Riodifirenze

That is a big loss It's unbelievable.

I think I understand jerry's idea, it maintains a constant relative to the lower bouts. So you don't have to adjust yourself so much when changing instruments. Am I right?

That is the approach I thought... And at the end everybody will have his own secret, after doing creative work. It is beautiful everybody grows and develops!

That is what I ment with all the different possible materials... Which comes where and why? The sealer must enhance the structure and preserve the wood, the next coat give it some color, in between transparency and finally strong color, gloss and toughness... Could one achieve all these properties with one single concoction? I don't think so... And that is the thrill of all varnish alchemy... If Stradivaris&cos recipe where not lost, what would we do? What will be about our own creativity? Our emotions discovering "the secret"? At the end everybody has his own secret...

Indeed!

And all the different organic and mineral pigments.... From plants... Metal oxides... Earths... What about metallic salts? Perhaps they were "the secret" Only thinking...

We all know Stradivari didn't use only one colorant in his varnish. The thing is that there are several different colorants that can give similar effect like kermes and cochineal for example.

Well it works, but it is a violoncello piccolo of course.

The bouts are the problem! Interestingly I got more problems in hitting the bouts on the C string than on the e string of my 5 stringed cello...

That's exactly what I wanted to say.

Well, the position of my knees is changing constantly while I'm playing to assist in string change. It even depends on what I play, if I play basso continuo its more a right angle, and if there is a lot of a string and high positions to be played as solo then the cello is tiled somewhat to the right.

Wow! A few years ago there was an "invasion" of these on the here local so called "Chumberas" cactus... I had no idea what they were! In fact we brushed them of and the color of them was a strong purplish magenta... In those times I started to think about violin making... And didn't know I had a colorant the ancient used right in front my door! The fun thing is that they almost extinguished all " Chumberas" around here (only a few survived which we cared to brush of all of the " bad insects" of) and the insects also are gone now... NOW!! I have no colorant for my varnish!! I was one inch afar of creating the worlds best violin! Why didn't I read this before? Next time I'm going to brush them off of all cactus I can find...

Really cool and Great! I'll have to improve my owns a tiny little bit....

I also did it.

Perhaps the sugar in it acts a bit like colophony?