of the Evah Pirazi Gold strings. You might try the A string or perhaps the Passione A string. DLB

It’s screwed into the treble leg of the bridge. The head has the quatrefoil as well. DLB

Brilliant work! DLB

This is a bridge on a new viola I'm playing in. The little four leafed clover thing is called a micro mute. It weighs about half a gram. There are four of them with this instrument and I am just beginning to experiment with them. There are hard wood bridge laminates glued to the top of the instrument to cut down on distortion of the spruce top. can also see the end of the laminated fingerboard. The dark brown is sonowood and the core is spruce. DLB

I quite like the carbon rod idea. You could set up a simple jig or drill press vice and do it in a jiffy. I am talking about the real world struggle with student 'cellos on school buses in soft cases. It is a never ending chore. DLB

A maple bridge with a laminate in the middle might be interesting to stabilize bridges from warping. Especially student ‘cello bridges which were the bane of my existence as a school orchestra director! DLB

First of all I’m not qualified to say anything. I think this is your boy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_pseudoplatanus Acer pseudoplantanus the usual wood for backs, ribs, and necks. that said I would love to have a set of bridges and sound posts made of all kinds of different materials and woods. I have a feeling it’s been done already. DLB. I am presently experimenting with a viola by Joseph Curtin that has a bridge with interchangeable small masses that screw into an insert in the treble bridge foot. all that said I really like to see experimentation, the down side is the people who are qualified to cut really good bridges need to make a living and cutting experimental bridges is not a big earner!

There are quite a number of old instruments that have been made into violas of various sizes. There are som converted Linarol instruments that have been cut down (They were Lyras). I think what happened here was you had old viols or old viol parts that were taking up room in a shop and pretty much not gong to sell. The folks at the shop used them for raw material to make something they thought would sell. I'd say most of the big tenor violas wound up like this too. These are just examples of more extreme conversion or utilization of odds and ends lying around the shop. DLB

DLB

Is this not the small viola that was made out of leftover viol parts? I think I’ve seen it before. DLB

Nice! DLB

Got to be the best thing I’ve seen in an age! DLB

I think it may be bone. DLB

lucubration Boy howdy, I had to look up that word. I did in fact learn something. And the crowd said "He can be taught!" DLB

yup

I want to say that Witten is the man that sold or donated the four A. Amati instruments and many others to the National Music Museum. I would check but their site is not working well. His widow donated a viola and perhaps other things. I don't have a complete picture. http://collections.nmmusd.org/witten.html DLB

I'm not sure what help it cutis but William Whedbee has built a copy of the A. Amati 'cello "The King" It was a reconstruction as it may have been before it was cut down. Will is a respected maker especially of 'cellos and he put a lot of effort into the project. It was built for a particular performance but I don't remember what. DLB

https://t2-auctions.com/auctions/lot/?csid=2199502848&cpid=3735371776&filter_key= 55 Grand! Someone must think it's something worth while. DLB

Thanks for the information, I very much appreciate the knowledge. As it turns out I wound up spending the money at the dentist :-( Here is the bad part...... My dentist is one of my old students and he played viola in my orchestra! Oh well,life continues :-) DLB

If we had more pictures there are folks here that can help out. There is a pinned post near the top that details what to photograph for identification. DLB

The 40-60 % is what is recommended by experts and it's worked out for me. DLB

I believe that museums strive for between 40 and 60% RH. My house is really weird in that it stays at almost exactly 50% all the time according to multiple hygrometers. One problem is hygrometers are notorious for being inaccurate!. DLB i give you also the gospel of Saint Burgess http://www.burgessviolins.com/humidity.html

I believe that museums strive for between 40 and 60% RH. My house is really weird in that it stays at almost exactly 50% all the time according to multiple hygrometers. One problem is hygrometers are notorious for being inaccurate!. DLB