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Here are some shots of a violin top I am hoping to finish today. there is a shot after the rough arching has been done. The next shot is after the f- holes have been cut and th last shot is the on bass bar just lying inside the top. I will start the chalk fitting process next and should be finish shortly if I don't have too many interruptions.

Gorgeous!
Barry, do you know of a violin builder in Ann Arbor?
I saw a PBS special about him years ago and cannot recall his name.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Beautiful work, Barry. I am impressed with the intricacy of your detail. Violins are in a world of their own, construction wise. Many subtle little details that have to be pulled together.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Looks great Barry
I want to see the purfling channels cut!! And i would like to see the rest of this build sequence.

John

Hey Barry,
I just wrote a big long reply and lost all of it when I tried to submit it. Now I don't feel like retyping it all over again.
Anyway, it looks really good. What is your method of fitting the bass bar? I mean once you get the rough shape do you lay sandpaper the entire length of the bar and gently sand to the final shape and then chalk fit? There is nothing straight on the bottom where bar meets plate. It took me a couple days to get this bar to fit perfect. Since it is curved length ways and also curved width ways when I'd shave a bit from one area, it would cause a gap in an other area. Finally with much patience it was done.
Also, everytime I use my gouges I seems to nick myself and alway have to have band-aids close by. Have you ever got blood stains on the wood and if so, how do you get them out?
Here's a bass bar I replace a month ago with my blood signature forever signed.

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

One other question. Do you use the wooden bass bar clamps that kinda look like bit cloths pins without the spring? I wonder, could you use a Go-Bar deck to hold the bar after gluing? How about springing the bar, would you do that for a fiddle you've just made?
One more thing to pick your brain. This violin I have don't have corner blocks in the upper bout, just in the lower bout. I've decided to go ahead and put them in but I'm torn with the ethics of it. Some say that this was the intention of the maker and to change that are we destoying authenticity or are we correcting the maker's mistakes, and should we do either?

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"After forty-nine years of violin building, I have decided that the search for a varnish is similar to the fox hunt. The fun is in the hunt."
Jack Batts Maker and Repairer of Fine Violins

Chuck it is very very important that the bass bar fit as absolutely perfect as possible. I hold my square stock along the line I have laid out on the inside of the top. Then I take a washer and as the washer rolls the length of the bass bar I hold a pencil in the hole of the washer and scribe the line onto the bass bar stock.
Then I rough cut to that line with a small block plane or a knife. That is where the bass bar in the picture is. Then rub chalk on the inside of the top wher the bass bar wil fit and place the bass bar down inplace on the top and move it ever so slightly end to end...only a couple of m/m's. When pick the bass bar up chalk will be transfered to the spots that touch the top. With a knife I cut ONLY the place wher the is chalk and then repeat the process several time. Each time you will find more and more of the bass bar it touching the top and eventually you will have the entire bass bar touching and then your finished!

It also helps to make sure the inside surface of the top where the bass bar is to fit, is as smooth as possible by using scrapers to smooth out the graduation makers.

It is also important that you have the top attached to something that holds it flat anf firm while you fit the bass bar. so that the top does not flex during the fitting process and cause false readings.

I do not use the bass bar clamps, I use wooden cam clamps.

I hope the explanation makes sense.

Beautiful carving job!

I understand that the profile is a cycloid...would you be able to shed a little light on what thicknesses you carve the top and back to?

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

Here are the back and sides for the top shown above. As you can see it is not your standard violin wood...maple. It is bubinga. This is the 2nd 5 string made from bubinga and the first was the best violin I have ever made. It was made for Tania Elizabeth with "The Duhks"
This violin is being made for Darol Anger.

I dont know enough about violins to even make an intelligent comment. I will say that I am blown away with the skill you have for carving. I am deeply fascinated by this!!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Wow. Knowing absolutly nothing about violin making, I'd really love to see some more pics of the inside. What sort of bracing goes into these? Just a bass bar?

Man, that is gorgeous Barry! Love the choice of woods for the back and sides!

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

Thanks, carving bubinga is really tough. It is hard line a brick and hard on the gouges.
I violin only has one brace, the bass bar. It also has a sound post that is placed between the top and the back under the treble foot of the bridge.

Beautiful work Barry, and it's refreshing to see something different. I'm also very curious as to how a denser wood than maple affects the sound of the violin.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Lovely looking violin, Barry.



The Darol Anger? Wow...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Barry,
That looks excellent. What kind of neck will you use?

Also, what other woods have you used besides maple?

Here is a neck I made out of the bubinga. It was bi@#h to carve!! The violin was awsome. It is being played by Tania Elizabeth. I also have some very loosely constructed ideas/theories about vibrating mass in the neck. On a side, if any of you have done any work with stiffening necks, adding weight/mass into necks etc as a method to concentrate the sting power into the body I would love to hear it.

The neck I am making for the violin under construction is going to have a maple/ebony laminated neck like this.

This is a neck that I put on David Blackmon's 5 string.

Here the box is being closed.

The neck is next.

The neck joint.

the scroll.

A little more work and I'll be ready to glue the neck on.

Wow Barry, I'm speechless. Cool stuff.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Darrol Anger AND the Duhks! Violin maker to the stars, eh? Well, I think they're stars.

Beautiful work, Barry. Close-up photos like that show your level of craftsmanship.

WOW. I don't know a thing about building violins, but I can appreciate the craftsmanship. How do you approach installing purflings. By hand? Clinton

wow... stunning