I had managed to get a sequence of instruments out of order, though (I thought) I began them in order.
I print sheets of my labels, all in sequential order, and try to make certain that I never mislabel anything.
But, I install the label on the day I close the corpus of any instrument. As a result, sometimes the label may not agree with the date when I completed the instrument.
In this particular instance, I made a mistake: When I printed a sheet of labels for five-string fiddles, I somehow skipped #16!
Then, I had begun three instruments simultaneously, and, as I closed them, I installed the labels for five-strings #17, 18, and 19, respectively. (All in good faith, you understand!)
“A Funny Thing Happened On the Way” to Completion:
Then a client called with a commission for a specific 5-string fiddle: So I dropped everything else (as usual) and began his instrument. When it came time to close the corpus, I checked the last three to see what number was next. (It must be #20!) But I had not yet printed a sheet with a #20. I was about to do so when I realized that I had no instrument labeled #5016. (Sigh…)
All I could do was to set up a page of labels that included #16 and then jumped to #20! (What a mess!)
And, as things worked out, over the next year and a half, I had multiple eye surgeries, my beloved wife broke her wrist and required surgery to repair it, I went through my first bout of Covid, annnnd:
Another client called with a commission! Fortunately, during that time, I had managed to complete #17 and #18. They are on my Five String Fiddles website…and #5018 has already sold.
Instrument #17
Instrument #18
So, here is the full story of getting things back in proper order: Five String #19 will be posted as #19 on the Five String Fiddles Website and as Instrument #49 onthis website. The newest commission will be #5020, as a five-string viola, and will go to a customer in Zurich, Switzerland. It will appear here as Instrument #50, and on the five-string site as #20.
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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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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 I mostly use 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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A client contacted me through my other website (fivestringfiddles.com) and asked whether I could build a 5-string fiddle of primarily Oregon woods. (Sure!)
Test-Drive
So, she came for a visit and played eight of my hand-made instruments (all good fiddles), finally declaring a particular one to be exactly what she wanted, except that she did not care for the look of the one-piece Sitka Spruce top plate. It had very wide grain on the bass side and narrower on the treble side. (It sounds great, but the looks were bothering her.) Soooo…
Custom Build!
I went into my storage and retrieved a really wild-grained piece of Big Leaf Maple, and two billets of very straight, even-grained Spruce: one of Englemann, and another of Sitka: she chose the Englemann and loved the maple. She wanted an instrument essentially the same as that first one, but without the odd-looking belly grain. (Same model; made on the same mold (form), and sounding just like it, as well.) It will be tough to do, because the one she really likes is already five years old; it has had time to settle, be re-adjusted, and settle again. (Yes, it sounds good!)
Select Woods and a Good Start
So, we went out to one of my other buildings and hand-picked some likely-looking wood for the neck and ribs, and we were ready to do business. She presented a deposit, and I suggested that she take home the one she loved, for the time being, to keep her interest up while waiting for me to complete her personal treasure. She went home happy, and I began sorting willow for blocks, finding my proper templates, and enjoying the prospect of a new build. I will post follow-ups as they occur.
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I had a fair amount of positive feedback on two particular instruments at the Maryhurst show: a “1735 Plowden” Guarneri model violin, and a 14″ Oliver viola that has pretty amazing sound. So I decided to see if I could repeat the successes, and am building a new one of each model.
1735 Plowden Guarneri model
This is a very powerful instrument, pretty classic Guarneri style and sound. I took my measurements from the Strad poster and technical drawings, and copied the archings from there, as well. The first one had a rich powerful tone from the day it was first strung up and playing. So, I hope the second try at the same instrument will be even better.
This one (like the first one, and, like the original) is European maple (one-piece back) and European spruce. I am using willow for blocks and linings. I am always impressed with the difference in how the European wood handles under the knife, gouge or plane. I have been told by all my mentors and teachers that, at least for violins, the European Maple is definitely superior in terms of tone. I am going to take their word for it…they are all very experienced makers who really ought to know. They did say, however, for violas, cellos, and basses, that domestic woods seem to work fine. Must have something to do with the higher-frequency sound or something like that. Although, that last five-string fiddle I made, of Myrtle and Port Orford Cedar, has very good high end tone, as well as good low notes…so I don’t know why one is better than another. The Myrtle is definitely harder, heavier wood…maybe that helped.
14-inch Oliver Viola
This will actually be off the same mold as the Guarneri violin (a duplicate of it), so it will have exactly the same “footprint”, but the arching and graduations, as well as the rib-height and other differences will definitely make it a viola, not a violin with viola strings. It is comparatively easy to make a large viola that sounds great, but much more difficult to make a very satifactory small viola. Fortunately, I fell into (quite by accident) an arching pattern that worked very well, and later had it confirmed by one of my teachers, so I had early (accidental) success with small violas, and have gotten better as I learned to understand what was happening with them.
I like the viola sound, and I am big enough to play my largest viola model (16-1/2 Guarneri model) comfortably, but I can see where a professional player could encounter some problems holding his/her arm out at that distance for hours of practice or orchestral performance. So, the small violas have a special attraction in terms of comfort…and if they can sound comparable to a larger instrument, so much the better. I also make a 14-7/8″ viola, but the 14″ viola is the smallest I have made.
This one is Big Leaf maple and Sitka spruce. Willow linings, same as the other new instrument.
Parallel Processes
I will be attempting to complete the two new instruments side by side, step by step, so that whatever stage I am at in one will be where I am on the other, as well (give or take an hour or two.) We’ll see how that plays out.
I’ll post pictures in a few days.
Thanks for reading.
Chet
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Some time ago, a friend (Cliff Stansell, of the Pistol River Trio) asked me to build (strictly on speculation) an Oliver five-string fiddle of Oregon Myrtle wood (for back, sides and neck) and Port Orford Cedar (for top and bassbar). He prevailed upon his brother (Les Stansell, a maker of Guitars and Ukuleles, using those woods) to donate the wood for the experiment. This is the result:
New 5-string fiddleBack view
Front view, hanging upBack view hanging up
What about Sound?
Well, quite honestly, it has been strung up for less than 12 hours, and, though I have spent some time playing it, and adjusting the soundpost, etc., it is really still too early to be sure how it will sound.
So far, I feel pretty positive about it. I know the arching and graduations are good, but I have never used this combination of woods before, so it is hard to be sure what is a product of the wood, and what is a product of the luthier.
It feels heavier to me, quite naturally, simply because Myrtle is a harder, heavier wood than Maple. But that may be OK. I know that Bubinga (even harder and heavier) is regularly used for five-string fiddles, and I actually have some Bubinga to try someday soon. The Koa I used for the 5 string fiddle last year was also very hard and heavy, and it turned out to sound very good. So I am hopeful that this one will too. It already sounds good…but I want it to sound Great!
(Update: by the next morning the sound had improved remarkably, as new instrument frequently do: I had adjusted the soundpost just before calling it quits for the night, and such adjustments frequently take a few hours to “settle in”.)
Marylhurst Show is coming up in two weeks.
For anyone interested, the Annual Marylhurst Musical Instrument Makers’ Show (click the link for details) will be April 30th and May 1st this year. I hope to see you there. Come and test-drive this fiddle and the others.
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