Peter K-G

Well, define professional. I have had some "good" violinits play them, it's allways interesting, mostly to listen. But what does it actually give? They mostly tell every violin is good/great, that you give them, and do not want to or cannot give real critique. For that you need violinsts on a really high level and I haven't had time to chase soloists

Great news! Folks at home think they sound far from nice (when I play them) Too loud and "harsh" I'm only allowed to play in the basement

I have done a lot of spectrum analysis (way too many I would say), mostly with Studio Six Digital and Audacity, but also others. The mic and the PC soundcard is of most importance, you can get very different bridge hill for the same violin with different mic/soundcard. For proper analysis one would need access to professional equipment and get proper education. Nowadays I only compare different violins to what I hear with real time FFT, this gives me some useful information. The lower body modes are easy to analyse/compare

FFT anaysis are useful only when you compare violins in the same room with the same equipment (software, device, mic..) and compare it to playing the violins.

http://www.thestradsound.com/maestronet/stradivari-forma-by-addie

Hi Rue, I made an electric guitar with my son some time ago. When I said that it's going to be varnished with violin varnish he was skeptic, but not after. https://goo.gl/photos/n2DbJj4Z47GXCkwB7 (3-4 layers of violin varnish)

I did try PR179 (tube paint) after we discussed this some time ago. It turned out too intensive red, but as you say it's about the right mix. The problem is that I have some madder pigment, that when mixed directly into dark varnish, gives what I like most. I'm going to test PR179 pigment too (probably next summer) It's fun and never ending

Marty, I have allways enjoied reading your posts, but you hide your intelect behind them

I allways have the nut position as the main reference, when aiming for ~158 deg over the bridge all the other parameters are floating depending on how the violin body is constructed.

Why has one of them darker maple, baked?

No!! I should have made a couple of violins before Fjodor, it's not fair Looking good as usual

Even if "Physics" is telling something, I'm pretty sure there is somekind of a fine threshold in the angle/nut placement. This depends also a lot on top arch and how a particular violin is constructed. I think of a sailing board when you pull up the sail, there is a spot when it's not difficult to pull it up.

Audiotools by https://studiosixdigital.com/

If you fix the string angle (158) over the bridge and the nut in fixed place, the only parameter left to work with is bridge height depending on the top hight.

Yes, ~9 mm is max, otherwise the tailpiece would touch the chinrest (as have happened with a bigger tailpiece) While on the subject I happened to be in my workshop, lowering the bridge on this particular violin, that I finished exactly one year ago on Christmas eve. I left the bridge too high then (~33,5 mm) and the projection had not changed in a year. I haven't seen any abnormal changes (if any) in neck angles on my violins, even after years. But I use heat treated wood