FoxMitchell

They do blend in really well! Andrea Guarneri, Cremona, 1697, the 'Primrose, Lord Harrington'

Who told you about the dinosaurs?! You must go into hiding, you know too much!

Can't go wrong with ebony, but my favorite is pernambuco.

That was a saddle crack that was already present. It just became really evident and it waved and smiled for the camera when poked.

No offense taken! I'm open to criticism, it's one way of learning things. Leonhard also has years of experience over me, if my work seems sloppy it's in part because I haven't reached the level of refinement he has yet. How would you open one of your violins, though? Maybe make a video on it? Your scroll carving videos were tremendously helpful and inspirational when I was carving scrolls! They were there already. After I published the video I got thinking I should have made mention of that, but YouTube doesn't let you put annotations anymore and I didn't feel like deleting the video to upload a new one, so I hoped it would be assumed they were there already since at some point I mention open cracks. I'll do better next time!

Yep! I figured since I had to open it and I've been meaning to make that video....

Yes it is!

I'm no Leonhard, but I coincidentally just got done making a video about this subject...

This is what works for me!

A friend gave it to me. I have no idea where he got it from. ...and it does still! That seam is open; whatever they were trying to do either didn't get done or didn't work.

No, it's a normal fiddle. I have no idea what's going on in there!

Where's the bass bar? And what's with those lumps there?! Was this some revolutionary attempt at improving the violin, or somehow they forgot to remove temporary stuff and install a bass bar before closing the top?

13 x 8 (104sqf)

See? It's some confusing stuff! And yeah I know what you mean about the sapwood, makes no sense, it's more misinformation to add to the confusion.

Technically speaking, Brazilwood (pau-brasil) is the common name for the plant scientifically known as Caesalpinia echinata / Paubrasilia echinata. Pernambuco (pau-de-pernambuco) is another common name for the same plant although more regional. As far as musicians are concerned though, Pernambuco is the 'good stuff', and Brazilwood is the 'leftovers'. Some even go as far as classifying 'good bows' (made of C. echinata / P. echinata) as Pernambuco, and everything else regardless of what wood it's made of as Brazilwood. ...which creates a lot of confusion. But Brazilwood and Pernambuco botanically speaking are from the same plant. Some explanations I have heard for the distinction (assuming we're talking about the same plant still and not including unknown woods in the mix) is that Pernambuco is the heartwood and Brazilwood is the sapwood. Others say simply that Pernambuco is the good quality cuts and Brazilwood is the lower quality cuts.