It’s lovely to be back making a new violin after a prolonged period pursuing other violin making projects. This one is for an American player; I made them a 14 1/4 inch cornerless viola a few years ago which has worked well. So now a violin is to be added to the collection.
Abi wanted a slightly undersized violin so this model fits the bill. Many of the Guarneri del Gesù violins are on the smaller side, with a shorter string length, so they work perfectly for players who like a super-manageable instrument. I’ve made this model several times and there is no loss of sound quality with the trim dimensions.
As ever, I’ve started by making the ribs. As I’m using a one-piece back, there was enough excess in the thickness to saw a wedge from the back to cut up for the ribs, so they will match perfectly. Having sawn and planed the ribs to just over 1mm thick, I bent them round the mould and glued to the blocks.
While the glue joints dried, I made progress with the scroll. The earlier del Gesù heads are beautifully balanced, a lot quieter and more restrained than the crazy products of the next decade.
Now I’m ready to start work on the back and front. The wood for the back is maple, and this is quite an old piece, I guess possibly fifty years or more. Although it’s not highly figured, the grain structure is good and it’s light in weight, so should help make a really good sounding violin. I’ve paired it with an even-grained Swiss spruce front, also light in weight.
I start by sawing the outlines from the solid wood, then planing until I’m close to the finished arching shapes.
With the outlines finished, I start the purfling. This is an inlay of a sandwich of pale poplar between strips of pearwood dyed black – the woods chosen for their looks and bending qualities. I cut a channel round the edge of the back and front to receive the purfling, then bend it and glue it in place. When that’s done, I use a sharp gouge to cut the fluting round the edge, which is the first step of defining the final edge shape, and also the starting point for the gentle rise of the arching.
That done, it’s time to finalise the arching, of course one of the best jobs on the whole instrument. It’s lovely to see the figure of the wood in all its glory, and to see with clarity the structure and subtle shapes which are so critical to the sound of the violin. At the moment I’m reading Irving Stone’s ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy”, a fictionalised biography of Michelangelo, recommended to me by a colleague. Again and again it crops up, the idea of releasing the figure the sculptor knows is in the stone. This is analogous to our work, and somehow you always know when it’s time to stop cutting. I do however have some guides for the arching shape, taken from drawings of the original instrument.
Next up is thicknessing, hollowing out the underside of the plate until the wood becomes flexible and sounds right when I tap it. This is a mixture of art, science and instinct; I check weight, measure thickness, flex the plates and listen to the sound when tapped. I also like to rough out the f-holes before I finish the thicknessing, which gives me a better idea of how the plate is working. This lovely wood and good model works out well and I’m happy with the result.
I’ve now finalised the f-holes. The last process for the front is to fit the bass bar, which as the name implies, runs under the G string of the violin and reinforces the sound of the lower register of the violin as well as lending strength to the front. I’m now ready to take the ribs off the mould and finalise the internal surfaces prior to gluing to the back.
And on the Friday of a very productive week, I ‘close the box”.
I always really enjoy the final stages of completing the woodwork. Funnily enough, neck fitting is one of my favourite parts. You have to think in three dimensions: to get the neck lined up with the centre of the instrument, fitted the right distance into the body and at the right angle so that the elevation, the projection of the fingerboard at the bridge position, is correct. That went super-smoothly this time, and after that comes neck shaping, another favourite job. It’s fun to make a super-smooth shape which is slim and carefully sculpted to fit perfectly into the player’s hands.
And now the violin is finished ‘in the white’. Before I start to varnish it, it will have a few weeks of tanning in UV light; just like a sunbed for violins! Then I will add some colour to the wood before applying several coats of homemade oil varnish.
