New Year New Project

Ok so its a new year and I wanted a new project. I've been wondering for some time now how hard is it to make a violin. Well not just make a violin shaped object but create an instrument that is actually playable. I decided this year I am going to try make my own violin. After doing a bit of research on the internet I figured the cheapest and easiest way to start would be to get a "violin in the white" basically an unfinished violin and finish it and set it up myself. I soon realised the easiest way to obtain a violin in the white without spending a fortune was to buy from a Chinese maker. Chinese violins generally have a bad reputation. Chinese makers churn these things out at an alarming rate but I figure if I'm buying it unfinished then at least I will have a fair bit of control over the finished instrument. So I went to ebay and bid on the cheapest unfinished violin available at the last possible moment on Boxing day. I won noone else bidded (I guess they were too busy sleeping off Christmas).

This is the auction I won. It was a bit of a gamble really as the listing said "I will Sent at random one violin for you when you pay for it is success." You know you're buying from China when Stradivarius is mis-spelt.

But I couldn't argue with the price, winning bid £24.56. And sure enough 8 days later I received this in the post...

General impressions, not bad. It is made of the right type of wood (spruce and maple) the inlaid purfling is pretty reasonbly done. There are traces of glue on the fingerboardless neck maybe someone tried to glue a fingerboard to it previously then took it off.

The maple on the front has patches of grey colour running through it. This is probably the reason it was very cheap however this area will eventually be under the fingerboard so I'm not too bothered. I shook it and it rattled however there was no sound post inside. I had already decided the first thing I was going to do was open the beast and see what Chinese hands had done inside.

I've never opened a violin before I'd only ever read about how to open one on the internet. After 20 mins of attacking the seam around the top with a stanley knife I was able to get it open. I don't know what kind of glue was used in China to assemble this violin the first time, but it certainly wasn't hide glue. The top was stuck so securely and so invisibly I recon they must have used some kind of super glue.

I carefully examined inside. The ribs (sides) had been lined with more maple, this was a good sign. The rattling sound was caused by a large wood shaving which was floating around inside. On the inside of the top there is a wooden strip called a base bar. This was the main reason I wanted to open it up.

Internet research revealed to me that the base bar should be at a slight angle to the grain of the wood to help strengthen when the strings are on. I checked, well done Chinese violin maker the base bar was indeed at a slight angle.

The expert opinion of Hans Weisshaar Shipman (some guy that has written a lot of book about violin making) says the base bar should be 5.5mm to 6mm wide; - ok my violin base bar is 5mm wide not far wrong.

Hans goes on to say the basebar should be 11mm to 13mm high at the center, 9mm to 10mm half way between the center and the ends, tapereing to 3mm at each end; extending in length to 4 cm short of each end of the violin top plate (measured along the line where the bass bar will be mounted, not the center length).

I measured the rest of the dimensions. the distance from the ends of the violin was fine, but it wasnt very tapered and was too tall. Heres a picture of the base bar just after I opened it.

So using the stanley knife (probably not the best tool for this job) I started shaving off wood and checking with a tape measure trying to get the base bar as close to the measurements provided by Hans Weisshar Shipman.

This is what it looked like after I had finished.

A definite improvement and hopefully the first of many.

This is what a basebar created by a professional luthier (Lance Bellamy) looks like

I'm happier now my basebar looks more like this than it did before.

I think the next big task is going to be drilling the hole through the end block so the button that holds the tail piece has somewhere to live. Time to start researching online the best way to do that. I also really need to think about buying some sand paper.