Scan 21
How to Make a Violin, and Violin Notes by Ole Bull. Revised edition., 1910
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 11. See the scan on archive.org.
1On the Selection of Wood.
3I recommend the amateur to buy the wood he requires from a violin-maker of repute. These are to be found in London, Paris, and even at Mirecourt, the French town where so many common violins are made by machinery to order. For good material a high price will be asked, and very valuable pieces of back and belly wood are worth almost their weight in gold. A maker in London once showed me two pieces of maple sawed into shape for a back, which he said he would not sell, even in the rough, for twenty pounds apiece.
5It is not of course necessary or desirable that the amateur should make his earliest experiments on costly wood, on the other hand, I recommend him to make his first fiddle of cheap material, so as to familiarise himself with the tools and the way to use them. When this experience has been acquired, it will be soon enough to try to turn valuable wood into an artistic and really excellent violin.
7The wood must be cut from the south side of the tree. The old Italian makers took
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