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It looks like the upper bout of a Martin with the lower bout of a Taylor.
You´re getting pretty close there Tom. The body debth is between the two I will make it with a 25,5" scale, which is just a tad longer than an OM scale. The sides of this Ovangkol set has even stronger striping and also a bit of flaming. And the set was free.....
But I´m not sure about the width of the nut and the string spacing at the bridge. I havent played steelstring for many years. Standard Martin is 44/54 or 47/57 (yes I know they are in inches, but I get so confused) Any suggestions.
I agree with you Anders about martin body shapes. I am not keen on the extent of the flats on upper and lower bouts. 45/57 for nut and bridgepin spacing for me
The Martins lower bouts are curvy on the side but start to flatten at the bottom which looks odd to me. Your has very nice curves. This is a very appealing shape.
As far as width at the nut and spring spacing, you need to decide how your going to play it. I play finger style so this is what I love about my Martin 000. The string spacing is wider so I have a little more finger room. My Taylor is a little narrower and since it has a longer scale, I primarily use this guitar for strumming and rhythm work. I can't remember but I believe both have a very similar nut width. Maybe the same. You'll also need to decide what amount of radius your fingerboard will have. My Martin has a 16" radius and the Taylor a 15"
First of all, how impressive it is to see such a gem in and of one persons hands. Secondly, with the little clue that I have of this kind of instrument, I found the overall sound emission remarkably upfront, with the mids so sonor. The highs however a bit shallow to my ear.
Anyway, certainly quite an instrument in regard of your average specimen out there. ( The way I know them from common performances in bars, passages etc.)
Besides: Great how there was no howling like so often with amateur violine sound, but notes nicely firm. Hat off altogether!
Anders, I listened to your violin. You have a good bow arm, very tight string crossings. If you can wait until I finish my cello we can have a virtual duo. The violin sounds really good, I will like to hear it again after you varnish. But it does need a lot of playing to open, but I'm sure you will handle that.
Thanks for suggestions regarding the steelstring. I wil mostly play with a pick (I think) but since I also play flamenco, steelstrings seem so narrow... The radius will be 16´
The sound of the violin I take very easy. Its in white and it had had strings on for half an hour and had been played for 5 minuts, so I´m sure it´ll sound both different and better with time. If violins have anything in common with flamenco guitars, the high end will get stronger, fatter and more projected. But time will tell. I dont expect to be the new Stradivarious in my first violin but I hope it´ll be a nice instrument that I will be wanting to play for years to come.
RE: Building violin no. 1 (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
If you can wait until I finish my cello we can have a virtual duo
What do you want to play? I think I´ll be more of a fiddler than a violinist. Irish and improvisation is where I´m heading. After 10+ years of the super disciplined and square artform called flamenco, I wanna feel more "loose" I want to play something where its easy to get together and play something together. Flamenco is so darn rigid in these aspects and I got really tired of it. So tired that I havent played F for 9 month now.
RE: Building violin no. 1 (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
anything but flamenco
Of course. Who´s playing that sh*t nowadays. It sounds like old tractors beating the fields of home.
What about some of the duets from the "art of the fugue" or maybe just some " few notes free form far out new age meditation music " Maybe Juan can join on tibetan gongs?
We discussed the design of Steel string acoustics. And it made me think.
I´ve always made my own bodyshape (plantilla) of my Spanish guitars. Kind of free handdrawings over a known pattern. I did the same with the steelstring acoustic and ended up something I like.
The violin is a Stradivari body shape. And what I´m building is a copy from a plan. I could choose some other famous builder and copy that one.Amati, Guarneri and Stainer for example. But I would never end up changing anything. I simply cant see where I could make something better. These instruments are in such harmony. What i find interesting is the way they were designed, by using old school geometry. So here you have a geometrical study based on a Amati violin almost 400 years old.
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Its been a very mild week, with 16 - 17 degrees celcius, clear blue sky and some 65% humidity, so the violin has been hanging outside to dry in my lemon tree for some 3 hours a day. As you can see I´ve gone for a patina varnish. At first I finished the violin "straight. Just one color. The darkest.. It was pretty, but looked a bit dull and to "correct", so I decided to go ahead an make some "damage" on the varnish. Its done a lot on new violins, because potential owners, in this case me, dont like the look of a straight finished violin. A have a week pont when it comes to light colored edges and so on. Maybe I´ve overdone it a bit, but I´m VERY happy with the colors.
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What beautiful colors! (And nice lemons, too.) I am getting inspired to make a maple flamenca blanca guitar. If only guitarists (and guitar collectors) felt the same way about a new finish as violin people.
If only guitarists (and guitar collectors) felt the same way about a new finish as violin people.
Maybe some do and maybe its us being to conservative. What about a blanca with a sunburst finish going from bright orange into deep brown and with natural colored flamed maple bindings. If done well, I´m pretty sure it´ll sell. But I wouldnt like to do it in French Polish. It could be done in nitro or in this oil varnish that I´ve used for the violin.
It is interesting to see your shop. I recently got an air filtration system something like (or maybe the same as--a Jet?) the one I see directly in back of your violin. On the left, I see a guitar plan on the wall. On the right, something that looks like a map but seems to be labeled "flamenco guitar." What's that? If you don't mind my asking.
Thanks, Sean. I like your flamed maple guitar. It's interesting how the visual focus of a guitar can be on different parts of it. How many sections is the back made from?
My avatar pic? That one is actually flamed Spanish Cedar a 2 piece back. About 7yrs ago I was picking through a big pile of the stuff, I could have snagged 8 more sets just as nice; at $45 I guess I thought the stuff grew on trees so I just grabbed the one
Wow. I've never seen any that figured. I have a little with some figure that I use for necks sometimes. I saw it on your website and I thought the cedar referred only to the top. Now I think I understand the 50:50, maybe. How did you like the effect on the tone imparted by the back and sides?
Anders thanks for sharing that violin study. Those pulsating circles look beautiful and somehow reveal the secrets of a seemingly simple form. A bit like looking at sound through an oscilloscope.
My only complaint is that there is this one tiny spec of red varnish about .02 mm in diameter that is in the wrong place. Other than that I think it is passable.
Maybe on the next one you will get the offensive dot of red varnish placed .08mm to the left. Thanks.
Anders, it's just plain gorgeous. The finish on the whole thing is so attractive and the back especially. I think a true "luthier" knows how to make all different stringed instruments. I'm still just a guitar maker
Andy, I´m just a guitarmaker who has made one stewmac fiddle kit and one violin from scratch... Nothing more. The violin is very nice to play. Strobels book says main air resonance around a C and I was lucky to reach a C minus just a few cents below, which I think is better than a straight C in order to avoid wolftones. The violin is very balanced with the 3rd string a little bit weaker. The 4th string is big and warm and the 1st and 2nd are fast and bright. Just like I wanted actually. It´ll change. It still smells very strongly because the lacquer is not totally dry.
Stephen.. That red dot is my signature. And all my violins will have that red dot right there and nowhere else. you get it ha?
It looks beautiful, though the patina appears a tad overdone, as you say yourself.
The colour is my favoured for wood. Back in Germany I went and got me a stain with which plain spruce shelves and a vitrine were treated that I had purchased at Ikea. The stains colour was labelled as "honey" or so. Quite like your violine with possibly a shade more red in there.
I have asked for my future guitars cypress to be tained in that way too. Honey and golden shimmer just look so nice with wood, which is why Padauk and ancient Kauri appear so great to me.
The way finances are going I shouldn´t even think of it, but if budget allowed one day I would be interested in seeing a classical made with ancient Kauri B&S.
Not just for the optics, but even more for the fantasy trip tenth of thousands of years back, imagening how some archaic colossus might have rubbed its back against the very same woods trunk. A thrilling thought to me.
If the sound of the below acoustic be just partially bound to its back and sides then Kauri could be more than suiting the classical job practically as well. ( Just opened a separate thread about it in the luthiers´s section.)
Ruphus
PS: Not to forget; I found the drawing above very interesting! Thanks for posting it!
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As promised, a couple of cheapo recordings with myself scraping along happily. A hornpipe and a set of reels. I´m very happy with the violin. I went to a very noisy irish session in Sevilla the other days and the fiddle worked very well, I could hear myself very well between pipes, drums, tin whistles and other fiddles.
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but I hope it´ll be a nice instrument that I will be wanting to play for years to come. 
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