Violins Making Stringed Instrument

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Violins making has five basic steps :

  1.Get the wood ready
  2.Cut out the pattern
  3.Put all the parts on
  4.Make the varnish and resin
  5.Apply the varnish and resin

The wood used in violins making must be perfect. It must be thoroughly dry and have been exposed to sun, and not rain for over five years. It mustn't shrink, or consequently, one would have to adjust all the patterns. It must also be soft, not hard, and cut evenly with the grain. The woods traditionally employed for violins making are listed below :

- spruce for the belly, the bass bar, and the sound post.
- maple for the back, the ribs, the neck and the bridge.
- ebony for the fingerboard, the pegbox, the nut and the saddle.
- rosewood for the pegs and the button.

The varnish is also important on violins making. If the varnish is too thick, it can dull the tone. If the varnish is too thin or soft, the tone is muttled. The violin produces a harsh tone if the varnish is too hard. If the varnish is just right, however, the tone is beautiful.

Sequential descriptions and pictures on violins making are available below :

1.Cutting of a trunk section. Thus begins, strictly speaking, violins making.
	2.Cutting the corner (joining of the ribs) with the aid of a "mold" or "form".
3.This band of wood is a future rib. The violin maker is making it perfectly flat by means of a scraper, one of his many tools.
	4.Here the violin maker is giving the rib an adequate curve.
5.Ribs, blocks, corners and linings assembled around the mold.
	6.The back and belly of the violin can be made of a single piece or two pieces. Here, the violin maker has probably glued together the two pieces of the back.
7.The violin maker is fitting the trying-plane (jointer).
	8.Outlining the back (or the belly).
9.Cutting the back with a saw.
	10.Working with the gouge.
11.Roughing down with a small scraper.
	12.The violin maker finicking the back with another scraper.
13.Hollowing out the arching of the back.
	14.The violin maker evens off the contours of the ribs.
15.A delicate operation: gluing the back to the ribs.
	16.Placing the linings.
17.Using a model the violin maker draws the f-holes on the belly (made more or less in the same way as the back), with a simple pencil.
	18.Cutting out the f-holes.
19.It is with a penknife, the violin maker’s major tool, that he finishes cutting out, with great precision, the ƒƒ ’s of the f-holes.
	20.Here the violin maker has glued the bass bar to the top; they are held together with cramps until the glue dries.
21.And here is the top with the clearly visible bass bar.
	22.Here, the purfling-cutter helps our violin maker to draw the purfling grooves all around the belly and back.
23.Purfling, which consists in applying the purfles. The purfles, generally made of service tree wood or ebony, do not only play an aesthetic role, they also reinforce the edges of the violin.
	24.Using his model, the violin maker draws the neck and the scroll.
25.Sculpting the scroll.
	26.Setting the neck, already fitted with the fingerboard (the black part, in ebony).
27.Once the violin is finished, it is exposed to sunlight for at least one year before varnishing in order to eliminate a maximum of the humidity remaining in the wood. Once the wood has dried, it is covered with the "preparazione" (a mixture of natural substances to harden the wood).
	28.Then, following a very particular method, the violin maker applies various layers of varnish until he obtains the desired consistency and hue. The violin must dry completely between each layer of varnish.
29.After making the pegs, the violin maker uses a special device to give the pegholes the necessary conic shape.
	30.Fitting the sound-post with a "sound-post setter".
31.Sculpting the bridge with a penknife; this requires special care, for the sound and timbre of the instrument will depend a great deal on this little piece of wood.
	32.Fitting the strings on the bridge.
33.The final step for the violin maker is making the last adjustments; he tunes the violin before posing the chin rest and trying out his creation...