Violin Forum/Message Board

Mat Roop · Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:04 am Post subject: thru neck 1700's neckstop

I have a few 1700's thru neck violins that I will be restoring. however, the neck stop on these are about 5mm shorter than standard.
what is the general consensus about these shorter necks?
1- do you leave the neck as is and use a thinner nut and shift the bridge back a bit to get closer to standard ... or
2- do you install a new neck... (these violins would not be worth the effort).... or
3-do you just leave as is and have a violin with a shorter neck stop and consequently a shorter string length.
I ask because I have used option 1 but one of my classical teacher clients said to leave as is and a good player simply accommodates for the shorter string with their playing.
What do others think? What do you do?
Thanks!... Mat

kjb · Super Member Joined: 06 Feb 2013 Posts: 385

when you shorten the string stop , does that affect the intonation at the octave or just move things around proportionally?

Michael Darnton · Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 1:14 pm Post subject:

I don't know if there's a right way to deal with this, short of a neck graft, or hoping that your customer is flexible enough to not care.
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FiddleDoug · Member Joined: 08 Sep 2007 Posts: 227 Location: Hilton, NY

Don't move the nut point closer to the pegbox. Good players will notice that the chin on the neck is in the wrong place. (Ask me how I know). I'd say that leaving thing alone, or maybe moving the bridge a tad south would be your best bets.
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L P Reedy · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:20 pm Post subject:

About 25 years ago, before I knew anything, I was given one of those in pieces. Namely the neck with half of each upper rib plus the rest of the fiddle. I cut the block part off the neck, saving the rib pieces, and glued a "Messiah" style extension to the neck. Then I installed a normal neck block, glued the rib pieces back in place and mortised the new block for the extended neck. It still looked and sounded like the piece of cr@p it was, but as far as I know it is still holding together.

Mat Roop · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:26 pm Post subject: Re: Stop length

Mat Roop · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:35 pm Post subject:

so, just thinking... what would be wrong with removing the neck and moving the entire neck back by the 4 or 5mm. The notch for the top could be matched and filled as well as the rib slots. The heel could then be carved down to match the button. seems to me that would be way easier than a neck graft.
thanks, Mat

Michael Darnton · Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:41 pm Post subject:

Nothing at all. That's sort of what Doug was talking about. I have an almost-baroque violin from the 1770s that has had something similar done, and I'm going to remove the added bits and with a little minor work I can get it back to full baroque without anyone ever knowing what had been done. (In my case, the work was done a bit differently, so all of the original wood is still there.)
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