szuper_bojler

Love it, it's a bit old but was looking something exactly like this!

Ok I get that much, but the core issue here is that, what counts as good? Is it just copying the same wood and geometry that the "great masters" of the past have used? Also, on a tangential topic, how much of what we perceive as a good sounding violin comes from listening to top soloists playing on Stradivariuses and Guarnieris, and just internalizing it as the gold standard of what the best violin sounds like?

Hey all, I recently came across an interesting book, "Cremona violins : a physicist's quest for the secrets of Stradivari" by William "Jack" Fry, which tries to analyze violins from a physics/acoustics angle, and seemingly has a scientific explanation for everything about adjusting the sound of a violin. After spending a good hour reading it, I did a quick search on Maestronet and Violinist.com, and it seems his theories aren’t particularly well received by the modern violin-making community. Rather disillusioned, I now want to find a similar book that has a scientifically sound theory that explains the acoustics of the violin, and how a particular violin sounds the way it does. Ideally, something that covers how factors like plate graduation, arching, soundpost placement, tonewood properties, and bridge setup influence the resulting sound. I imagine that, given the level of interest in violin making and the mystique surrounding Stradivari and the like, there must be some literature or theoretical framework out there that isn’t just hand-wavy and full of fairy dust. Is there such a book, or should I just rely on searching for Don's past posts ?

Ok, I know the title sounds naive and admittedly a bit clickbait-y, but hear me out! Modern CNC machines can produce top and back plates from a mold far more precisely than any human can. So as long as you have a good pattern (arching, graduation, what have you), workmanship shouldn’t be the limiting factor in producing high-quality violins. I mean, most modern makers follow a mold anyway. In terms of wood selection, it seems that many Chinese instruments are now made from pretty high-quality wood. There’s also not much evidence to suggest that Chinese-grown maple or spruce can’t be used to make award-winning violins. I think Feng Jiang from Ann Arbor has even won prizes with instruments made from Chinese-sourced maple. If Chinese-sourced wood works, then presumably similar material could be found in North America, since both spruce and maple grow here—you’d just need a good way to quantify the properties of the wood being used. If the issue is optimizing plate stiffness, then in principle you could use force sensors to measure how plates deform under a given load. From there, you could sample existing makers’ instruments and try to reproduce their properties using machinery or skilled labor. If it’s about setup, then surely all the violin shops here in the States claiming master-level setups would be producing really darn good sounding instruments. I get that there is a fair amount of tinkering involved in making a violin sound as good as possible, but even without that, as long as you get the geometry, stiffness, graduation and arching right, you should still be able to produce pretty good-sounding instruments. Maybe not at the level of a master soloist instrument, but surely something suitable for a high-level conservatory student? Yet mass-produced instruments still don’t sound that good… why?

Hey Brad, bit of a late reply here. I've postponed making my own button for a bit till when I have more time, but along the way, I did find some silver tubes that are seemingly made for bow making here: Octagonal Silver Tube, 8.4mm/7.6mm (violin) | BVS

Thank you all for the replies! I think I'm just trying to systematize violin setup and adjustment to make it easier to learn as Andreas said. I don't think everything can be made into a simple checklist, but I do think that having a list of sorts can help, which is what I'm trying to do here. Not to replace any intuition that that longstanding pros have built over the ears, of course. I agree with Michael here. The only reason why I didn't put changing the strings higher on the list, is, because, well, it feels like strings are not really a part of the "setup" of the violin, since they are so easily changeable? My intuition is that it's much better of "optimize" the setup with one particular string, so that when you change a string, you know that the setup is in a good place, and whatever tonal qualities you like or dislike can then be attributed to the string instead of setup. Of course, I'm aware that different strings can benefit from different setups, but trying to optimize the setup to the strings feels off to me.

Hi, Feel free to do some searching on this site about this question. In general, the specific bow matters much more than whether it's octagonal or round. It really depends on the bow.

Say if you have a violin that sounds too bright/dark/harsh/soft, what would be the best order to try things to make it sound better? I'm imagining I'd try the lowest effort tasks first before trying something more difficult, would this general order make sense? Adjusting bridge position Adjusting tailgut length (in my experience shorter tailgut length usually makes things sound better) Changing strings Changing fittings, ie chinrest and tailpiece Adjusting the soundpost (don't want to mess with the soundpost too soon if it's in a good spot already) Fitting a new bridge/Re-carving the old bridge Fitting a new soundpost Regraduating the top and back plate

Thanks for the advice! Sounds like I'd be better off just buying a hexagonal silver tube and making one from scratch though Edit: *Octagonal

That looks like it'll take some serious engraving skill.

For the first one, I'm thinking that I can just melt the glue off with some solvent to separate the silver tubing out from the ebony core of a premade button, and take a jewelry saw to the silver tubing. Does anyone know what solvent can be used there, are these usually bonded with hide glue too?

Ah that makes sense, as long as it's smoothed out enough without sharp edges, it'd probably not cause any problems?

It would probably not be uncomfortable for the player at all, since no one really puts their pinky on the button of the bow. Do you mean it might be CNC'ed out of a sheet of silver, then soldered into a ring shape with an ebony core like you would for a conventional button?

Pardon the clickbait title. I've recently come across E Begin's really tastefully decorated violin bows, with one of the elements really catching my eyes being the bow buttons. I’d love to try replicating something in a similar spirit. For these buttons, would it be feasible to start with a premade solid silver button and then carve a pattern into it without damaging the ebony core? Or is it generally necessary to work from scratch using a silver sheet and an ebony core? If making it from scratch is the better approach, what thickness of silver would be appropriate—around 1 mm, perhaps? I’m looking for the least resistant (and least error-prone) way to approach this, and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have some handcrafting skills, but am mostly just a slightly more experienced novice, so want something as simple as possible. Thanks!

The last instrument I've tried from him was a long pattern strad that had a golden sound to it with a lot of resonance and overtones, but just needed a bit more bass and depth of sound from it. So I'm leaning towards a more del Gesu or normal Strad model from him, in the hopes that it'll have a bit more depth while having that rich overtone I liked before.