Urban Luthier

Chris Schwarz's books on workbenches are a very valuable resource. I wish I had the time and patience to make a first rate workbench. for those who don't and have the fund's the lie Nielsen bench looks stunning.

no burn in on the Messie as far as i can see - I've seen it multiple times

anything wrong with the arching drawings published in Sacconi? I've always used these for reference

really nice - i don't think one could ask for anything better. you've nailed it from a visual perspective in my opinion.

although a bit of effort to install, one of these works really well also

here is my bench - which I build myself. Shop is the old cold cellar in our home ~ 8 x 10. Bench and shop are kind of a work in progress.

wow - this is the coolest small work space i've ever seen!

as above -- the Strad Tenor viola in Florence has an unaltered neck (but with wedge) according to Beare / Pollens etc. Very fine photos in the B&G strad varnish book. I dont know the source of this image but you can clearly see the original nails through the block

he he he.... for sure Rue! Here is a photo of a cellist I took recently when i was in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum). I was looking at the neck angle joint in particular - which appears to show a slight neck angle with the notch just clearing the sound board. Similar to some violin / viola images in the Shapes of the Baroque" catalogue by Monical.

hummm, I rarely get punchy in this forum but many of the observations in this thread can't be backed up with any form of research or scholarship.

Do you think the cardinal who commissioned the work wouldn't have noticed the how the violin was depicted (form and playing posture)? What about the cardinal who purchased the painting afterwards?

What evidence do you have that this is an unrealistic way to play a violin ca 1600 in Rome?

nice work - better than my first for sure!

Great article! Thanks for sharing - Nice to see Guy's work featured

really nice work!

I agree with Davide and David - I looked at the photos taken under UV light of the Strad Messiah and Tuscan tenor in the B&G monograph -- varnish can be seen right up to the edge of the pegbox wall (sharp at the top and slightly softened on the side walls). Looking at photos can be deceiving as one can easily miss-interpret the flair of the side walls of the pegbox wall as a chamfer in a low res image. here are my own photos of the Messiah

Really attractive Dave. A clean looking del Gesu inspired work, with your own personality -- really nice

yep this is the Veritas Carver's Knife. I use to cut the purfling channel. the different knife profiles are very useful https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/carving-tools/knives/31088-veritas-carvers-knife

thanks for sharing

very nice! is it modeled after the alard?

There are images of the Florence tenor in the S&G book on the Tuscan violin noted above, but no ct scans. There are ct scans of the Mahler on Strad poster but this is a far cry from the tenor! I’d love to see ct scans of the tenor as well if anyone can find them

Ummmm... yes to all of the above.... most classical recordings are recorded very well with the best mics (B&K and Neumann are flat but not perfectly flat). BUT In recording, microphones are not generally placed where the listener sits. They are placed above the players (Blumlein Stereo and Decca tree are popular setups for classical) Most old Decca (think Kennith Wilkinson) were done this way while many of the fantastic modern recordings (e.g. Linn Records are done with the Decca tree and + ton of spot mics (this allows for a lot of flexibility with level matching in post). Most of these setups can capture more info than we can actually hear from our listening position - and yes the mic will pick up a different frequency response than we hear in the audience. (Kind of like looking at an ultra high resolution photograph of a violin - more detail than can be seen with the naked eye) In the end, it is all an illusion and the quality of the illusion comes down to how well the engineers setup the mics and care taken in post production.

Most well recording material will sound wonderful on a good hi fi system! For all the rest, the Apple HomePod works just fine! as for your comment about microphones etc - yes the whole audio recording process is flawed from the beginning. A microphone response isn't perfectly flat to begin with. Plus when you factor in The high and low frequencies from a violin played on a stage will reach a microphone at different times than our ears sitting in the audience -- Flawed from the beginning!

There in lies the problem with much of the high end opinions one finds in forums and even professional reviews - most listen to what can be referred to as 'synthetic music' - think all pop / rock / electronic music. These folks want to tune hi-fi to their own 'personalized representation' of how they want their music to sound. Nothing wrong with that, but it makes it difficult for folks like us who prefer a violin to sound like a violin through audio equipment. Not something laden with harmonic distortion, frequency and timing errors. I think one of the reasons there aren't more musician audiophiles is that so much of what's called 'hi end' equipment is truly awful and it take a lot of time to cut through internet-noise to find something that is actually good (for our purposes) and reasonably priced.

Ha, I'm Canadian so i feel your pain regarding the dollar. I agree, very expensive but well-priced compared to a lot of audiophile nonsense products. Especially for folks who make their living from audio engineering. Generally, the street price through a dealer will be less. Tying back to this forum... I simply mentioned this brand as a starting point for makers or musicians considering high quality audio playback equipment - a way to cut trough some of the Audiophile media noise.