Brian Timmons's Bench

[Sean Couch]

3 hours ago, Brian in Texas said:

Well, it's been a while since I posted. To be perfectly honest, I've been sidelined by depression and marital problems. Haven't made it out to my shop in months and work on my first viola has stalled. I need to get back out there and get things done, but it's been hard to motivate myself to do simple things…

I can understand the lack of motivation, I periodically suffer from the same issue. Like you said, the simple things get hard for me. Changing the oil on the car, or lawn mower, doing laundry, cooking dinner, etc. Usually I find out that getting started is my issue. Once I start, I am good.

I have never been married, so no marital problems for me. I’m sorry to hear that you are having issues, it can be a very difficult thing to deal with. Relationships are not my strong point and to be honest, I don’t really know what my strong points are. Lol

I have been retired for 4+ years and I am only 55. The first few years were great. It felt like it was the first time in my life where I could live “free” with almost no obligations. Then the boredom set in and thankfully I stumbled across violin making. About a month ago I started on my 4th violin after a two month break from finishing #3.

During that two month break, I did get into a funk. Almost zero motivation to do anything. The only thing that I did consistently was practice the violin. That is still a struggle after 1.5 years of trying to play. I take lessons, but it is still depressing at how slow my progress is. Even songs that I learned a year ago still sound like crap. Hell, I have been working on the “Bridal Chorus” for over two months and I’m not even close to being ready to record it. My only saving grace is that I have 9 months to polish that turd before my daughter gets married.

It’s tough when everything in life feels like a struggle. Been there, done that, multiple times. I’m sure I will go through it quite a few more times before my final bell is rung. All I know is that things will get better, but you have to put in the work. It won’t fix itself.

If you ever want to chat, shoot me a DM and we can talk (through messages or over the phone). I may not have good advice to give, but I find it is nice just to shoot the shit with somebody and have a bit of a pity party. Hehe  

 

[Brian in Texas]

Thanks, Elise and Sean.

[Brian in Texas]

Work continues on the viola's back. I'm using a one piece slab-cut willow for the back, with willow ribs.

After I shot this video, I visited with my teacher Ivan. He said that apart from a few bumps here and there, the graduations were pretty much spot on. That's encouraging. After finish scraping the interior face of the back, it'll be time to move on to the top. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

 

[MikeC]

It's looking good.  Good to see you back to making progress on the build.  I'm still making slow progress on mine.   

[Brian in Texas]

54 minutes ago, MikeC said:

It's looking good.  Good to see you back to making progress on the build.  I'm still making slow progress on mine.   

Thanks, Mike! I got sidelined by severe depression for longer than I care to admit. But I'm back at it now.

[Brian in Texas]

A local magazine came across my profile on YouTube and TikTok and interviewed me about my journey as a first time amateur maker. https://voyagedallas.com/interview/daily-inspiration-meet-brian-timmons

I kinda wish that the photos I provided would've been interspersed throughout the article rather than all at the bottom. Oh well, it was still pretty wild to be approached like this. I wasn't angling for media attention by doing this.

[Don Noon]

1 hour ago, Brian in Texas said:

I wasn't angling for media attention by doing this.

Then it must have been for the massive piles of cash.

[Brian in Texas]

18 minutes ago, Don Noon said:

Then it must have been for the massive piles of cash.

Haha! Yep, that's definitely it.

[Riccardo964]

I have to admit that I cried when I saw this image:

But everything turned out ok, right?

Great interview! 

Cheers,

Riccardo964

 

[Brian in Texas]

9 hours ago, Riccardo964 said:

I have to admit that I cried when I saw this image:

But everything turned out ok, right?

Great interview! 

Cheers,

Riccardo964

 

Thanks, Riccardo! When I blew out the edges of the top while excavating the purfling channel, I nearly cried as well. I thought about scrapping it and starting over, to be honest. But the patches turned out to be nearly invisible, thankfully. After the fact, I came across the technique of giving the edges a thin wash of hide glue to prevent this sort of thing.

This is definitely one of those times where I would've benefitted from having an in-person teacher for my first build. But I suppose it was also a good lesson in how to improvise, adapt, and overcome.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I felt that it was good to include the "warts and all" reality of things and not just the glamour shots.

[Christine Meyer]

8 hours ago, Brian in Texas said:

But I suppose it was also a good lesson in how to improvise, adapt, and overcome..

Nicely done, and fixing beats scrapping any day! That happened on my first top, too, right at a corner, no less. But same fix and it's hardly visible.

You are gonna cry through, when you get to the point of having to cut through the edge purposefully when installing the lower nut

[Brian in Texas]

15 hours ago, Christine Meyer said:

You are gonna cry through, when you get to the point of having to cut through the edge purposefully when installing the lower nut

Already done that part. Violin #1 is complete, and now I'm working on a viola for a good friend of mine.

You know what part just about made me cry though? It was setting the neck. Holy moly.

[Riccardo964]

On 8/26/2026 at 2:01 PM, Brian in Texas said:

It was setting the neck.

I have to agree - that is tough with only YouTube videos and MaestroNet to guide one's effort.

Best,

Riccardo964

[CJones]

Hey Brian. I too hate the neck set. On my #2 and 3 violins I set the neck like this. I didn’t for #4 but I started tapering from the top corners to the block so I didn’t on the last one. In my opinion it was so much easier but I’m untrained so there may be drawbacks. Just one clamp from block to neck and super easy to cut and file. Getting the neck button seated was super easy this way. I wish I had taken better pics.  Just an idea maybe an expert will correct me if I’m leading you astray. I have decided to do it the other way just because I feel like everyone I see that’s better than me does it the other way and they must know better. lol. Anyway man I hope you fight through that depression. Sometimes life gives you a crappy pile of tonewood. You just gotta carve it and see how it turns out. It’s usually a lot better than you think.

Caleb

[Brian in Texas]

On 8/28/2026 at 10:21 PM, Riccardo964 said:

I have to agree - that is tough with only YouTube videos and MaestroNet to guide one's effort.

Best,

Riccardo964

Yeah, it was pretty rough going. I managed to make my neck angle a little bit too high, too. If I want it to be a playable violin, I'll have to pop the neck out and reset it.

On 8/29/2026 at 8:15 AM, CJones said:

Hey Brian. I too hate the neck set. On my #2 and 3 violins I set the neck like this. I didn’t for #4 but I started tapering from the top corners to the block so I didn’t on the last one. In my opinion it was so much easier but I’m untrained so there may be drawbacks. Just one clamp from block to neck and super easy to cut and file. Getting the neck button seated was super easy this way. I wish I had taken better pics.  Just an idea maybe an expert will correct me if I’m leading you astray. I have decided to do it the other way just because I feel like everyone I see that’s better than me does it the other way and they must know better. lol. Anyway man I hope you fight through that depression. Sometimes life gives you a crappy pile of tonewood. You just gotta carve it and see how it turns out. It’s usually a lot better than you think.

Caleb

 

 

I've seen neck sets done that way, too. I can see how it would be advantageous, but I'm not sure there are any drawbacks to doing it that way. I'll leave it to someone more knowledgeable to weigh in on that.

And thank you for the encouragement, as well.

[Brian in Texas]

I've pretty much finalized the interior of the back. It's a single piece of slab-cut willow. The exterior will be cleaned up a little bit more once the corpus is assembled. I'm trying my best, but shoddy workmanship abounds. I worked to start trimming the blocks yesterday (not pictured) and noticed there is a small edge crack on one of the ribs. There is also a miniscule split on the end block. Hopefully these can be fixed. I'll see what Ivan says about these issues next time I see him.

On Friday night, I got to try out a few cellos over at Ivan's place. I brought my own cello as a baseline for the test. Ivan just finished his second cello, made from spruce with cherry for the back and sides. An unusual choice of wood, but I think it worked out beautifully.

At first, the cherry cello sounded a little uneven. The C-string didn't have nearly as much oomph as the rest of the instrument. It was determined that the original soundpost was now just a little too short after the initial installation. The new soundpost was installed, leading to a massive improvement in the C-string and better performance overall.

Ivan's maker friend Charles Conti (pictured here, Ivan took the photo) had two cellos with him, both with the standard spruce and maple. An earlier cello sounded pretty great, but the newest cello that he just finished is extraordinary. The sound just poured out of it in an amazing way. It was ridiculously easy to play on, and it just felt like drawing from a bottomless well of sound, producing whatever volume and color I asked for with ease.

I'll have to nab some good photos of Ivan's newest cello in particular. It's absolutely lovely looking, with very distinctive f-holes and an unusually beautiful inlaid scroll.

All in all, it was a nice Friday evening. Any time I get to play a few cellos and have a few drinks is always a good time. The only downside is that now I like my own cello much less in comparison! Maybe it just needs a soundpost adjustment...