A violist in Zurich, Switzerland, contacted me last year. We discussed what she was looking for, and ultimately, we arranged a commissioned five-string 15-3/4″ Viola.
It began as raw wood (European Maple and Spruce), and has progressed to a nearly completed five-string viola. (I have applied the first few coats of varnish: Yellow, to provide the “golden glow” beneath the darker coats of varnish yet to come.
Since I first posted the news on my Five String Fiddles site, this post mainly serves to direct the reader to that post ( Partial Build Photo Story.)
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Last time I posted, I had just completed the commissioned five-string fiddle, up to and including the sealer.
Sealed instrument, Front ViewSealed instrument, Back View.
Varnish:
The “magic” of the sealer was that it caused the mineral ground to disappear forever. The instrument instantly went from stark chalk-white to a natural wood color, and the mineral will never be visible again. I always enjoy that transformation.
The Varnish, on the other hand, is a series of relatively small changes, wherein the violin not only achieves the color we want. Furthermore, the increasing clarity and depth of the varnish gives the impression of being able to “see into the wood.”
I always begin with a couple of coats of deepyellow or amber varnish, as an undercoat which will shine through the later color coats.
Yellow First
Here is the violin after the two coats of yellow varnish:
Front View, with Yellow base coat.Yellow base coat, Treble Side View.Back View with Yellow base coat.
Color Coats
Next, I bagan layering the color coats, building to the look I planned. (Each “coat, in reality is usually two coats, applied in quick succession. There were about eighttotal color coats, but I will call them “first through fourth.”)
First Color Coat, FrontTreble Side, with First Color Coat.First Color Coat, BackBass Side, with First Color Coat.
This maple is really beautiful wood. I wish I had a lot more of it, but, sadly, I only was able to salvage a little of the tree from which it originated. The “donor tree” was removed from the property where my wife and her siblings grew up. It had finally rotted and was becoming dangerous, so they removed it. But the wood is gorgeous. You can see the stump in this article….
Continuing color coats
As you can see, the yellow base coat is still showing through pretty strongly. That is good, but I still wanted to move the color toward a deep reddish brown, with the golden yellow shining through. Therefore… I needed more color coats!
Second Color Coat, FrontBack, with Second Color Coat.
The color is headed in the right direction, but still needs to be deeper. I will add extra color in any areas that should be darker.
Third Color Coat, Front.Oregon Big Leaf Maple Back, withThird Color Coat.
I was getting pretty close to correct, so I began taking the instrument out into natural light, to check the color there.
Fourth Color Coat, Front.Treble Side with Fourth Color Coat.Back, with Fourth Color Coat.Bass side, Fourth Color Coat.
The color was pretty close to what I had hoped to produce. Therefore, I felt that I was ready to reinstall the fingerboard, Afterward, I would hand-rub the varnish to a good polish. Finally, I allowed it to hang in my dining room and cure a little more fully.
Fingerboard
First I carved the underside of the fingerboard to remove extra mass. This affects the sound, as well as the feel of the instrument. (Extra, unnecessary mass tends to absorb vibration rather than resonate.)
Underside of fingerboard beginning. It was fully carved and smoothed before installation.
Then I carved a tiny notch, dead center on the upper end of the backside of the fingerboard, where it would contact the neck. After carving the notch in the fingerboard, I drilled a shallow 1/16″ hole in the neck, to accomodate a tiny nail.
That nail is temporarily installed, to serve as a guide and an anchor while installing the fingerboard. The hide glue is very slippery while it is still hot, and liquid. There is a tendency for the fingerboard to “drift” under the clamps, before the glue can gel.
The notch in the fingerboard fits on the nail. The nail, then, serves as a temporary stop, so the fingerboard stays put. (I remove the nail after the glue has set.)
Fingerboard installed. Notice the tiny nail used to temporarily position the fingerboard.
Beginning Set-up
After a few more days, I began set-up. First, I installed the soundpost, saddle, nut, and end button. Next, I fit the pegs, and was ready for the bridge and the strings.
Nut installed: it will be filed lower before installing strings.Saddle installed, still requiring final smoothing and retouch.
You can see in the above photo that the varnish was still very soft. Everywhere I touched it, it also resulted in my leaving fingerprints. I had to “French-polish” the whole instrument afterward, and let it hang until the varnish was harder. Then it would be easier to handle. (But it was good to have the set-up nearing completion, too.)
Completed five-string fiddle ready for varnish retouch.
Pegs
After the varnish had hardened a little more, I then installed the pegs.
Pegs installed, Front view.Bass side view with Pegs.Back Side View with Pegs.
Final Set-up
I installed the Bridge and Strings and Tailpiece, and then the fiddle was complete. I still let it hang in my dining room for a week or so, too, so that the varnish would continue to harden without damage.
Hanging up to cure.
Final photos
Final look at the Front before delivery.Close-up of the f-hole on the Oregon Douglas Fir Front.Bass side: final look before delivery.Close up of the Scroll.Final look at the back of the fiddle before delivery.
I prepared the instrument’s documents (Bill of Sale and Provenance Document) and afterward, when the varnish had cured for another two weeks, the customer took delivery at the end of July, 2023.
He was delighted, and played the instrument for a long time at my house. Further (which is a joy to me,) he has contacted me since then, expressing his continued joy in the new fiddle. That is the kind of thing that makes this work a great pleasure.
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Front, with rib garland, back, neck and fingerboard, nearly ready for assembly.
I failed to take photos of the actual neck-setting procedure on this violin. (Sorry.) I will link to a series of photos from a previous instrument. That one had a major “flesh-wound” mishap. (I accidentally thrust a gouge through my left thumb…but it does include the neck-setting process. And the wound healed!)
This one went very smoothly: I think it took less than an hour to achieve a perfect fit. Then I removed the interior mold, and installed the back linings, so that the corpus was complete and ready to receive the back plate.
Back linings, installed on an earlier instrument. Once again, I forgot to take pictures.
Completing the Back Plate
I also had to complete the back plate. I had already completed the outside arching, and most of the interior carving, as well. Still had to finish scraping the interior dead-smooth, installing the purfling, and installing the label.
Completing the interior of the back plate.Beginning the purfling weave on the back plate.Partway done with back plate purfling.Completing the purfling weave inlay.
Once the plate was truly complete, I added the label, and installed the back plate on the corpus.
The spool clamps hold the entire perimeter while the glue sets. the spring clamp holds the neck heel and button tightly in place.Back plate installed: notice that the button is far oversized. (See next photo.)The back button is deliberately left oversize, to be carved to final shape as a unit with the neck heel.Neck heel and button carved to match.
Preparing for the Varnish
I removed the fingerboard, to give me easy access to all parts of the front of the fiddle. Notice that the fingerboard had only been held by three “dots” of hide glue. even so, the glue took off a microscopically thin layer of ebony when I removed the fingerboard. (That is what the “black stuff” is.)
Fiddle “completed in the white.” Ready for all varnish-prep work.
All final shaping has to be completed at this point: any bumps, humps and hollows have to be carefully addressed, using a sharp scraper, before the mineral ground is applied. The mineral ground is a suspension of extremely fine particles that “plug” the pores in the wood, so that the varnish does not penetrate deeply and deaden the sound.
I apply it wet, with a brush, and vigorously rub it into the wood with my bare fingers, then rub off as much of the excess material left on the surface as I can. It is not supposed to be “on” the surface, so much as “in” the surface of the wood.
Front side, with wet mineral ground.
The wet mineral ground temporarily darkens the wood, but, as it dries, it turns stark white.
Dry mineral ground.
The next step is always pretty amazing: when I brush on the sealer, it surrounds all the “white” particles in the wood, and they become transparent. Look at the “before and after” photos of the back plate, as the sealer is applied:
Back plate with dry mineral ground.Same plate with sealer applied.
From this point forward, it is just a matter of applying numerous coats of varnish, and adjusting the color as the process progresses. Furthermore, I want all the parts to “fit together” in terms of color. (You can see that there is a difference between the front and back color, for example.)
Next time, we will talk about color varnish coats.
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Until recent years, I had never even heard the word “artisanal.”
For 23 years, I naively thought I was “just a violin maker!” But then, I began hearing about “artisanal bread,” and “artisanal cheese,” and “artisanal restaurants.” And then someone sent me a satirical video about artisanal firewood! It was very tongue-in-cheek: definitely making a joke of the whole idea.
So, I looked the word up on the internet, hoping for a clear definition. There was a whole interesting article on Wikipedia about the term, giving the history, and all.
It turns out that I qualify! (So does every traditional luthier, but this is news to me!)
It reminds me of an old joke:
(“Last week I couldn’t spell [insert professional title] and now I are one!”)
Does it Really Matter?
It turns out that possibly part of the reason people are beginning to call me for “bespoke, custom-made, commissioned” violins and five string fiddles (yes, I know those terms amount to redundancy) is just because I do “make them one by one and almost entirely by hand.” But, so do most makers. (I use a bandsaw to cut out the rough billets. I also use a drill press to make parallel 1/8″ pilot-holes for the tuning pegs. But mostly hand tools.)
Possibly part of the reason they come to me is that I can tell them exactly where the wood came from: I can even show them the actual stump from which it was cut, in some cases.
(That particular Oregon Big Leaf Maple stump was the source of a small stash of wood I salvaged when the tree was removed because it was becoming dangerously rotten.) It was a sad day, when they removed the tree, as my wife and her siblings had played there, and climbed in its branches, during their growing-up years. But it was the source for a few instruments like this one:
Possibly it is because they enjoy the step-by-step continual progress reports, which I send them, every few days, and they get to see their instrument “being born.” They get to choose the overall “flavor” of the look and feel of their fiddle. Some have particular expectations in terms of color, texture, etc.
It is all rather strange, as, to me, that is “just how I make violins.” I had never applied the word “artisanal” to myself before. I just made things, and I did business the “old way.”
But that’s fine: it doesn’t change anything, really. It is just a new perspective for me.
“Artisanal Lutherie!”
It does have a certain ring to it!
🙂
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Currently, I am offering the following books about building Violin-Family instruments. I still build Violins, Violas, Cellos, and Double Basses, and their Five String Variants. All these instruments have been making customers happy wherever they go.
But, I know I will be able to build only a limited number of instruments before my body (hands especially) will no longer cooperate. So, I will attempt to make some of the things I have learned and experienced available for others to use and enjoy. (Each of the headings below are links to the Amazon sites where the books are available.)
I compiled my first full-length book on lutherie from a series of blog posts on my website. This book chroniclesall of the construction of a commissioned five-string fiddle. I offered the compliation for years as a free .pdf download, with its companion, “The Journeys of the Swan.” They did not work well on smart-phones, or other small screens, however, as the text was too small to comfortably read. So, I revised and re-formatted the books as electronic books, and have released them as Kindle books, on Amazon.
This first book is only 21,000 words, (which seems short, to me,) but it is profusely illustrated with color photos of the build. In the original 8.5″ x 11″ format, it was 137 pages. It is much longer in Kindle format.
I hope to offer an online series of lutherie lessons later, in keeping with this style.
Kai Jensen, a NASA engineer who loved violins, began to build a cello, about 30 years ago. Unfortunately, Kai’s health failed before he could complete his beloved project. Kai’s daughter brought the instrument to me, years later, long after his passing. She asked me to complete it for him, so that she would have her father’s cello to play.
This book tells, step-by-step, how we fulfilled Kai Jensen’s dream and it blossomed into a beautiful cello. Kai’s daughter inherited her father’s joy. She named the completed instrument “The Swan,” because the first music it played was Saint-Saen’s “The Swan.” These are the Journeys of the Swan.
(Cover Photo)
Booklets
I hope to will produce a list of articles or short books on resurrecting old fiddles. I only have two, for now, but more will come. These will appear on Kindle for their minimum price
The Bread Bag Fiddle is a short work (3,800 words, 30 photos.) It shows the transformation of a “junk-store special”…a sadly neglected and abused violin, into the daily player of a gigging fiddler. It originally arrived in a plastic bread-bag, with the top tied to prevent losing pieces. (Hence the title, “The Bread Bag Fiddle.”)
“Resurrection of Another Dead Fiddle” shows details of internal structural repairs, as well as replacement of missing rib wood and a full neck-set. The customer had set this one aside as unplayable and sadly bought a cheap violin on which to practice, but after the repairs shown here, this violin returned to being her daily player. She has become a Happy Customer! This, too, is very short.
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A young man contacted me by phone, over a year ago, asking about a large, five-string viola. He was very polite and not at all aggressive or assuming, but he essentially had no money for such an instrument. The phone call was a very pleasant conversation, despite the lack of funds and I was at least able to answer all his questions.
After we disconnected, I simply assumed I would not hear from him again, and eventually forgot about it,
Second Contact
The same youmg fellow contacted me again. a year later. This time, he had been “saving his money, ” but, unfortunately, not quite enough. So we talked over the options. Eventually I offered to convert one of my earlier orchestral violas to a five-string viola at the price he could afford. He liked that idea, and eventually, after his final approval, I began the project.
An older 16-1/2″ Oliver Viola
I began with this viola– my own design. The viola played quite well, but, for some reason, no one had purchased, so far. (It was instrument #11, viola #4 from my Bluefiddles site.)
The Plan
As I usually keep my viola necks fairly narrow, for player comfort, I needed to make a wider fingerboard and nut, to accommodate the fifth string.
Obviously, I also needed to plug three of the peg-holes and drill four new ones. They had to be positioned so that all five would fit on the pegbox, and the strings would still not rub on another peg, when tuning.
Photographs
I did not take any photos of the fingerboard and nut changes, but here are a few photos of the scroll in progress. (Also, midway through the conversion, he asked whether I could darken the varnish. That really had not been part of the “deal.” But, after thinking about it, I decided that I could try to do it with minimal labor, and just count it “good customer relations.”)
So: here are some photos of the scroll after plugging the original holes and drilling new ones. I capped all the plugs with figured maple, to avoid leaving the dark circles which usually remain after such an operation.
The different background and lighting (shifting position, trying to eliminate reflections) resulted in different apparent color…but they actually match.
Adding Color
About the time I reached this point in the conversion is when the customer requested the color change. It turned out that he liked the color of his current instrument, and hoped I could mimic that somewhat. 🙂 (Okeedoke...)
So, I began adding color; sparsely, at first, until I could see how it was building. About three very thin coats of a dark, red-brown varnish were required to offset the original golden brown, and produced the color that he wanted.
Dark front, still unfinished.Here is the Dark back, still unfinished.Dark treble side, still unfinished.And the Dark Bass side, still unfinished.
Set-up and completion
At the point where I felt things were beginning to look correct, I added a clear coat, and allowed it to dry for a few days before setting the instrument up. But then I set it up with Evah Pirazzi strings, and it hung in my dining room, where it could dry still further, while waiting for a check to arrive. (This is where I frequently hang my instruments for final drying, as it is usually the warmest room in the house.)
Front view, hanging in the dining room, waiting to be shipped.Dining room back view.
Finally, a check arrived, and I first sent a provenence document with clear photos of the instrument for identification purposes, (for insurance, and, in case of theft.)
Provenance Document
I always include a provenance document for my hand-made instruments, along with the bill of sale. That way, if the instrument ever gets stolen, they have clear proof that the instrument is theirs, along with good photos by which to identify it. The front page includes a dozen accurate measurements, and the back side (Two-sided document) has all the photos.
Provenance document photo from Computer screen.
Shipping
Finally, I packed it carefully and shipped it off.
The 5-string viola arrived five days later, undamaged and still in tune. Most luthiers only ship their instruments with the strings slack and the bridge down, to minimize the chance of damage.
I don’t want to make the customer set-up the instrument, so I carefully wrap and pad the instrument inside a good case. Then I pack the case in an oversize carton, with yet more padding, and so far, the instruments have arrived safely, and usually still in tune.
Soundpost magic
I’m not confident that the customer has access to a luthier who can set up and adjust five-string instruments. The soundpost fit and position is critical to the balance across the strings. That balance is touchy on a five-string instrument, and not everyone succeeds at it.
People odten tell me their 5-string fiddle sounds “dead” on the C-string. A five-minute readjustment of the soundpost brings it back into perfect balance. So…I go ahead and ship them fully set-up and ready to play.
Final appearance, front view.Side view, final appearance,Final appearance, back.Final appearance Scroll
The customer loves his new Viola. He is thrilled with his new five-string, and is practicing the Bach Cello Suites on it now. He promised to send a video, once he gets accustomed to the “five-string feel,” so when the video comes, I will add it to the website.
Here it is!
Practicing the Bach Cello Suite #6
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Resurrection of another “Dead” Fiddle is now “Live!”
I have written numerous articles over the years, and posted some on my various websites, including a couple of books in .pdf format; but now I am beginning to use the Amazon Kindle Publishing software.
I initially felt pretty intimidated by the huge array of choices, but it has turned out to be fairly user-friendly, once I got over the “fear of the unknown” aspect. (I also published a fairly detailed commentary on the Book of Galatians, but that is not a “fiddle” book. :-))
Second attempt:
I had published one earlier such booklet: this one is a little shorter, but has more internal repair of structural issues, so it may be even more interesting to some.
It includes the replacement of a broken neck-block as well as a full neck-set and replacement of mising rib wood, and the necessary varnish retouching.
This second book is a photo essay on the resurrection of a violin that arrived rather badly broken. Most luthiers would have refused the project, saying the repairs would cost more than the violin was worth. I enjoy this kind of project; besides, I charge a bit less than others. I work out of my home, which diminishes my overhead somewhat, and I can pass those savings on to my customers.
“Epilogue”
This Customer was delighted with the results, and the violin has returned to its old position as her daily player. She had previously been forced to buy a cheap instrument in order to keep playing. This one had been her favorite, but had been broken. When I opened it, I discovered a serious flaw in the original build, as well as some really bad repair work, all of which was made right before the violin returned home.
Here’s the link, if you are interested in looking:
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Some of you know that I have written numerous articles over the years, and posted some on my various websites, including a couple of books in .pdf format; but this is the first time I have attempted to use the Amazon Kindle Publishing software. I felt pretty intimidated by the huge array of choices, almost all the way through: but it turned out to be fairly user-friendly, once I got over the “fear of the unknown” aspect.
Anyway, this is a small work, only about 3,800 words, and about 30 photographs, chronicling the “Resurrection of a Dead Violin” which literally had arrived at my shop in a plastic bread-bag, with the top tied off to prevent the loss of loose parts.
As it turned out, a customer wanted an “old fiddle,” and agreed to have me resurrect the old junker. They are delighted with the result, and it is a daily player, today.
Here’s the link, if you are interested in looking:
I completed the varnish-prep work on the newest five-string fiddle, inculding the sealer. The back, sides and neck are Oregon Big Leaf Maple. The belly (a first for me) is Douglas Fir. I have never tried Douglas Fir in the past, but there was a famous maker (Otto Erdesz) who used to make professional level instruments, using Douglas Fir for the front plates. So, I decided to try it.
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