Filippo Protani

Thanks Melvin, you've really reassured me. Your assumption is correct as I did tack a false fingerboard to the neck as soon as I removed the ebony one. At this point I guess it's only matter of time before it settles. I will keep you all updated.

The thickness of the front is 4mm in the central area between the f-holes, graduating down to 3.3mm towards the top and bottom blocks. The 'lung' area is slightly thinner, about 3mm. The edge area ranges between 3.2 to 3.5 but on the C bouts is 3.8-3.9. As for the back, it's not very strongly flamed. This morning, after your comments, I checked the heel with a straight edge between the button and the thumb stop area and there is a definite dish which wasn't there before, so I suspect the accordion effect suggested by Daryl has happened. Do you think it is a good idea to remove the varnish from the heel so that it is more able to regain some moisture? Another interesting point is that it's been rainy for the last three days and that seems to have helped the projection to drop by another couple of millimeters. I also unclamped the table from the rib structure and the curling of the corners didn't show as dramatically as before. Thanks again, it's nice to have such a variety of knowledge.

Thanks for your suggestions everybody. The inside of the cello was sealed with a coat of potassium silicate. The outside had a coat of gelatine as suggested by Hammerl for the use of their water stain, all of which I've used on most of my instruments.

Hello everybody, this is my first post on Maestronet, although I have enjoyed following many discussions. I'm making a new cello for a customer and I've just completed the varnishing process. When I went to string it up, I realized that the projection had dramatically changed from 80mm to 92mm. As I do for all my instruments, before starting to varnish, I set up the cello and had it played for a week in the white. As everything was fine I removed the whole set up, including the fingerboard and post and began the varnishing process. It took almost two months and half of the time it was under UV light where I kept the cello humidified. Throughout the two months I had issues with some persistent open seams which I attributed to heat in the UV cabinet. Since I discovered the projection problem I removed the front for a thorough inspection and found the front arching quite distorted. All the corners, specially on the treble side, curled up and the cross arching had flattened, causing the f-hole wings to raise above the central area. I measured the arching heights both top and back and found that they had dropped by 3-4 millimiters. Since then I clamped the front onto the ribs to keep it flat as well as setting the old post, which I had to cut down a couple of millimiters in order to stand it up. In the last 5 days I've managed to gradually pull the post to its correct position and that has helped the projection to go down by 5mm, so that it is now 87mm. I was told by the supplier that the wood was seasoned and ready to be used. I haven't glued the top back yet and am wondering if this has happened to anyone here. Any suggestions would be most welcome! www.protaniviolins.com