J. Przybysławski's bench

[Deo Lawson]

Hey y'all. I'm relinquishing some of my internet anonymity here and sharing a couple photos of my latest creation. I'm primarily interested in building 5 strings that satisfy the roles of both the violin and the viola and I've developed a model that I believe does it quite admirably. Being a professional player as well, I put my violins through the their paces and I've been happy with their performance in classical and contemporary settings (although there's always something that could be better, isn't there?).

 

My first designs were initially based on Jonathan Cooper's 5 string viola outline, although I've picked up a lot of little details over time that result in much better sounding 5 strings than I initially thought possible. I don't want to write an essay at this moment but for those who are interested, I intend to share more photos of my process on my instruments in progress. For critique and commentary

 

Anyways, here she is.

 

[Deo Lawson]

Annoyingly compressing my photos has erased the rotation data. So it's all gone sideways 

[Arbos]

Looks great! 15 inches?

[Deo Lawson]

15 and a smidge! I haven't tried other sizes but I really like how my instruments have been turning out. I've found that altering the rib depth a few mm can swing the tonality significantly towards more violin or viola-esque, which doesn't give me much reason to mess with the outline.

[Deo Lawson]

Three rib garlands in the works. I'm working on three instruments concurrently following a very detailed procedure that I've written up. I'd like to try and refine my violin making process to an orderly, step by step progression. In the past my making style has definitely been scatterbrained and I think it made my output a lot slower than it could have been.

I've decided to go with one piece linings, because I think it just looks a lot more elegant. Each of these weighs in right around 85 grams at the moment, and I expect them to be 90 grams when all's said and done. Next I will transfer the outlines to my rough top plates, which will go on first.

[Deo Lawson]

Just a bow commissioned by the buyer of the above violin. Little sidequest while I work on these three fiddles. No, it's not pernambuco, but ipe, which I have found to have excellent qualities for bowmaking. And of course, I happen to have a large store of it.

I really ought to get a smaller maker's stamp for branding bows, but we'll see if my career as an archetier continues to grow.

[Deo Lawson]

I've finally built a graduation punch! Yes... I've spent all these years working without one.. With calipers and a pencil. Needless to say, I'm excited to put it to use, once the dial indicator comes in the mail.

That is indeed a bass bridge adjuster as the depth stop 

[Deo Lawson]

And here's the latest instrument. Finished it a few weeks back, but just got around to posting it here.

I must say I am a big fan of gold / amber for violins. As a kid it was red-brown or nothing for me, but this colour has grown on me.

This violin has a direct, very masculine sound. Maybe a touch nasal for my taste but I will still have to make final adjustments to the setup now that it's settled in.

[Deo Lawson]

Here's a demo of the violin above. Don't have time at the moment to head over to church and do a nice demo there unfortunately, but the dining room should do until I'm settled in Europe.