Dominant Strings and Breakage

[Dominant Strings and Breakage]

If the string binds at the nut while it is being tightened the tension is greatly increased between

the nut and the peg and the string would tend to break at the weakest point between them.

If the nut doesn't flow back smoothly towards the peg but rather puts a kink in the string where it

leaves the nut, then I suppose it would break at the nut.

[Dominant Strings and Breakage]

Usually, when strings break between the nut and peg it is because of the string binding in the nut groove.

[Lost Souls,]

I have many nice old violins which are missing their necks.

I bought a large lot of them from an old music store years ago.

[How did you start?]

31 minutes ago, David Burgess said:

Huh

I am very sorry, David, and I have edited my post to now include you.

[How did you start?]

I was interested in playing violin and bought an inexpensive one from an ad in the newspaper.

It needed some work and when I took it to a music store they  told me it was a piece of junk and

not worth the cost of repairs needed.  I borrowed the Heron Allen book from the library, read it

and repaired my violin. When I brought my violin back to the music store to buy strings they looked

at my work and offered me a job. I learned a lot working there part time but my other part time job

as a motorcycle mechanic paid a much higher wage. I kept both jobs through college working at

several different music stores and motorcycle shops and ended up owning a Harley repair shop.

Unfortunately my employees joined a large and violent motorcycle gang and my shop became

a hangout featuring daily fights, shootings, ect . After repeatedly fearing for my life, I realized

that violinists are seldom tough guys, except for David Burgess, with no violin gang activities at all and

this pushed me to sell my shop and go into violin repair.

 

[Dances with wolftones]

7 hours ago, nathan slobodkin said:

 

In what way would higher ribs stiffen the box? I would intuit just the opposite.

 

6 hours ago, Davide Sora said:

 

I think it is similar to a beam, the thicker it is, the more it resists bending.

 

I  believe that higher ribs are more flexible, not as a beam, but when flexed crosswise.

Only the lowest modes seem to try to bend the whole rib set as a beam.

Most higher modes seem to flex the ribs crosswise and in limited areas.

[Nails position]

The problem with both nails and screws in this application is that you are going into the end grain of the neck

which presents less resistance to splitting and withdrawl .

 

[Finger plane leaves black marks]

I would look at those marks as an asset for they reveal the edges of your cut  and any

nearby high spots as you work.

[Vocabulary of tone descriptions?]

Michael Darnton has written an excellent essay on this subject.

http://www.darntonviolins.com/violinmagazine/book/UnderstandingTone.pdf

[An even or uneven top thickness]

18 hours ago, shocker828 said:

v heard of the sand method. How do you do this without the sand just vibrating right off the surface given all the curvature?

The plates being tested are removed from the rest of the violin and placed upside down with the sand placed on the

inside so if anything it tends to accumulate in the center.

[Plane sole vs straight edge]

I can understand the desirability of the part of the plane sole in front of the blade being flat but

once the blade, projecting below the sole, has taken its cut the stock upon which the rear portion of the sole will rest

is reduced and no longer aligned with the yet to be planed portion of the stock ahead of the plane and blade.

So the plane as it works is riding on a bi-level surface and a flat sole will not match this, rather the most

rearward part of the plane will be the only part of the plane sole aft of the blade to touch the stock being planed.

[Broken bass bar ??]

The glue joint between the bass bar and the top plate has probably partially let go and just gluing it back could be the

easiest way to fix it.

[Feeling a bump around the soundpost area when running my finger on the top]

I had had success in reforming sound post bumps on double bass tops by

moving the sound post forward so it pushes up directly under the spot where the

bridge foot would normally sit and then moving the bridge back so its

right foot presses

down on the sound post bump and then tightening the strings.

It does take some time for things to even  out, like weeks or months,

but the instrument is playable in this condition while it is being

reformed,

albeit with a longer string length. Carefully warming the area with a

heat gun can help speed the process up,  just be careful,

watching the varnish for overheating.

 

[Personal approach to violin making]

Years ago, I made several instruments following Peluzzi's principles.

It was a lot of tedious extra work and the only difference I observed

in the sound was an undesirable metallic ringing after each note that interfered

with fast playing.

[Strad Saddles?]

This style is used for taller saddles to prevent them from torquing forward in response to the pressure

of the tail gut. When the saddle tries to twist forward the lower extension  presses against the lower part of the tail gut ,

between the saddle and end pin and prevents any rotation  of the saddle.

[Double bass made from a wheelbarrow]

What a clever piece of work ! Good for you !

I would say it does need a bass bar under the bass foot of the bridge as the resulting difference in response

between the two sides of the bridge

is a fundamental feature of bowed string instruments. However, between your two cross bars you are

left very little room for much of a bass bar. I would still put one in though and although softwood is

the traditional wood for bass bars you might as well make yours of a hardwood since weight is

an important part of the bass bar and yours is smaller than usual. Just make sure there is some clearance

between the ends of the bass bar and those cross braces so the bar can vibrate freely.

 

 

[Alternate Wood Species]

Sounds like the violin world has become quite materialist, excessively favoring 'lily white' woods like spruce and maple

over other equally deserving 'woods of color'.

We can anticipate the social justice warrior brigade soon promoting an affirmative action program with mandatory quotas in both sales and manufacturing for instruments made of underused 'woods of color' like cedar and walnut.

[thin endpin and vibrato]

You may have lucked into a very rare and special situation where the resonant frequency of the cello's mass

upon the end pin acting as a  spring matches the frequency of your vibrato.

[Dial Indicator for Thickness Caliper]

They don't look that badly damaged in the photo.

The geared mechanisms are well protected inside the housings.

I would first try re-engaging the pin into the lever slot.

I've had similar mishaps with mine and always managed to get them working again.

[Preparing for power outage in cold climate and how to provide proper care?]

I leave a number of cellos and basses in an unheated space in a very cold climate every winter and have never had any problems.

I believe the most important thing is slowing the rate of change of temperature and humidity with insulation and low

air infiltration.

["Flakey" spruce]

Your problem could be runout , the wood being cut such that the long grain is not parallel

to the surface of the billet. This is why split billets are preferred.

[Pernambuco Tailpiece and Titanium Alloy Tail Gut]

I just ran across a 2004 article in the Strad about tailpieces influence on tone which cites a 2003

Catgut study which found ' Certain woods (especially snakewood, pernambuco, African blackwood and boxwood)

were judged to cause an increase in volume and positive changes in the clarity and "edginess" of the sound.

Other materials (rosewood, ebony and composite) seem to correspond to hollow, soft, unfocused and unmatched

sounds across strings.'

[Thoughts on using wood cut from multiple different slabs for ribs]

It could be interesting if done artfully.

[effect of string spacing]

I have had bass customers who insisted that increasing the string spacing greatly improved their sound.

Compared to the violin, bass and cello do have a rather high bridge and narrow string spacing.

[sound post effect on tone]

Technically, moving only one end of the sound post while leaving the opposite end in place cocks the sound post

and ruins its fit to the top and back plates. However if the post was not correctly fit in the first place

any change could be an improvement. I believe the fit of the north edge sound post to the top is most

important as this defines the lever arm distance between the bridge foot and the post as fulcrum.

Moving the top end of the post back away from the bridge insures that the edge of the post closest to

the back of the bridge foot is making good firm contact and this alone an often cause an improvement

in playing and tonal qualities.