Bow & Bridge Violin and bow makers, as the old books printed them

Books › The violin : how to choose one, 1893 › scan 72

Scan 72

The violin : how to choose one, 1893

8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 68. See the scan on archive.org.

1and Nos. 2 and 5 are the same in reverse. When No. 1 is at B natural—thus—
3look sharply for inequalities with a strong light behind your work, as the back is near the finish, and don't be content with any other notes than those I have given. The wood for back and breast must be \( \frac{3}{4} \) of an inch thick to allow for the rise, which continues fairly from the place where the purfling will be. Get the best wood you can, in the selection of which experience will soon guide you, and begin to record your notes when the wood is \( \frac{1}{4} \) of an inch thick. By the time you are at these notes you will know how to bring them out and govern them. If you are copying the tone of an old violin the copy should be thicker in wood, to allow for the shrinkage of years. I believe the air space of a violin that is made perfect increases slightly and sinks about a semitone, which brings a nasal tone to many violins whose air space was right at first. By bringing No. 2 down to D you may produce this nasal tone. Now let us begin with our weaker and better half, the breast of the violin. The one before us with the \( f \) holes cut, the bass bar on, and the purfling in, gives the notes G, D, C sharp, G, E, D sharp thus—
5Purfling is an unknown quantity not always affecting the notes to the same extent. At positions Nos. 4 and 10 the purfling may send up the note a tone; sometimes only a semitone. I believe the edges of Maggini are a tone higher than those of Stradivarius owing to the double purfling. Supposing the violin maker to have a violin breast fairly worked out, with a rise requiring wood \( \frac{3}{4} \) of an inch thick for its production, the arch coming fairly out to where the purfling will be, the edges shaped thus—
7not rounded off but finished smooth. He should have these notes, G, D, D, G, \( \frac{F}{C} \) D, thus—

The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.