Month: January 2016

Got some work done last night.

Continue reading “Shop night”

Here’s the Maggini and the little guy both with blocks glued and ready for shaping.

I think it’s somewhat funny that I am making what are essentially the smallest and largest violins at the same time. You can read about Maggini in a quick little biography which is now open source and can be found here: Gio: Paolo Maggini, his life and work. Maggini was making fiddles when the instrument was still becoming what we know it as today — almost 100 years before Stradivari. His violins are noticeably longer than models built on Strad or Guarneri patterns. This gives them a more viola-like sound.

Here’s a pic before I took the clamps off.

 

Not much progress so far this week, though I might get in to glue these blocks up tonight. Ignore the neck and bottom blocks: I’ll be replacing those with some spruce ones. The corner blocks are willow.

I have a estate sale find fiddle that was missing a fingerboard. I’m prepping one for it, and I planned some on it last night. Ebony shavings are pretty with maple.

True story: I woke up in the middle of the night last night knowing that something was off in the photo of the fixture. This morning, I realized I’d left off holes for the top and bottom block clamps. Fortunately, this was a sin of omission rather than commission, so I set things right this morning.

Continue reading “Mistakes”

I’m about three weeks into making my first fiddle, and it occurred to me that I probably ought to document this process. Three weeks in fiddle making time is about five minutes in real life time, so I don’t have much backtracking to do. In fact, I just finished up making the fixture that my violin will be built around this very afternoon. Here’s what it looks like:

“Wow, Joe,” I hear you ask, “did it take you three weeks just to make that? If so, is you fiddle going to be done in the next decade?”

Yes, it did, and don’t be a jerk, it’ll be done before that. I’ll explain it all before long.