As I was staring recently at tables of measurements of some rather ‘Nice’ Cremonese instruments, it struck me that the numbers that make up a violin are (or could in theory be) prime. For example: Body length: 353 Upper bout width: 167 Center bout width: 109 Lower bout width: 211 Distance between upper eyes of FFs: 41 Distance of lower lobe of FFs from edge: 13 Mensure: 193 (if you’re Del Gesu), or 197 (if you’re making the ‘Soil’) Width of scroll: 41 Narrowest point of scroll: 11 Length of scroll: 103 Neck length: 13 (cm) Coincidence? I think not! Is it a coincidence that th
I have very often discussed different aspects of violins and violin trim/setup with my son Sebastian (http://www.sebastiansilen.com/) a professional violinist. One aspect that we have discussed is the response of the violin, how fast and accurately does a tone start/catch. If the violin reacts well to the intentions of the violinist then the player is able to use more of his "mental energy" to produce music in stead of continuously forcing the instrument to behave in the intended manner.
When a tone is played the process starts with the bow touching the string which causes the string to