Finally, I figured out what I want to do with my kit violin.
It's going to be an octave violin or a chin cello. In an octave violin, the strings are a wider gauge to sound a full octave below normal, GDAE. You can read all there is to know about them on the internet in a couple of hours; they're not super common. Octave violins are also called baritone violins, although baritone violin can refer to other violin family instruments too.
Chin cellos are also a thing but it's probably asking too much of a 14" violin to string it low CGDA. It won't keep me from trying, however. I got some 1/8 size cello strings on eBay for cheap. Southwest Strings carries purpose-built octave/chin cello strings, but they're pretty expensive for what is essentially a prototype instrument.
Our church worship team could use some more bass -- I feel the violin is often competing with space taken up by the lead singer's voice, whereas the cello range contrasts nicely with that of a human singer. My original idea was to make an electric cello, but I don't always like electric string sounds. The other obvious advantage of an octave violin is that I don't have to make a cello or learn the cello. As far as I can see, the main possible drawback is that it won't be very loud, but I play amplified so that's not a dealbreaker.
An ideal octave violin should be different in many ways from a standard Strad model. (There probably isn't a such thing as an ideal chin cello, but the same principles would apply.) I decided to limit the modifications to this kit for practical reasons -- I'm learning an awful lot of new skills as it is, and I would like it to be complete in a timely fashion. However, a non-exhaustive list includes modifications to the following:
Bassbar
Bridge
Tailpiece
Fingerboard
Nut
Pegs
Neck
It will be more like a weird 3/4 viola than a violin.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Case renovation - interior upholstery
The inside of the case used to be gross red fur full of dirt and rosin. You know the kind. I have never had a violin case that wasn't gross red fur full of dirt and rosin, so I thought nothing of it until the music store man pointed out (in a disinterested way of course) that it can mess up a soft varnish job. Is this true? I have no idea. But I had cotton velveteen on hand so I reupholstered it using a thin bead of glue along the entire edge.
I love cyanoacrylate glue -- this bottle of Krazy has accomplished a lot. The eye-watering exothermic reaction as it glues your fingers together is how you know it's working!
Initially I put in contrasting green ribbons but I didn't like the look. Too pretty-pretty; this isn't a bonnet. So I tore them out to put in this matching wide gray.
Additional updates include a humidifier and a hygrometer, to be detailed in an upcoming post, when the hygrometer comes in the mail. The humidifier is that wooden box with the holes drilled in it.
The outside of the case isn't done yet.
Rehairing a bow
Most of the tools needed to rehair a bow are available at the Dollar Store. How's that for incentive to learn?
There are great tutorials out there on YouTube, which you should watch, but they do usually show using a jig that you don't have. Just use a C-clamp.
Now, watch a few youTube tutorials.
There are great tutorials out there on YouTube, which you should watch, but they do usually show using a jig that you don't have. Just use a C-clamp.
First: order some bow hair off of eBay. Get a lot of 5 hanks or so, so you have some to practice on. The cheap bow hair I got from China was advertised as Mongolian stallion hair or whatever, but I doubt it was. Just get white real horsehair, not synthetic and not black -- that's a different texture.
Clamps; leather or towel or something to pad; nail punch or screwdriver to poke with. Also: hair clips, floss, toothbrush, comb, candle, Super Glue (liquid not gel).
Hopefully your wedge, tip, and frog plugs are intact and you don't have to carve new ones. They are supposed to be maple. You can buy those from eBay too. I have carved new ones and it was so hard I'm not sure it was worth it! They are available on eBay too of course.
This is the shape the plug should be:
http://www.maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/318696-rehair-bow-plugs/
Now, watch a few youTube tutorials.
Some tips for beginners:
Add about 20-25 extra hairs to your 150 count to account for loss. More than that and you'll have too much bulk in your tips to fit the plugs properly, but you definitely will lose some along the way.
Use a C-clamp to hold it for you. I sandwiched it in cowhide shoulder which was perfect but I bet a washcloth or hardware rubber cloth would work fine.
Tie the end of the hair with the floss; trim; burn; brush off the char; apply Super Glue; dry; then root. The Super Glue is NOT supposed to hold the hair in the bow, just to hold the hairs together to each other.
When rooting the tip and the frog, make a sandwich - hair in the hole, rosin powder in on top of that, then wood plug. Smush it in good with the nail punch. The rosin makes everything much less slippy.
Do not forget to slip the ferrule on the hair before rooting the frog! I have done that almost every time.
Smush the crushed rosin into the hair with your fingers, then brush with the toothbrush. Otherwise it takes forever to apply enough.
Do be careful not to introduce any twist in the hair between tip and frog, I comb tangles, brush taut, apply barrettes every 6-12 inches, and tie the barrettes to the stick with rubberbands to keep everything straight. An extra pair of hands comes in pretty handy if you can recruit them, too,
Run the bow hair over the candle flame to shrink the hairs nicely. Pull out any hairs that are too loose for this to fix.
If you don't like the first result, try again. You will get lots of practice because your first job will probably lose hair faster than a professional job, but that's OK.
Add about 20-25 extra hairs to your 150 count to account for loss. More than that and you'll have too much bulk in your tips to fit the plugs properly, but you definitely will lose some along the way.
Use a C-clamp to hold it for you. I sandwiched it in cowhide shoulder which was perfect but I bet a washcloth or hardware rubber cloth would work fine.
Tie the end of the hair with the floss; trim; burn; brush off the char; apply Super Glue; dry; then root. The Super Glue is NOT supposed to hold the hair in the bow, just to hold the hairs together to each other.
When rooting the tip and the frog, make a sandwich - hair in the hole, rosin powder in on top of that, then wood plug. Smush it in good with the nail punch. The rosin makes everything much less slippy.
Do not forget to slip the ferrule on the hair before rooting the frog! I have done that almost every time.
Smush the crushed rosin into the hair with your fingers, then brush with the toothbrush. Otherwise it takes forever to apply enough.
Do be careful not to introduce any twist in the hair between tip and frog, I comb tangles, brush taut, apply barrettes every 6-12 inches, and tie the barrettes to the stick with rubberbands to keep everything straight. An extra pair of hands comes in pretty handy if you can recruit them, too,
Run the bow hair over the candle flame to shrink the hairs nicely. Pull out any hairs that are too loose for this to fix.
If you don't like the first result, try again. You will get lots of practice because your first job will probably lose hair faster than a professional job, but that's OK.
Winding a bow with silk and thumb leather
Metal windings are not the only bow winding option out there. Some people like a light bow; historically, tastes used to tend more in that direction. Silk is great for that, or to rebalance a metal-wound bow that is too heavy at the frog
None of my bows came with windings. For a while I was just fine with that, but apparently windings do protect the wood some, so I am giving it a whirl to see if I like it.
We are starting here with my personal favorite keeper bow -- the faux snakewood one with the grafted head. I can't tell if it originally had windings, for sure, but the painted snakewood pattern goes to solid muddled dark where the winding should be, so I think so, unless that is a wear pattern.
I didn't have silk cord in the proper gauge, so I wound silk thread into three-ply cord as I wrapped. Twist-twist wrap. It ended up a terrible bird's nest at the ends by the time I finished, but I got enough on the stick so it was OK, but not perfect. Because of my other weird hobby, historical costuming, I am a fiber snob. So I didn't want to use the poly embroidery floss I had -- would you want your winding to pill up like a cheap sweater? No you would not!
Now for the thumb leather. You don't want anything too stretchy; goat and lizard are some traditional choices, while calf won't work (or so I read). I had a stained kid glove to sacrifice. That other weird hobby is really handy once in a blue moon, but twice today!
I used this tutorial. Look, a female luthier! There are a few of us. I mean, I'm not a luthier but I am a woman. Anyway. She wrote a super tutorial.
https://trianglestrings.com/thumbleather/
As usual, I fudged it with what I had on hand. PVA glue (white wood glue in my case) worked fine for me. The kid glove may have not been the right leather because it sure was stretchy, but I made it work. A gentle press with an iron would have helped, but be very careful not to burn/shrivel up the leather -- use a press cloth and low heat.
The first attempt was OK but not great. I had fancied the white kid would look flashy and smart like whitewall tires, but in reality it did not hide the seam and looked dingy before it was even done. So I painted it with food coloring dye in a shade resembling a pool table. I sealed and burnished with mink oil. It looks alright, but I will dye the leather before applying, next time.
None of my bows came with windings. For a while I was just fine with that, but apparently windings do protect the wood some, so I am giving it a whirl to see if I like it.
We are starting here with my personal favorite keeper bow -- the faux snakewood one with the grafted head. I can't tell if it originally had windings, for sure, but the painted snakewood pattern goes to solid muddled dark where the winding should be, so I think so, unless that is a wear pattern.
I didn't have silk cord in the proper gauge, so I wound silk thread into three-ply cord as I wrapped. Twist-twist wrap. It ended up a terrible bird's nest at the ends by the time I finished, but I got enough on the stick so it was OK, but not perfect. Because of my other weird hobby, historical costuming, I am a fiber snob. So I didn't want to use the poly embroidery floss I had -- would you want your winding to pill up like a cheap sweater? No you would not!
Now for the thumb leather. You don't want anything too stretchy; goat and lizard are some traditional choices, while calf won't work (or so I read). I had a stained kid glove to sacrifice. That other weird hobby is really handy once in a blue moon, but twice today!
I used this tutorial. Look, a female luthier! There are a few of us. I mean, I'm not a luthier but I am a woman. Anyway. She wrote a super tutorial.
https://trianglestrings.com/thumbleather/
As usual, I fudged it with what I had on hand. PVA glue (white wood glue in my case) worked fine for me. The kid glove may have not been the right leather because it sure was stretchy, but I made it work. A gentle press with an iron would have helped, but be very careful not to burn/shrivel up the leather -- use a press cloth and low heat.
The first attempt was OK but not great. I had fancied the white kid would look flashy and smart like whitewall tires, but in reality it did not hide the seam and looked dingy before it was even done. So I painted it with food coloring dye in a shade resembling a pool table. I sealed and burnished with mink oil. It looks alright, but I will dye the leather before applying, next time.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
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...
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.
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.
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.
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