Books › Violin making and repairing, 1927 › scan 11
Scan 11
Violin making and repairing, 1927
12 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1SUITABLE WOODS
3nothing, however slight it may seem, must be neglected in building a first-class instrument.
5The character of the material of which the neck and scroll is to be made must also be studied with this end in view, for a heavy, clumsy, hard-grained neck and scroll placed in a light, delicately built instrument will do much to destroy tone.
7Bear in mind also in this connection that hard, tough material is generally worked thinner (that is, the plates are not so thick) as in the case of softer wood, and also the thinner the plates the more thin and shrill the tone. Hence the importance of counteracting the effect of a hard back (worked thin in order to obtain freedom of vibration) by a soft, open-grained belly worked moderately thick, and vice-versa.
9If possible, avoid extremes in choosing wood. Hard close-grained sycamore often gives the finest figure; but this very quality of hardness does not always produce the best tone, especially if allied to a hard close-grained belly. Too much importance cannot be attached to the choice of the wood for the plates, especially the belly, for they are the chief vibratory plates or surfaces of the instrument.
11Moulds.—Violins are built on (or in) moulds, which are really supports round or into which the ribs and blocks are built. They vary with the pattern of the instrument. Most modern violin-makers follow one of the three Italian masters, Amati, Stradivarius, or Guarnerius; and drawings of outlines and archings for these various types may be obtained for a small sum from any of the chief violin warehouses in London.
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