After a busy summer with lots of visitors and catching up with odds and ends in the workshop, I’m back properly at the bench with a new viola. This is one of my favourite models; it’s small enough to be really comfortable for anyone with problems playing a larger viola, but the sound is still powerful enough for professional use; I’ve made it more than once for players including a member of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
I’ve had fun picking out the wood for this viola, and was tempted to use this lovely birdseye maple that I bought a little while ago. It came as a set with back, ribs and head all of the same wood. The ‘birds eyes’ are like little knots, but nobody seems to know why some trees exhibit this feature. All I can say is that it creates some extra challenges for working, as the knots are harder than the surrounding wood, so carving cleanly is a little harder. Sharp tools are the answer, as they are for most things!
I’ve started by making the ribs, thin strips of the birdseye maple bent to shape and glued round the mould. Once all the ribs are glued, I fit the linings, little strips of spruce that reinforce the eventual joint of the ribs and the back and front.
And now the rib assembly is finished.
While the glue dries on all the different joints on the rib assembly, I’ve been making the scroll. I love the Gaspar scrolls, which have the volutes undercut so that they look like unfurling rolls of parchment.
It really feels as if the viola is under way when I start the back and front. The back has more of this lovely birdseye maple, and for the front I’ve picked a beautiful piece of fine-grained spruce from Switzerland. I’ve started by roughing the arching from the solid wood and then finalising the outlines.
Then it’s time to fit the purfling, the black-white-black inlay that runs round the edge of the viola. First I cut a channel round the edge of the plates, then bend and glue the purfling in place. Before I finalise the arching, I use different sizes of gouges to sink the purfling to make the beginning of the hollowed edge that the arching will rise from.
With the fluting done, I’ve finalised the arching. The Gaspar model has quite full and high arching, which helps it to have a rich and dark sound. With that done, I turn over the wood and hollow out the underside. I spend a lot of time checking thickness measurements, weight, tapping and flexing the wood, until I’m happy with how all the different elements balance.
With that done, I cut the F-holes in the front, enjoying the slightly querky and quizzical look that these ones have. Then I fit the bass bar, which reinforces the lower register of the instrument and helps support the weight of the strings. And at the end of a busy day’s work, the back is glued to the ribs, the bass bar is glued in place and the fingerboard glued to the neck.
And I absolutely love it when I glue the body of the instrument together on a Friday afternoon. The perfect end to an enjoyable week’s work.
With the body all finished I then fit the neck and spend quite some time shaping it so that it feels really good in the hand.
And now the viola is finished “in the white”, ready for varnishing.
It’s been fun to varnish the viola and to see the beautiful figure of the birds eye maple really shine through. I’ve now finished all the work, set up the viola and it’s sounding great! A really rich, powerful sound, rounded and full of quality.
