Peter K-G

It's very impossible to see same arching style (longitudinal) for top and back on old cremonese violins. I can only see that many tops where intentionally made straighter in the middle, sometimes stretching a long way to the near the end blocks, with a close curve.

Well, in any case more is more and less is less (less is not more). So I'll choose my wood blankets like best suitable for a marimba. High ring, clean ring, high Q.... this I know will be, the more the better later on for projection. You simply cannot make a soloist violin from dull wood and great wood will give a clean and strong M5 , nothing we can do about that (except for "dull" it down (the wood), if we want a less projecting violin, which surprisingly many fiddlers want.

Had to look up marimba and you are right they don't look like a violin

Or change in wood supply or change in sound/music preferences or...

I would not agree on that, a clean pitch can also lead to a violin with a broad dynamic range

And some more examples that they all (violins) sound great, countless of "odd" examples that are awesome. - low arch, high arch, low dens, high dens, bad wood, slab cut, tuning, no tuning, graduation schema (whatever that is), fungus treatment, removing wood between grains etc etc... and surprise, surprise great sound (except maybe for David, who seems to have heard some bad ones?)

Don't they all (violins) sound awesome, would you make the arch low if you knew that it had low cross grain stiffness?

The whole shape of the arch is as important as height and if cross grain stiffness is low I would not make it low

Stop if the wood gets burned!

On a violin it's not too difficult to "fix" B1+ wolf

Is that a good thing or bad thing (if it's a Yamaha)?

Ok, thanks In any case setting the neck is exciting because I find it one of the most difficult task in the making process. With the last one I glued the neck and clamped it. After an hour I decided I wasn't satisfied with the job, went back and took it apart and re glued it next day. I started to feel that I haddn't squized out the glue completely (it was too thick to start with), and I was right.

I can, and I also agee that it's much stronger when the mortise is angled as you sayed earlier. Sometimes I wonder if I do the neck set too thight? I also make a dovetailed joint and I can hold the violin by the neck without glue, too tight?

If you were starting with a piece of wood with low specific gravity how would you compensate with the arching? I wouldn't, density is not what determines arching, wood stiffness properties does. Density determines plate thickness Would you adjust the arching height or fullness to the edge? Both, according to the wood's properties; arching longitudinal and latitudinal height/length/shape

Two things to consider 1. Looking at the thicknesses and the weight you might have wrong readings of M5, if not the wood is really "low performance" 2. You cannot "decide" an M5 at the stage when you carve out the inside, it will be according to what wood you have and arching, assuming "normal" graduation.