Violin Forum/Message Board

[MANFIO]

I am making a baroque viola. I decided that I will dovetail the neck to the upper block, cut a rebate in the neck and glue the table over the dovetail.

But how aligning the neck? I am thinking about setting the neck while the ribs are still in the form but never did that...

Any suggestions? Thanks
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www.manfio.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7875988@N02/with/464604020/

[rs]

I used to fit the neck to the bridge, but had a lot of juggling to do to find a center reference point. Michael Darnton's neck setting article helped me tremendously. Now I find a reference point that measures to true center of the corpus and fit the neck to that reference. It is a straight edge parallel to centerline of the corpse. I measure off of this reference line and fit my neck to that. I then fit the bridge to the neck, the opposite of my previous approach. I have fit five necks this way, three new violins and two neck settings and have no plans to fit the neck any other way again. I am working on a baroque violin right now for a client and have thought of making one doing something similar to your idea. If I fit to the form like you are suggesting, I will simply work off of a reference point (a straight edge outside the corpse) and line it that way. More than likely, I will dry fit the mortise just a bit shallow and wait until I set the plates to do the final fit. This way I can set the depth and angle to the belly.
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Randall Shenefelt

[violinarius]

"Fitting the neck to the violin prior to closing the box" - By David Rubio

http://www.rubioviolins.com/Pages/neckfit1.html

Hope this helps.

Perhaps also you might find Howard Needham's Trade Secrets article "Setting a Neck", in The Strad magazine to be helpful.