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ctviolin
Super Member
Joined: 07 May 2009
Posts: 961
Location: Roswell
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 Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Perhaps it's more correct to say; "challenging" than simply "interesting", although it has proven interesting also.
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pmccombs
Member
Joined: 15 Jan 2013
Posts: 87
Location: Utah
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Russell wrote: | Thank you all for your replys, I learned a lesson here , not all cars are red are they.Ive seen a few violins posted on here and I must say they are beautiful top notch workmanship , if you will please, stand by .  Russell |
We neophytes suffer from a certain madness. Maybe it's an Americanism; an entrepreneurial optimism that tells us whatever is old can always be modernized and made better, by ignoring this and improving that. There are always new horizons to be explored and prizes to be won. This adventuresome principle has served us so well, with its promises of new things, that it's hard to believe nobody has succeeded, with something so common as a violin, to make it better.
It's not for lack of trying. Look at the variety of electric "violins" that assault our eyes and ears. Go have a little browse on e-bay and see what the mechanized assembly line hath wrought; it's a tragedy of epic proportions. It seems that violins demand to be made a certain way, or not at all.
But here we are, pouring heedless art into these things we want to call violins. What innovation can we pursue? What will make our work desirable, that is to say, to set it apart from all the rest? I feel the need keenly--as one who is so obviously wanting in the serious skill of the violin maker--to dress up my mediocrities in glamour and pretend they're great new things. This must drive the genuine masters of the trade crazy.
Take my recent rose violin, that I posted not too long ago, to this forum. Now, there is High Art with which I was (and am) quite pleased. Had it been for my own pleasure alone, to display around the house, it would have been just fine the way I finished it. After all, the satisfaction of the build is what I crave.
But I want to sell it, you see, so that I can prove myself a maker and earn a trademark on my label. I understand that my eventual customer will probably not want to frame my violin and hang it up, so I told myself that I would get the opinion of one who makes a living--or part of one at least--by playing the violin.
I invited a neighbor over who is a rather picky and quite talented violinist. What happened? Disaster! Oh, yes. My violin sounded choked and miserable. The action wasn't right. The bridge was too symmetrical. The feel of the neck? Too rough. It caught the fingers in some tool mark or other. Was the curve of the heel just right? This must be just-so in order to feel the fingering of the upper positions. And so on and on. What a discouraging experience!
You know how we sometimes compliment mediocrity in order to be sensitive to the feelings of others? I received one of those compliments that night; my fancy artwork hadn't mattered one bit. If my "violin" had been hanging in a music shop to be tried out by potential buyers, it would have been passed over in favor of a plainer but better sounding model. I think Mr. Darnton is quite right; there really is one thing that matters a good deal more than all the rest. How playable is it? Does it sound right?
So it was a challenge to me, and I determined to fix it. I tore it down and redid a lot of things: the fingerboard, the nut, the bridge, the neck, and the sound post. I paid attention to precision and followed the standards as best I could. I was practicing the art of exactness, laid down by those who went before me. Luckily, the basic materials and general mode of construction were all proper, or perhaps my efforts would have been wasted.
I invited my violinist neighbor back over to give it another go, and in thirty seconds with that violin, I knew things were different. I could hear it, and my violinist friend lit right up. There are still a few issues, but I got a genuine endorsement instead of a compliment that isn't one.
That is my first-hand story about how I had success after realizing that it matters how well I follow the rules and not just how well the fiddle tickles my particular aesthetic fancy. |
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Cliff Green
Member
Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 111
Location: Amissville, Virginia
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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Sounds like you've already learned a bit. Most serious experienced buyers are going to look at tone and playability over looks, but the looks are also very important. You made a statement earlier about one scroll looking like the next. That told me that you had really not "looked" at scrolls. One thing I've picked up by listening to Mr Darnton is to examine each detail with an eye to how each blends and adds to the whole instrument. For instance, the details on the finished shaping of the bridge. A lot of art can be expressed there. This becomes very subtle but adds so much to the beauty of the finished instrument.
Your endeavor to express your art in the instrument will appeal so some. As my dear departed dad would say "no matter how scruffy the horse, there's always a bush to tie it to". I don't mean to criticize your work; I just like the quote. In addition, if you're making your work to sell you probably wouldn't get paid for the extra effort unless it was a commission sale. As you discoverd, violinists are very picky about the ergonomics, and playability/response. This puts strict limitations on many elements of the violin that you will have to respect. |
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Russell
Junior Member
Joined: 16 Jan 2013
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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Cliff , yes indeed I have learned something , my ego taken down a bit , but that's ok , sometimes learning something isn't always easy.I need to examine things closer before I make a comment and I will from this point on.Im starting all over on my violin making journey, I ordered a new book by strobel and another book useful measurements by another autherThe international violin making company was a great help in selecting the books .My desire to make beautiful fully functioning violins is as strong as ever and ill ask questions that are more in line with whats best for the instrument .As a beginner with little knowledge I ask that you bare with me in my journey and thank you all for your replys. Russell  |
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