The Violin Beautiful

Reading this thread was a curse! The violin I had on my bench this morning had narrow ffs, so I ended up having to fish the post in and out through the lower sound hole to fit it. Fie upon the shop that made it!

I used to use the Ibex planes for hours every day, and while they did give me a few blisters after hours of continuous use, I developed calluses later and the problem went away. I find them pretty comfortable now.

Possibly, although every violin I’ve worked on that was set up this way had ffs that were wide enough to fit a viola post.

I’ve got several Ibex finger planes and I’m satisfied with them. I hear good things about newer German versions and some of the older style with wooden wedges to secure the blades. I’ve tried a few other kinds and thought they were comparable, but I don’t feel inclined to replace the Ibex planes I have already. As far as the quality of the blades, they seem a little soft to me and with regular use require a bit more maintenance than ideal, but the steel is good enough for all my uses. I think you could buy replacements by another brand that might be better, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet. I’ve thought about trying to make some blades out of an old file to get harder steel that would hold a nice edge longer. The planes aren’t necessarily in their best working order straight out of the box. The blades need to be shaped to fit their purpose and the planes aren’t necessarily bodies may need a bit of modification to get the blades seated nicely. I tinkered with mine a bit and thought it improved their functionality a little.

As thicker soundposts are becoming more standard, I think it makes sense for new makers to take this into account. If a post has to be thinned out to accommodate a narrow ff opening, it tends to come with a tonal detriment. Historically, there wasn’t so much standardization, so a variety of sizes is unsurprising. Now that setup is far more standardized, there is more of an expectation that a new maker will think about it in the design and execution of the work. When a new instrument has a narrow ff opening, it just comes off as unprofessional, like the maker didn’t put enough thought into the making or didn’t realize the common size for a soundpost. I think that every new maker should keep in mind that an instrument will likely worked on by several luthiers over the course of its life. Making things that are harder to work with is more likely to cause problems, or for those who aren’t willing to work around the complication, it will result in the instrument being modified to accommodate common practices—if you don’t make the opening at least 6.5, there’s a good chance someone else will, using one of several methods, and it may not look pretty. Incidentally, I’ve been hearing about a setup specialist whose signature move is to “darken up” violins by putting a viola post in. I wonder what he does with a small ff.

I always glue size a patch before gluing it in. The unsized endgrain soaks up so much that it can starve the joint. It’s not necessarily that an unsized patch wouldn’t work, just that I think it would be harder to be certain that the bond was strong throughout. I see the sizing as added security and a chance to double check the fit once moisture has been added to the patch.

It works in some settings, but it tends to be darker than the uncut wood once glue is added. If the varnish is opaque or dark enough it can work, but with a light or transparent varnish, it can end up sticking out more.

I agree that a mixture of resins is superior. The only reason my current batch is just shellac is that I was running low on retouch varnish but had plenty of Bullseye that wasn’t being used, and I had a lot of filling to do at the time. I get years out of each batch I make, so I tend to put off making the next one until I absolutely need more!

I haven’t tried Scotchlite but have been hearing good things about it for years. A colleague gave me a jar of aluminum hydroxide at the Oberlin restoration workshop a long time ago and I’ve used that ever since for filling. I don’t add color to it, either, only applying color to final layers of touchup varnish. I used Deft a bit in the past but never felt satisfied with it because of shrinkage. Thickened shellac (left uncapped in the workshop for a day or two) with aluminum hydroxide has become my standard filler varnish. My touchup varnish is a little harder, so I’m thinking I may make up a mix with aluminum hydroxide for comparison when my current jar runs out.

I used to install them a lot at the first shop where I worked. The copper part fits into the bass kidney underneath the wing. If you don’t cut much out of that area normally, you may need to cut more out to fit it. You may also be able to flatten the copper a bit gently or open it slightly if it’s loose. I’ve always been told to put pickups on the bass side because the pickups tend to have no trouble capturing the upper registers but benefit more from a bias toward the bass to capture lower frequencies. It’s also more convenient for most players to have the pickup and jack on the bass side so the cable can be positioned over the left shoulder. I would expect the black plastic to mean a zip tie. Some pickups come with one so you can gather up any loose wires to keep them from rattling against the top. The Fishman pickup one of the easiest to install because you don’t have to do any soldering or carve a bridge with a lead sticking out of it, but that pickup doesn’t get very positive reviews from players in my experience.

I’d consider a few things for the bridge size: 1) spacing of upper ff eyes 2) bass bar placement. I’d like the bridge to be 1-1.5 mm outside the bar ideally. I agree with Davide’s comment about bar inclination. 3) fingerboard width. If the bridge is especially wide, you may end up with the strings closer to the fingerboard edges or you’ll have a string spacing in the bridge that leaves a lot of wood at either side. 4) projection of the neck. If it’s lower, a wider bridge may end up looking a lot more stubby and you may not have much wood above the heart. Make sure the projection is adequate for the blank 5) c bout clearance. This is related to 5), and it’s also important to have enough clearance for the bow so that it’s not running into the bouts. As far as the tailpiece, I tend to gauge the size by the proportion to the vibrating string length, not the body length. I would choose a tailpiece that allows the right ratio and comes close to the saddle without touching.

I’d probably lean toward trying to make it work for a future instrument as well. You could use wood from the offcuts or from rough arching to make some patches that would match well with a very fine gouge. If the damage ends up being much more extensive internally, then you may need to start over, but at least you won’t be left wondering if the piece would have worked.

Yes. That was what I meant when I said people have been immortalized.

According to the Washington Post, Bell made $32 and played his Strad at the time. They wanted him to be using a Strad so that when it got little attention they could make it look more dramatic. The idea was to say “Look how people don’t pay attention to a great violinist playing a great violin who can charge $100 a ticket in any major concert hall if he isn’t presented the right way. Clearly this means that people only appreciate beauty if you tell them when they’re looking at it.” So, yes, Bell did make a small amount from his busking and was actually recognized by one person, but the Post wanted this to be glossed over because most of the commuters didn’t stop to listen and didn’t shower him with money. But if you look at buskers in general, this argument starts to crumble pretty quickly. There are some who make careers out of playing in public and never end up in the “proper” frames, yet their music is appreciated by countless people and sometimes enters into local or national history. There was a busker in Georgetown who was famous for putting out a large tambourine when he played instead of a hat or case for tips. He ended up immortalized as “Mr. Tambourine Man.” What’s more interesting, though, is that buskers will sometimes find opportunities to play gigs elsewhere when passersby are impressed by their playing and offer them paid opportunities. A good number of musicians talk of having started by busking and then finding success as audiences showed more and more support. A while back, the band Old Crow Medicine show was busking in North Carolina when Doc Watson discovered them and said they played the most authentic Old Time music he’d heard in a long time. They have found a huge amount of success. As another example, a good friend began his fiddling career by busking on weekends and gradually grew interest in his playing until he was offered paid gigs. As he started to build up contacts, he moved to different platforms to advertise his playing and eventually found that his schedule was so solidly booked that there was no longer time for busking. People often do perceive beauty in different frames. Isn’t that what things like street art are all about?

The whole thing was devised by the Washington Post as a “social experiment” to suggest that people couldn’t perceive value in artistry if it wasn’t presented in the correct setting. Joshua Bell was recruited to be the performer. There was a suggestion that the fact that he had given sold out concerts in major concert halls at $100 a ticket but wasn’t recognized and monetarily rewarded by commuters was a testament that art only has value in how it’s presented and that the public essentially isn’t smart enough to ooh and ahh if you’re not holding up cue cards for them and charging enough for tickets to convince them that they must be paying for art. As an attempt to “redeem” the public for its reputedly shameful failure to forsake everything to gape in wonderment at a violinist they probably couldn’t hear very well during the peak of rush hour, a second “experiment” was set up several years later. This time Bell picked a better spot and didn’t try to disguise himself. This was presented as a better outcome, although it was still necessary to dumb things down for the public by making Bell’s presence better known.