Violin Forum/Message Board

[Chet Bishop]

kjb:

Part of me says, "Complete your set-up and fine-tunings, play it a while, and maybe just leave it alone; it is probably quite workable as it is."

BUT

If you really want to lower the FB projection and not really do a full neck re-set, would you consider the reverse of a "New-York Neck-set"?

Remove just the FB, then carefully (using a razor-saw and/or thin-bladed knife) remove about a half-millimeter of wood from the front plate in front of the neck-heel, all the way down to the block, so that the neck heel has a gap in front of it, 0.5mm wide, the full width of the neck.

Use a pallette knife to loosen the seam between the front plate and the ribs, including the neck block area, from about 100mm one side of the neck to the same on the other upper bout.

Apply pressure to the neck so that the neck moves forward into the waiting recess, and the whole projection angle will drop significantly.

I think it would be wise to re-install the FB before re-gluing the neck block and plate seam, so that you are absolutely sure where the projection, etc., will end up, and that the neck is still well-centered.

Then, re-glue everything, shove the neck into that 0.5mm recess and clamp it home. I think your angles, projection heights, etc. will all be about normal, while the overhang on the north side of the front plate will have increased by 0.5mm at the neck, fading to normal in the middle of the upper bout.

But, as I say, it may be fine the way it is.

Your call...
_________________
Chet Bishop
https://bluefiddles.com
https://fivestringfiddles.com

[kjb]

thanks chet,
if it was a 4 string I probably would leave it as is as you have suggested,

my problem is that I can't get enough radius on the bridge to get bow clearance ( between the strings) using the highest bridge that I have.

The neck set you have suggested sounds like the best solution for this application. Making this one has bee a good learning experience for me.

doing the reset will just extend that, experience , I learned a lot from this one, mostly of things not to do.

I got into a rush this spring getting ready for classes , which also was a learning lesson of trying to rush things just lowers the quality, which we all know but I needed to go through the learning experience again!

[Mikes]

Considering this post is discussing neck setting and FB projection I'd like to hear from others if they set the FB projection a little high with the expectation that once the instrument is strung up it will drop a bit. If yes then how much?
Best,
Mike Spencer

[Mikes]

And i should say that I was checking measurements on my #4 the other night and noticed that the FB projection has dropped about 1mm. Any thoughts on the particulars of that problem would be helpful for the next build. I'm guessing that a change to the arching would have some impact?

[Cliff Green]

Michael D has provided an in depth explanation on neck sets at violinmag.com