Dave Slight's Bench

[Dave Slight]

405mm (16") viola.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ctanzio]

Beautiful work. I love the scroll. Thanks for sharing.

[Nick Allen]

Nice viola. I love the shape and proportions. Looks like a chubby guy. 

[JohnCockburn]

really nice work, Dave.

[Dave Slight]

Thank you all for your kind words
Here are a few before varnishing, I guess I should have posted these first!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jim Bress]

Beautiful workmanship.

[Urban Luthier]

love it! your edge work is stunning 

[Dave Slight]

Thank you

[scordatura]

Quality work Dave!

[Dave Slight]

Violin based on Testore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rue]

Pretty. Did you "ding" it, or was that the natural wood?

I like the dings. Just the right amount to add individuality.

[Ken_N]

That is one one the nicest ones I've seen here.  Excellent photos too.

[MikeC]

11 hours ago, Dave Slight said:

Violin based on Testore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did you get that yellow finish?  I really like that!  

[Dave Slight]

18 hours ago, Rue said:

Pretty. Did you "ding" it, or was that the natural wood?

I like the dings. Just the right amount to add individuality.

I added the marks and dings. The original was peppered with gouges, dents, scratches and a lot of wear, but I didn't want to go that far.

[Dave Slight]

15 hours ago, Ken_N said:

That is one one the nicest ones I've seen here.  Excellent photos too.

Thank you, Ken. I find it difficult to take good photos, violins are not easy things photograph!
It's only when you try, that you realise just how good the photographers who work for places like Tarisio are, and how much time they must spend adjusting lighting just to get one good shot.
Even if you can get the colour right, maybe the flames of the maple don't show so well, or vice versa. The back is quite well figured, but looks fairly plain in the pictures due to the lighting.

[Dave Slight]

7 hours ago, MikeC said:

How did you get that yellow finish?  I really like that!  

Thank you, Mike. For this violin, I started with a fairly pale ground, and used yellow pigments to tone the varnish. The varnish itself added some yellow with a touch of golden brown too. It is hard to accurately photograph the true colour, but these on the bench show it closer to reality.

 

 

 

 

 

[Andreas Preuss]

Interesting fiddle, model well captured. Scroll from the side looks individual though. 

If I may say one thing

For the optical balance I wouldn't color the scratch marks so dark. This makes it immediately look somehow 'artificial' (like on instruments by Alonso Dalla Corte.)

I always start with light colors for coloring the scratch marks and eventually make them darker when I feel it is optical necessary. I always imagine that the color of the varnish is mixed with some dirt and likewise antique finish scratch marks on yellow violins are lighter than on brown violins. 

[baroquecello]

Nice!

Got to Play a real Testore cello last Weekend. Repaired a hundred times, but truely gorgeous Sound. Now I feel so diappointed when playing my own Cellos.

The Thing with an original Testore is that it is roughly made, not to perfection. I think that poses a Problem when you make a Testore inspired fidddle like this. I think you "cleaned up" and perfected the execution of the model, which is fine, but then I wonder, if one does that anyway, why not be consequent, and do that for everything on the violin? Why not for instance also continue the fluting of the scroll, if you've executed the pegbox geometry better than the original (which is what I think you did, from my limited experience with Testores, but Maybe I'm wrong?) anyway? I mean, not fluting it till the end was clearly a way of saving labout time, but this fiddle Looks so perfectly done that it clearly was not left out because of saving time, and that doesn't feel Right to me. So what I'm saying is, for me, what works is either a faithful attempt at copieing in all aspects, or an inspired, idealised Impression of an original, but something in between just doesn't feel Right.

BTW I otherwise really like the scroll and pegbox model, I wouldn't add the "though" that Andreas added.

[Dave Slight]

I agree that original Testore's aren't the most accurately made, or symmetrical instruments out there, but inspiration can come in many forms for making a new instrument.
I like to make neat looking instruments, and these days I prefer a regular and symmetrical outline. In the past I made things which followed all the asymmetries and quirks, but I no longer like this look, and therefore have abandoned this method for now.

I don't think that omitting fluting on the rear of the pegbox was done to save time, we are only talking about some minutes with a gouge and scraper. I think the reason may have been different.
When you flute the back of the pegbox, the wood can become very thin, which can limit how deep the pegbox can safely be. With no fluting, you can cut the pegbox deeper, and keep a lot of strength. This would allow extra room under the pegs, so that thick strings would not bind on the pegbox floor for example. Therefore, I see this as a thought out part of Testore's design and chose to include it in my violin.
The placement of the pegs also shows that thought went into his design here, having a much wider spacing between the pegs. On some violin scrolls, the pegs are so close together that when you turn the G for example, your knuckle hits the D peg, this can be quite annoying when trying to tune up before playing. It might not seem a big deal, but if you try both side by side, you would feel the advantage.

I referred to the violin as based on Testore, which is exactly what it is. I never set out to produce a copy in the accepted sense, and I find the term "copy" rather problematic in many cases, being very loosely applied and over reaching.
Personal decisions always have to be made in any making process, and these may not be viewed in the same way by everyone. Ultimately how an instrument sounds and plays defines its success for me.

 

[Rue]

On 11/26/2019 at 7:22 AM, Rue said:

...

I like the dings. Just the right amount to add individuality.

 

On 11/27/2019 at 8:26 AM, Andreas Preuss said:

...

For the optical balance I wouldn't color the scratch marks so dark. This makes it immediately look somehow 'artificial' ...

I always have to laugh at the range of opinions.

I don't like obviously antiqued finishes, and this looked "natural" enough, I had to ask...

[Dave Slight]

Before varnishing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andreas Preuss]

On 11/29/2019 at 7:54 PM, Dave Slight said:

I don't think that omitting fluting on the rear of the pegbox was done to save time, we are only talking about some minutes with a gouge and scraper. I think the reason may have been different.
When you flute the back of the pegbox, the wood can become very thin, which can limit how deep the pegbox can safely be. With no fluting, you can cut the pegbox deeper, and keep a lot of strength. This would allow extra room under the pegs, so that thick strings would not bind on the pegbox floor for example. Therefore, I see this as a thought out part of Testore's

Interesting thought.

But since usually the rest of making just smells like speed working it is really hard to tell.

I was often wondering how limited the number of tools was on Carlo Antonio Testores bench. With some experimentation I came to the conclusion that his scrolls might have been cut with one single gouge and then it would actually be more time consuming to cut the double fluting on the back of the scroll.  

[Andreas Preuss]

On 11/29/2019 at 7:54 PM, Dave Slight said:

I referred to the violin as based on Testore, which is exactly what it is. I never set out to produce a copy in the accepted sense, and I find the term "copy" rather problematic in many cases, being very loosely applied and over reaching.
Personal decisions always have to be made in any making process, and these may not be viewed in the same way by everyone. Ultimately how an instrument sounds and plays defines its success for me.

No objection!

[Dave Slight]

13 hours ago, Andreas Preuss said:

Interesting thought.

But since usually the rest of making just smells like speed working it is really hard to tell.

I was often wondering how limited the number of tools was on Carlo Antonio Testores bench. With some experimentation I came to the conclusion that his scrolls might have been cut with one single gouge and then it would actually be more time consuming to cut the double fluting on the back of the scroll.  

Certainly it would seem that the number of tools were limited to just the basics of what was needed, and I could well believe they maybe had only a roughing gouge, and a smaller gouge.
That said, some Italian work from around the same period has fluting on the back of the pegbox, which at times looks like it could have been cut with a knife, working in from the sides. Often these are quite shallow, as I'm sure you have seen yourself, and it is quickly done.

While they obviously worked quickly, and without a lot of fuss, I still can't see it being solely a time saving method, personally I think there is more to it.
It is quicker not to do it of course, but it would save only a little time in reality. As they are not around any more to ask, we will just have to speculate on the reason!

[baroquecello]

David, I see why you left the back of the pegbox like that, it certainly is an interesting thought! I really like the violin, do not get me wrong! And I have Nothing against a "perfected" design at all, I just felt the back of the pegbox didn't fit the perfection, but now that I see your thoughts behind it, it already feels a bit different.

I was wondering, this Testore has such a very squarish lower end of the lower bouts. Do you have a Theory About why that is? It is something you see on certain types Instruments from certain makers. Is this usual for Testore? Personally, I can't imagine it to be for aesthetic reasons; could there be an acoustic or structural reason for it?

Maybe this Question doesn't fit in a "bench thread". If you feel that way, I will gladly move it elsewhere!