Violin Forum/Message Board

[CT Dolan]

"Have you held up wood with different densities to the light?" - I've not had the chance yet.

"If one reads the table on plate thickness, given by the Hills in there book on Antonio Stradivari, you will see mentioned quite often that the tops are the same thickness throughout. " - depends upon the accuracy of the measure, or the interpretation given the measure. For some, +/- 1 mm would be pretty darn uniform, but of course in the realm of this topic that is quite a wide margin and while the Hills certainly would have certainly known so, the question is to whom were they trying to communicate, who was their audience? It was not primarily a group of makers, but rather a group of people who might have had an interest in Antonio Stradivari and his work, however those not interesting in the finer points of graduation.

[Andres Sender]

[violinarius]

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[Michael Darnton]

The charts are out there. I have about 40 of Strads, myself, that I took with modern calipers. The graduations are very uneven. "Uniform" graduation is a theory, apparent intent, a relative thing. It was virtually never realized.

[Andres Sender]

[violinarius]

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[Michael Darnton]

I suspect you haven't measured what they measured, so you don't really have an idea of how to coordinate what they said with what they meant. Here's one that's 6/64", all over: http://www.schleske.de/typo3temp/pics/31719e68c8.jpg It's so even in the context of other Strads, that it might have even been scraped a bit by someone later to even it out.

[violinarius]

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[Michael Darnton]

No, I'm saying that for a Strad top it's more even than most, and the type the Hills certainly would have called even, all over, yet it still has some remarkable inconsistencies. Most are much more varied this one. I doubt very much that the Hills only saw even grad ones, so you are going to have to accept that what they called "even" is not what we might.

.4mm is quite a bit for modern makers, but what makes the effect more striking in old violins is that there can be 1.8 sitting right next to 2.6 or more, in the middle of a spot where it doesn't seem to belong. Candling is certainly one explanation of how this could have happened, but not the only one.

We don't have the opportunity to check this now: even 100 year old tops are virtually opaque to light.

[Andres Sender]

Violinaurius--What Michael said. .4 mm is exactly what I said in my earlier post.

[violinarius]

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[violinarius]

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[violinarius]

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[John Cadd]

When a maker is adjusting the thickness of a plate there must come a time when the plate resonance if just right and all the cutting must stop.This would be the main consideration.I imagine the maker would think of the internal surfaces and their appearance as "his business" and that the outer attractive finish was quite sufficient for the spectator.
Looking at the "uneven" areas of a violin plate even if you resolved the "ripples" there can still be clearly seen an overall attempt to try the effect of varying the edge to edge uniformity (or smoothly decreasing thickness) with an interesting bigger scale "design element".----These would be extensive thinner or thicker areas that show up clearly even at first glance.
Before this question is dismissed too rapidly Try to imagine what the great makers might have been trying to do.Compare the modern guitar makers way of adjusting the internal struts to give more room for bass notes to sound and a lesser more suitable area for treble notes.
The impression I get with violin sites is akin to a site where a religious belief is being questioned.Tread warily!

[Andres Sender]