Scan 119
The violin & its story : or, the history & construction of the violin, 1905
6 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 103. See the scan on archive.org.
13. THE BASS BAR, SOUND POST, AND BRIDGE.
3These parts are absolutely indispensable, as without them the best instrument will give but a very poor tone; yet these parts will not turn a badly made fiddle into a good one. They are, moreover, in these days, as well made and as carefully finished, by every thoughtful and experienced violin maker, as those to be found in the best Cremonese instruments, and there are but few of those instruments left in which this or that detail has not been replaced by a new one, and probably not one single Cremona fiddle can be found in which every detail is left as it came from the maker's hands. The parts now under consideration have been renewed by repairers in so skilful a manner that it is almost impossible to say that the instrument has suffered by the change.
5The removal of the bass-bar from old instruments, however well they were originally made, and however carefully they have been preserved, has in the lapse of time become a necessity, because the old masters left this part too weak. This is especially the case with Stradivarius and Guarnerius. Yet the reader must not for a moment imagine that these masters made a mistake, or that they underestimated the importance of the bass-bar; for, in their instruments, that important feature was adapted with the utmost nicety and care to the pitch, and consequent pressure of the strings on the belly, which prevailed in their own day. Tartini estimated, in 1734, that the pressure of the strings on the belly was equal to a weight of sixty-three pounds; and we can only infer from this estimate that the strings used by Tartini must have been thinner than those now in use, and that on account of the lesser height of his bridge, the strings made a less acute angle at the bridge than is now the case. Since Tartini's day the pitch has notably risen, and the height of the bridge has been increased; the pressure of the strings on the belly has become proportionately greater, rendering it necessary to strengthen the bass-
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