Davide Sora

I put together some scrap wood ( about thirty pieces, some from violins too to get a better sound ) and some hardware that had been around in the workshop for more than 20 years.... Neck recycled by an old Kramer from 1985 with a broken headstock, replaced with a personal one, to get rid of the annoying fingerboard work. Varnished with self-made colophony/oil varnish, unpolished for a more authentic look The biggest test sample for varnish I ever made

Me too, but I'm more attracted to unique pieces that can't be replicated. Mine Telecaster is priceless, especially because it is not for sale and made by me....

I would have liked the 1950 Blonde Broadcaster , but the $ 150,000 bid is a little too much for my pocket https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6198093 I think I will have to go ahead and be satisfied with my "inspired by" Telecaster.....

Obviously, to be accurate, with a body stop and neck of a given length the resulting vibrating string will change slightly depending on the arching and bridge heights you will chose (Pythagorean theorem).

370 mm seems to me a fairly normal vibrating string length for a 40.5 cm viola with neck lenght 146.6 mm and body stop lenght 220 mm (2 : 3)

I would stick to 370 mm string lenght.

I'm with Melvin, I don't like varnished necks. Although Stradivari probably did it, nobody's perfect....

The legendary acoustic ball !!! Don't take it off your violin absolutely or it won't sound good anymore ! I'm just kidding, but some are really convinced of this, coming even to ask to keep it and put it back in their violin after a restoration, ask Bruce ....

This is true, but the chemists (I refer to the non-invasive analysis laboratory of the University of Pavia hosted at the Museo del Violino and headed by Marco Malagodi, who analyzed many instruments from 2014 to date) argue that the quantities are too significant to be attributed to natural causes or accidental contamination. When solicited (by makers anxious to get certainties as usual....) to give an answer on what may be the cause of the presence of iron , he puts forward the hypothesis of the use of earth pigments as red ochre or other similar earth with high iron content, even venturing the hypothesis that they could be found in the preparation of wood or in the sealer because traces of iron are often found in the substrate near the wood. So maybe not in the varnish and maybe this may be the reason why they don't darken the varnish, who knows. Obviously, being a serious scientist, he insistently insist that these are only hypotheses and ideas that have no confirmation, the only certainty is the analytical data of what they find in relation to the investigation systems available to them, the rest are only pure illations. Things become very complicated and difficult to interpret when analyzing ancient violins with intensive use for centuries.....caution is always mandatory.

It is precious to know these details from direct experience and surely this is an aspect that deserves consideration, but I think the iron issue is a little more complex, otherwise how would it be that in the ancient Cremonese varnishes traces of iron are very often found?

I think the main difference lies in the fact that the "Fulton resin" has a very low acidity while the normal rosin is quite acidic. But it would be better if someone who understands chemistry better than me could refute or confirm this statement....

Scissors works but have the bad habit of slightly bending the edge of the metal, not so good for making accurate templates. Just my two cents.

Why not one of these? If there is no need for large-scale production, I prefer not to spoil the sharpness of my band saw blade by cutting aluminum. This guy has a nice set-up.

Yes, but I go a little deeper, about 4 mm at top and 5 mm at bottom, it is something that I very rarely measure, more than anything else out of curiosity. These measures are not significant for the purposes of neck angle and placement and may vary a little as they are determined by neck length and angle : when you reaches 130 mm with the correct angle the mortise depth is what it should be.

Didn't you ask him?