Books › The violin, how to make it, 1880 › scan 13
Scan 13
The violin, how to make it, 1880
7 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026, twice; the two readings disagreed in places. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1prolongation of that part of the instrument through which the openings are cut for the admission of the fingers whilst playing. It will be seen from the following that this instrument, although of the same class, is widely different from the Violin, but is nevertheless an early though primitive type of the same family. From dimensions taken from several specimens of the British Crwth, the following measurements may be taken as a mean: — Length 20 1/2 to 22 1/2 inches; breadth at bottom, 9 1/2 to 10; breadth at top, 8; depth, 2; length of finger-board, 10 to 10 1/2 inches. The back and breast were generally made of maple, the breast sometimes containing only two circular sound-holes at the bottom, about 1 1/4 inches in diameter, but some other instruments of the same type had two additional round holes cut through the lower or opposite end. The bridge was made of a peculiar form, having one foot much longer than the other, which passed through one of the sounding-holes, and rested on the inner surface of the back, whilst the shorter foot rested upon the breast as in the Violin, being placed near to one of the circular openings. Two elongated openings were cut through the narrow end of the instrument parallel with the sides, to allow the thumb and fingers of the player to pass, whilst the solid piece left in the centre served as a hand, upon which was placed a finger-board. Six vertical holes were cut for the pegs near to the extremity of the instrument, and in a line with the outer edge, whilst the tail-piece was often made of different patterns, and attached in various ways to the breast. The bridge supporting the six strings was placed diagonally across the breast, four strings passing over the finger-board, whilst the remaining two were placed at some distance from the others, to the left of the finger-board, and were intended to be played by the thumb. There were several methods of tuning the instrument, amongst which the two following may be mentioned: —
3STRINGS.
5EARLIER METHOD. LATER METHOD. one of two readings
6EARLIER METHOD. LATER METHOD. one of two readings
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.