Sean Couch

Thanks Brian. Having my violin teacher play #2, it is louder than #1, but under the ear, it seems quieter. It is quite interesting. After my lesson I went to go fetch my bow from the luthier. He played it also and said it will be louder than #1 especially when it opens up. Also, under the ear, to me, they sound different, but sound very similar when I listen to them when others play them. It is probably just me not knowing what to listen for. On edit: When I initially put the strings on, I watched my varnish roll up in front of the bridge when I tensioned the strings. After setting the string heights and removing the bridge to carve it, I cleaned up the varnish lumps. The damage wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but ever since then, I have been worried about the varnish taking an imprint when it is in a case. It was passing the fingerprint test, but I was still leery. I was happy to see that after being in a case for about 6 hours yesterday, there was no imprint in the varnish.

Hehe. Your secret is safe with me. I didn’t use a drum sander on #2, but I did make a little “rib flattener” made out of some Perma-grit, square aluminum tubing and a couple of shims to set a gap of 1.15mm. The show side of the ribs have a scraped finish and the inside surface is sanded. I just plane the ribs until they are a bit under 2mm thick, scrap one side, lay the scraped side down on the table, and go at the back side with the sanding block. Quick and easy and no fiddling with a graduation punch or taking thickness measurements. I also added some shims to it to use it as a 2mm liner flattener.

363 days ago I called violin #1 as done. Today I am calling #2 done. It is about 24 grams lighter than the first. She weighs in at 440 grams with no chin rest and Wittner geared pegs, so about 420 grams if it had ebony pegs. I was able to reduce the build time by almost 33%. The first one took me 370 hours and the second one punched out at 250 hours. Violin #2 sounds a bit different than #1. The sound seems to be brighter and more focused than #1. It has only been strung up with a fully finished bridge for about 18 hours, and has only been played for 90 minutes or so. It will be interesting to hear if the tone changes as she is played in. She seems to be not quite as loud as my first, so hopefully that changes as she ages. The G, D, and A strings sound really nice. The E string is a bit weak so I ordered a medium weight Helicore wound E string. The medium Helicore is fairly heavy at 18.1 pounds. Right now it has a full set of Medium Dominants with a wound E string. My first violin has heavy Dominant G, D, and A strings with a medium Helicore wound E. I have my violin lesson tomorrow. My teacher is the one who played violin #1 in the videos I posted here (I think they are on page 10). I am going to take #2 with me to have her take it for a spin. Maybe I’ll take some videos and post them here.

I have made that varnish three times. The first time I made some clear and some colored varnish. For the colored varnish I cooked the resin for 168 hours at 350F. It had a 24% reduction and after mixed 1:1 with linseed oil and the mastic, I needed to thin it with turpentine. 3 parts varnish to 1 part turp was what I used to make it brushable. The 24% reduction resin didn’t have much color so I cooked the remaining rosin and got an overall reduction of 52.5%. I did the same 1:1 resin to oil with 10% mastic and 27% turpentine. When cooled, it was so thick that it wouldn’t even pour out of the bottle I put it in. The third time I used 1:1 oil/resin, 5% mastic, and 42% turpentine. When cooled, it was still a bit thick, but it was pourable. I added a bit more turp to make it brushable. For the first cook, I did not add any turp during the cook. For the 2nd and 3rd time I did add turp to the cook. I used the first cook on violin #1 and the 3rd cook on violin #2. An interesting finding is that the weight of each layer of varnish was about twice as heavy on #2 as it was on #1. Either my layers were laid on thicker on #2, or the varnish is denser when it is made from highly reduced colophony. All three batches of varnish had no problem curing without any drying agent added, but It does seem to be a bit soft. I don’t really know how hard it is supposed to be, so take my words with a grain of salt. Last night, on violin #2, I did the initial string up and I could immediately see the varnish getting damaged under the bridge feet. After applying a coat of varnish, I pad it out with my fingertips and let it sit for a few hours until the turpentine evaporates. Then it goes into the UV box. After about 4 hours it is dry to the touch, but needs 30 hours to pass the fingerprint test.

I do too, it is quite nice.

I just acquired some sodium nitrite not too long ago that I might use on #3. Do you do anything to the plates before applying the nitrate? Like a gelatin or casein sealer, or dampen the plate with water to limit blotches. I will definitely do some test samples first, but more information can’t hurt.

I had the ends of my purfling separate on #2. Turning down the heat on the bending iron and using very little water solved the issue for me. I don’t have a temperature controlled bending iron so I plugged it in to one of my variacs to regulate the heat. I don’t use a bending strap when working with the purfling. I use my fingers and a little scrap of wood if I need a tighter bend and my fingers are getting burnt. I also don’t bend the entire purfling strip, just the ends, and only enough to get them to fit the contour without cracking. I think it was in one of Peter Westerlund’s videos where he shows how he makes his purfling. When gluing up the purfling, he has pre shaped “sticks” that he uses to hold the purfling together while the glue dries. The sticks also shape the purfling with one end being curved. Using his method, no bending iron is needed. If I ever get into making my own purfling, that is the method I will use.

I think I am done applying varnish. The violin now has 4 coats of varnish on the top and back plates and 5 coats on the ribs and scroll. Total varnish weight, as best as I can measure it, is about 13.5 grams. I could probably put on another two coats and add another 6 grams, but I don’t know if that would be too much. On violin #1 I had about 11.3 grams of varnish. I did some searching on the forums and it looks like numbers range from 5 or 6 grams, up to 11 to 12 grams. I confirmed that it was on the violinresearch website where the 19 grams was mentioned, and a post here in the forums mentioned that some organization (maybe the VSA???) says 20 grams as a guideline. I am happy with the color, but as always, I want it darker. lol. The spruce for the belly didn’t have as much of the corduroy texture as the first. I think that is because the Engelmann spruce I used for #2 had much narrower grain or maybe #1’s winter lines were harder. Both violins had their final finish done with a scraper. I don’t want to add anymore varnish to the top as the texture would be completely gone. It is a quite subtle texture already. Below is a video of the violin hanging outside on its disco ball motor. It is passing the fingerprint test… how long should I wait before rubbing out the varnish and doing the setup? 20251013_142944.mp4

I wouldn’t round the corner, I would but on a pair of pants. Take my words with a grain a salt though, I haven’t worn shorts in 35+ years. If wearing pants doesn’t work for you, then I would try and find something I could attach to my leg to pad the area. Maybe one of those neoprene sport braces, or some sport tape, or a good old fashioned ace bandage would take the edge off the pain, but not the cello. Hehe.

Right, it should be fun. I think he plays weekly at one of venues near him. I may need to roll out there one night and watch the performance. It makes me wonder… who else is out there that I don’t know about? I bet I would be surprised at how many people, tinker with it like me, let alone all those that are actual real luthiers.

Hey Brian, I just wanted to tell you that I also found a luthier that lives somewhat close to my house. He is only about 20 minutes from my violin teacher and she recommended him to me to re-hair my bow. She called him the “bow guy” lol, but he not only makes bows, but also violins, double bass, mandolins, guitars, etc., not to mention his awesome nontraditional scroll carvings. He also plays the fiddle in a band, so he can play and make. I stopped by his shop yesterday after my violin lesson and had a great time talking with him. Super nice guy and easy to talk to. We didn’t talk tons about making stringed instruments, more or less just general chit chat, but he did say he is willing to help me. He really perked my ears when he said he would show me how to French polish a violin. It is amazing that there are so many folks out there making stringed instruments and doing beautiful work, but we don’t even know they are there until someone else tells us about them.

I put the violin back outside for a few hours today. Yesterday evening, I applied the 4th color coat. I brought the violin back inside after the breeze died down to the point of not being able to spin the hanging violin. I didn’t feel like tearing apart my UV box again to get the rotisserie, so I just strung her up. I am going to let the violin acclimate for a bit inside and weigh it again later. After bringing it in from the outside, it lost 1.6 grams from being outside for 3 hours. It is only about 60F and 40% humidity outside and in the UV chamber it was 76F and 44% humidity when I took it out and weighed it. I reckon that I lost some moisture content, but there also seems to be a trend of each coat of varnish weighs less than the previous. Right now, even though she is probably a bit dehydrated, I am at a bit over 11 grams of varnish. I would like to keep the varnish weight below 15 grams, and I will not let it exceed 19 grams. Those numbers are somewhat arbitrary. I seem to remember the 19 grams of varnish from somewhere, maybe from the violinresearch website. I am happy with the color now. It is not as dark as I want it, but it is a nice golden brown with hints of red depending on the viewing angle.

Thanks Brian. Yeah, I am hoping for a darker color than my on first. Right now, #2 is just about as dark as #1 and has a nicer color. At least it doesn’t have that orange hue to it. Hehe. There is definitely more color in the 52.5% reduced varnish and I have not added any extra dyes or pigments. On the test sample, after about 7 coats, a nice red color started to show. I don’t think I can do that many coats. This varnish is going on heavier than on the first violin. I am watching the weight and each coat on #2 is about 3.25 grams which is about twice as heavy as each coat on #1. On violin #3 I am going to try using sodium nitrite to accelerate the tanning if the UVA/B bulbs can’t do it on their own. If I can get a nice ground color, that should get me out of the golden brown realm and into the darker reds and browns… hopefully. I think I am going to do one more coat on the entire violin and then maybe another one or two just on the maple. The varnish is now passing the print test on the top and back plates after being out in the sun yesterday. That makes me happy, so hopefully the UVA/B bulbs that I bought will be able to cure the varnish without having to modify my UV box. If they don’t, then I am going to reduce the size of the box and not have the violin rotate. Instead, I will still have 4 bulbs, but will place them on the chamber faces so they are all equidistant from the plates or ribs. If I redo my UV box I might go to six lights and have right around 100W total. Right now I am running 72W.

I have been working on the ground and varnish for violin #2. I had some really nice color tests with the spirit varnish that I made, but it is beyond my capabilities to apply it. I did some test pieces with an air brush and didn’t like the circular pattern it produced. I tired a lvlp spray gun that does a fan shaped spray, but that didn’t work well either. I think I need a bigger compressor to provide more air volume. Not to mention that the spray guns use a crap ton of varnish. I was burning through 120ml in 5 to 10 minutes when I was testing the settings on the lvlp gun. Thankfully I was using the “scrap” left over from my color trials. I then I tried brushing on the alcohol based varnish and it was a nightmare. After the third coat, I spent a few hours stripping it off, but about a half a gram was left in/on the violin. After the spirit varnish debacle, I revisited my oil varnish. I took the 250 grams colophony that was left over from violin #1 and cooked it more, and at a higher temperature to try and develop some color. My initial reduction was 24%. After cooking it again, I was at a 52.5% reduction and maxed out at about 500F before shutting it down. I am on the struggle bus with my ground. I gave it 520 hours of UV and not much color was developed. My UV box has four, 24 inch, 18W Philips Ancitic UVA fluorescent bulbs, with a rotisserie to spin it at 3 rpm. One bulb in each corner of an 18” x 18” box. I bought some bulbs that produce UVA and UVB to try on #3. I haven’t decided if I want to mess with UVC yet. The varnish is drying fairly well. Dry to the touch after a few hours, but it needs at least 36 hours to pass the fingerprint test. Well, almost pass the print test. I get a very slight mark on the varnish that can easily be rubbed out with a soft cloth, or just wait about 20 seconds and it disappears. It seems a bit soft to me, but Idk how it is supposed to be. I used 1:1 oil to resin by weight and cooked it at about 475F for an hour and it had a very nice string. I then cooled it to about 140C and added 5% mastic and then cooled to about 110C and added 42% turpentine to the cook. I let her sit for 7 minutes after adding the turpentine before I filtered with 200 mesh. With regards to the fingerprint test, the ribs pass easily. It is the belly and the back that are a just barely failing 20 seconds of firm pressure (about 75% of the force that I can apply by hand). It may be that the varnish on the plates is a bit thicker than what is on the ribs, or that the ribs are closer to the UV bulbs as it rotates around. Anyway, here is #2 after 3 coats of color hanging out in some natural light hoping it will help. 20251006_124049.mp4

I am a new maker currently working on varnishing violin #2. I am not any kind of authority on the subject, but the way I understand it, is that the scoop should not affect the string height at either end of the fingerboard. In my mind’s eye, the scoop does not extend to the ends of the fingerboard (fb). I would think that the maximum depth of the scoop should be around the center, or maybe skewed a bit towards the nut or bridge, but it should stop before the ends of the fb. I put the max scoop in the center. Idk if that is correct or not, but with the gauge I made to measure the scoop, that is how mine works. My gauge measures the difference of the center of the fb with respect to its ends.