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Strings yes, but no guitar


Andyjr1515

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Actually, as it happens, not much of a violin either!

This is a few years ago when I had some Yew offcut left over from a project.  I'd always looked longingly at the super-modern LS Designs violins when they first came out and thought, 'well how difficult could this possibly be?' ;)

I had a look at some of the designs on the internet and it was the super-slim ones with some nice curves that caught my eye the most.  I got hold of commercially available parts like neck, fretboard, chin rest and tailstock and played around with a few paper templates.  This was the sort of think I was going for:

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The geometry is very different to a guitar so I drew out the concept full-size: 

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To get the depth, my plan was to have a ring of mahogany to leave the body as a backless hollow.

It was time to cut some wood.

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First job was marking out and cutting out the shape from my Yew plank:

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"But aren't there two?" I hear you ask.  Yes - the original plan was also to make a viola.  Hmmm...best laid plans & all that  ;)

Then glued a Sapele back piece to it:

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And then started the process of removing as much weight as I could.  Violins are light!

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The bought neck blank needed the angle adding to the heel and I also cut a small dovetail:

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Likewise, the dovetail was also cut on the body:

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Took quite a bit of fettling until it fit properly:

_MG_3418.thumb.JPG.1f26214804ca09febd937f39066facb1.JPG

 

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