Books › Violin making, 1902 › scan 143
Scan 143
Violin making, 1902
10 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 85. See the scan on archive.org.
1would leave to the maker or expert to determine what was best for it, either in the original making of the violin or in placing a new neck in an old one. But it is convenience—what we like and what we will have; so, in consequence, suffers the tone of the instrument.
3You have a violin thick in wood: if I find on it a neck also heavy in material, to a certainty I have to register thin, woody tone; whereas, given a thinner neck there would be more vibration in it, and an undoubted impetus would be given to the somewhat inert body of the violin—its heavy timber being too much for the mass of air, which acts its part in that it moves in response to compulsion, but fails, in producing so feeble an agitation of the whole wood.
5But, on the other hand, I find a thin neck attached to a thin body, and I also find a whole pack of wolves, hollow, rasping tone, and difficult of production—in fact, a wretched fiddle.
7Then, as to width of fingerboard—a narrow one is often clung to as "so nice and handy," etc., but it is forgotten that the strings in consequence have to be brought closer together than clean fingering requires; and, moreover, the E string must, of necessity, be brought too near the edge of the ebony for firm stopping; so I have no sympathy whatever with a narrow or too thin fingerboard and neck.
9But I have to work away at the rough neck after having traced the outline of the button upon the under end of it—not the actual shape of this necessity, but such as will serve as a guide to one of more grace. Added to
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