Violin Disassembly

[Brad Dorsey]

The only reason to take the fingerboard off is to shave the neck down.  It would have been easier to make the fingerboard thinner if you had left it on.

[JohnCockburn]

You can easily lower the fb projection by a couple of mm or so by loosening the front seam all the way round (including the corner blocks, but excluding the upper and lower blocks), then pushing the neck down to give the required projection, while fitting a few closing clamps in place to hold the front in the new position. Then fit the rest of the closing clamps and reglue the front seam  as normal. You should double check that the projection is where you want it before committing yourself to gluing.

[luthier]

13 minutes ago, JohnCockburn said:

You can easily lower the fb projection by a couple of mm or so by loosening the front seam all the way round (including the corner blocks, but excluding the upper and lower blocks), then pushing the neck down to give the required projection, while fitting a few closing clamps in place to hold the front in the new position. Then fit the rest of the closing clamps and reglue the front seam  as normal. You should double check that the projection is where you want it before committing yourself to gluing.

Using this method works fine for a neck lift, but to lower projection, one would have to shave a little off the neck mortise in the top. The easiest way would be to remove the top, get the projection right and glue it back on.

[JohnCockburn]

25 minutes ago, luthier said:

Using this method works fine for a neck lift, but to lower projection, one would have to shave a little off the neck mortise in the top. The easiest way would be to remove the top, get the projection right and glue it back on.

Hi, no, you don’t need to shave anything off. It works as I described it.

[David Burgess]

1 hour ago, luthier said:

Using this method works fine for a neck lift, but to lower projection, one would have to shave a little off the neck mortise in the top. The easiest way would be to remove the top, get the projection right and glue it back on.

I will agree with John Cockburn. One can either raise or lower the neck projection via this method. Done it many times, including unintentionally in my earlier years.

[Brad Dorsey]

If the end grain of the neck is tight to the end grain of the top, how can the fingerboard projection be lowered by this method except by removing the fingerboard and cutting away a little of the top at the neck cut-out?

[David Burgess]

11 hours ago, Brad Dorsey said:

If the end grain of the neck is tight to the end grain of the top, how can the fingerboard projection be lowered by this method except by removing the fingerboard and cutting away a little of the top at the neck cut-out?

With the seams opened (except for the upper and lower blocks), the assembly becomes rather flexible. The neck can be tweaked down (mild string tension can even be used for this). The edge margins will change slightly, and you glue it back up with these altered edge margins. (Of course, you will need to check that these altered edge margins will be acceptable.)

It's easy enough to experiment with the next time you are removing a top. Open the seams, leaving the upper and lower blocks still attached. Tweak the neck down, reclamp the edges, and see where you end up.