Scan 122
The violin & its story : or the history & construction of the violin, 1905
8 lines. Read by computer on 29 September 2026. Printed page 106. See the scan on archive.org.
1the distance is right. If it is, bring the lower end of the post to its proper position, so that the post is upright; this can be known by looking through the sound-hole and the tail-piece button hole.
3"The sound-post should not be so long as to raise the belly, nor so short as to fall down, or even be moved, when a string breaks, or from any other shock. When the strings are off, the post should only slightly touch, and be capable of being easily moved to and fro; it should, also, be so placed that its grain is crossways to the grain of the belly, so that it will not press into the belly. Whether the post should be large or small, of wide or close grain, can be only settled by experiments; but, generally speaking, a thick belly will want a thicker sound-post than one which is weak in wood.
5"When these directions have been carried out, if the violin does not sound freely, or is unequal in tone, move the post backwards and forwards until you have found, by repeated trials, that the instrument gives the most sonorous and powerful tone it is capable of producing, and until the tone of all four strings is equal. If the tone is equal, but rough and hard, move the post a little back from the foot of the bridge; if the upper strings sound shrill, and the lower ones weak, move the post nearer to the bass-bar; but if the lower strings on the contrary are harsh and the upper ones feeble, move the post towards the sound-hole."
7The object of the Bridge is to convey to the belly the vibrations of the strings which cross it. Its shape, which at first sight would appear to be the outcome of mere whim or caprice, cannot be changed in the most minute degree without damage to the tone of the instrument. If, for instance, the bridge is shaped as a mere thin plate of wood, of the same external form as the proper bridge, the violin will give out hardly any tone at all; if a space is cut out so as to give the bridge its two feet, the tone increases in power; and as one detail after another is cut out, it will be found that the nearer the shape of this dummy bridge gets to the form of the
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