Muswell

I have a jig to plane a square section, then a second to plane into an octagon followed by a home-made dowel plate to take off about 0.2mm. It's very peaceful.

Arcus bows are carbon fibre, lightweight and certainly the P5 I use doesn't dampen, in my experience.

I have an Arcus P5 which I use on 3 violins and don't have the problem you describe, maybe the bows just don't go well with your violin.

Did you know that she died last month? The video of her doing the same circuit in a Ford Transit van is a wonder.

Indeed. I went to quite a few concerts given by the excellent Chilingirian Quartet over the years and was struck by the way Levon would spring out of his chair at moments of drama. As the years went by the altitude decreased. Such is life.

Playing a guitar with an overhang would be uncomfortable for both the leg and forearm.

Yes.

I too am an amateur player. I don't think the neck length measured from the nut to the body tells the whole story and suggest that the shape of the heel is important too because that is where the thumb registers. I leave a practice mute on one of my violins and switch between that and one of two others when I won't disturb anyone. It's not a dimension that you can measure precisely but I think there is a range of 3mm in the distance from the nut to the thumb contact position between the instruments and I don't have a problem with that. But maybe my ear is bad. The string lengths vary fro

Ah yes, I think my brain was suffering fatigue after several hours of digging.

I suggest that simplistically the top is a curved strut which is bulging in response to the compression imposed by the strings while the bottom is straightening in response to the tension. The downward force from the bridge is then imposed on that and modifies the displacements. The cross arching provides restraint to resist these displacements.

I have a very nice French bow and bought an Arcus to use in hazardous situations. I like it so much that I play them both the same amount.

I think it is difficult without someone to guide you. When I bought one a few years back I asked for advice from someone local who is a baroque specialist and who studied with Rachel Podger. He sold me one of his and I know it's good. I have played a cheapo bow and it feels much more like a modern bow but with a pointy shape which makes its owner happy. I second Andres Sender's advice of going to a specialist maker. I still can't play the 3/4 note chords the way RP does but it is a lot better

Thanks for your opinion. I have a feeling that I will end up with a compromise between string length, bridge position and stop ratio. When it's done I'll know how sensitive it all is .

I am following the Strad Dancla poster at present and the body stop is given as 197 while the neck stop is 129, so a bit less than the 2/3 ratio. The string length is 328 so I imagine that someone thought that to be more important than keeping the ratio. As it happens my body stop has increased slightly and I was thinking of keeping the string length at 328 and making the neck stop a touch less. That seemed to be the best bet for playability......do you think that's wrong?

I found some art chalk sticks, sold as a pack of one white and one black, which were very expensive but have none of the grittiness of blackboard chalk. I have found it to be perfect for fitting bass bars.