Carving and tuning a (cheap) bridge

My first bridge was a $6 Aubert bridge. I think that's their lowest grade of bridge. I can't say enough good things about it. It was so easy, even for a beginner with exacto knives, to carve. The wood was so dense and even in grain. I got greedy with the carving knife and ruined it, and then I burnt it in a frying pan, so maybe I deserve what I'm suffering with the replacement.

This replacement bridge was a $2 no-name bridge. Ugh. It is so much harder to work with. You can really only cut in one direction and even then you deal with tear-out and splinters. The grain is uneven in the worst places. The pattern is cut off-center. Disgusting. I guess it might be OK to get one of those 10 bridge lots and just practice on them, but I'm sick to death of it and I'm not even finished with one. However, I have to play on Sunday, so I persevere. It's amazing what a deadline will do to your productivity.

I'm using Michael Darnton's chapter on setup, which includes good details on bridge carving:
http://www.darntonviolins.com/violinmagazine/book/setup.pdf

Borman's workbook on bridge carving, which includes measurements on width that seem to be missing from Michael Darnton:
http://www.bormanviolins.com/violinworkbook/vmbridges.asp

And Lars Silen's directions on bridge tuning:
http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=25371
(Lars Silen is Swedish so it's really hard to read the articles on his website -- but he gives great directions on English in this discussion.)

Also, I periodically click to this bridge and sigh at the perfection of proportion and grace expressed therein which I may only hope to attain one day.

http://www.violinbridges.co.uk/


Follow Darnton's instructions to fit the feet and to cut the top arch. Thin and bevel but don't mess with with the cutouts yet.

I followed Borman to start off with, and I think I got the bridge backwards. He words it in a pretty confusing way. Also Borman's directions for string level seem too low. At least, they don't allow any room for error. Go with Darnton's if you're a beginner and not sure -- better to leave a little extra and trim it later. You are rather likely to have a ragged edge that needs trimming in some way, anyway.

 Then, set your soundpost and carefully string up the violin and tune it over your new bridge. Do check that the bridge stays straight while you do this, or you will hear a smack that makes you jump up in the air with fright -- the bridge falls over if you let the strings pull it over, and it does it loud and hard and you'll think you broke your violin. Ahem.

Then you get to play it and see what you think. Write down your notes and test it in Audacity if you don't trust your ear. I don't trust my ear.

I didn't like the new sound. The G open string sounded rumbly and gravely -- not singing at all -- and the rest of the notes sounded so...sad. I tried to play Happy Birthday on the E string and it just made me think about how short life on earth is. This is a recurring problem with this violin (or this player). Obviously I am not good at hearing the standard violin words. Is it dry? Warm? Nasal? Golden? Silver? See Darnton's chapter on that for a good chuckle.

My violin just sounds depressed and like it resents me.

However, I'm stubborn. To be continued...

Review: Goldbrokat E (inconclusive)

The Goldbrokat E string by Lenzner is famous. It's paired with a lot of expensive string sets. You can even buy the expensive string sets with the Goldbrokat E packaged in replacement of the E it's supposed to come with. It is so cheap (less than $3) that I bought it to replace my first E string almost immediately.

It was a huge improvement over the D'Addario Prelude string in that it did not hurt my ear, but I still seldom play E because it's still...sharp and tinny sounding.

Maybe it's my violin. It's probably my violin. But not crazy about it.

Preliminary testing

Objective testing is part of the scientific method and you shouldn't skip it when messing with your violin. Here's how I tested mine before making changes.

1. First, I made notes using the Michael Darnton criteria for objective testing.
http://www.darntonviolins.com/violinmagazine/book/UnderstandingTone.pdf

I was doubtful of how objective this would be, but I played some scales and also noted down the things that have come to really annoy me in the past several months of playing. There are several annoying things.

2. I tried this method of evaluating tone in decibels. I made the chart and everything.
http://platetuning.org/html/trying_tone-it_takes_what-.html

My results show this violin is definitely wonky, with a strangely variable G string, a weak D string and a very weak E string. I was surprised that this corresponded to what I had written down in my playing notes.

3. I tested the modes using this web page.
http://platetuning.org/html/resonances_of_violin_body.html

My results were not that great. I looked for a consistent peak in the general area they said it was supposed to be in. I couldn't find the A0 mode at all, but otherwise everything was where it was supposed to be -- or rather, less than a hundred Hz away from where it was supposed to be. It would be a good candidate for regraduation, I think, if it survived popping the top! But the plates are already thin from refinishing and glued with wood glue rather than hide glue (I suspect.)

Some of this wonkiness is from my tiny over-thinned over-opened bridge. I read that less bridge wood = more resonant violin. I thought the limiting factor here was bridge durability so I said well, who cares if it warps after a year? Bridges are $5 a pop. BRING ON BIG SOUND! Unfortunately the truth is that there can be too much of a good thing. My sound is all out of balance.

My next step is to make a new bridge, tuned to Lars Silen's method, and reset the soundpost. I didn't really want to reset the soundpost, but when I took down the first bridge, guess what started clacking around inside my violin? Yep. Just be warned, folks -- don't mess with the bridge without being prepared to mess with the soundpost too.