chestra: professional players usually choose old English ones, or modern ones by such makers as Fendt and Lott, who made the Double Bass a speciality.
Fiddle-making is so little practised as a trade in this country, that a short explanation of the process may be useful. The question is often asked whether the belly and back of the fiddle are not 'bent' to the required shape, and the enquirer hears with surprise, that on the contrary, they are 'digged out of the plank,' to use the words of Christopher Simpson, with infinite labour and care. The only parts of the Fiddle to which the bending process is applied are the ribs.
In construction, the violin, tenor, and violoncello may be said to be identical, the only difference being in the size and in the circumstance that the ribs, bridge, and soundpost of the violoncello are relatively higher than those of the other instruments. The tenor is one seventh larger than the violin, the violoncello twice as large: the double-bass is about double the size of the violoncello. The number of separate pieces of wood which are glued together for the fixed structure of the violin is as follows:—
| Back | 2 | pieces | (sometimes 1) |
| Belly | 2 | {{{1}}}„ | (sometimes 1) |
| Blocks | 6 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Ribs | 6 | {{{1}}}„ | (sometimes 5) |
| Linings | 12 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Bar | 1 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Purfling | 24 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Nut | 1 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Fingerboard | 1 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Handle or Neck | 1 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Lower Nut | 1 | {{{1}}}„ | |
| Total | 57 |
The moveable fittings comprise thirteen additional parts:—
| Tailpiece | 1 |
| Loop | 1 |
| Button or Tailpin | 1 |
| Screws | 4 |
| Strings | 4 |
| Soundpost | 1 |
| Bridge | 1 |
| Total | 13 |
The violin thus consists of seventy different parts, all of which, except the strings and loop, are of wood. The wood employed is of three sorts—maple for the back, handle, ribs and bridge; ebony for the fingerboard, nuts, screws, tailpiece and button; the purfling is partly of ebony, partly of maple; the belly, bar, blocks, linings, and soundpost are of pine. All metal is a profane substance in fiddle-making: no fragment of it should be employed, whether constructively or ornamentally. The parts must be put together with the finest glue, and with invisible joints.
The tone, other things being the same, depends largely on the quality of the maple and pine used. The wood must not be new: it should have been cut at least five or six years, and be well seasoned. It is, however, not advisable to use wood that is so old as to have lost much of its elasticity. Both pine and maple should be as white as possible, with a grain moderately wide, even, and as a rule perfectly straight. Local shakes and knots render the wood useless. Curves in the grain derange the vibration, and are therefore usually avoided: but the writer has seen violins in which a slightly curving grain has produced an exceptional power of tone.
The belly and back are often made each out of a single block of wood. This, however, is wasteful, and they are usually made each in two pieces. A square block of maple of suitable grain for the back, having been selected somewhat exceeding in length and in half- breadth the dimensions of the intended fiddle, and about an inch and a half thick, the saw is passed obliquely through it from end to end, dividing it into two similar pieces, each having a thick and a thin edge. The thick edges are planed perfectly true and glued together. The figure of the grain, when the fiddle is made, will thus match in the halves.
The first thing to be done is to settle the design of the instrument. The modern maker invariably adopts this from a Stradivari or a Giuseppe Guarnieri (del Gesu) fiddle, sometimes mixing the two designs. The old makers generally worked by rule of thumb, using the moulds of their predecessors, and if they made new patterns only slightly varied the old ones as experience suggested. It was by a succession of such minute experimental changes that the classical patterns were reached, and though attempts have been made to reduce their designs to mechanical principles, and to frame directions for constructing them by the rule and compasses[1] no practical violin-maker would think of doing so. There is no reason why he should slavishly copy any model: but his design should be based on study and comparison of classical patterns, not upon any theoretical rules of proportion.
Having settled the design, whether a tracing from an old instrument, or an entirely new one, the first thing is to trace the outline on a plate of hard wood about as thick as a piece of cardboard, and to cut this carefully out with the pen-knife. This is called the Pattern, and it serves both for back and belly.
The next thing is to make the Mould, which is made out of a block of hard wood about three quarters of an inch thick. Its outline stands three eighths of an inch all round inside that of the Pattern. Having cut out the mould to the requisite size and shape, the workman cuts rectangular spaces for the six blocks, large ones at the top and bottom and small ones at the four corners. The next thing, and one of great importance, is to trim the edges of the mould so that it shall be everywhere perfectly at right angles to the faces. Eight finger-holes are now pierced, to enable you to manipulate it without touching the edges. The making of the mould requires the greatest care and nicety: and fiddlemakers will keep and use a good one
- ↑ The most noticeable of these is the 'calcolo' of Antonio Bagatella an amateur of Padua, published in 1782, by which he pretends to reveal the secret of the proportions used by the brothers Amati. It is reprinted in Folegatti's 'Il violino esposto geometricamente nella sua costruzione' (Bologna, 1874). Bagatella seems to have ruined many a good violin by adapting it to the Procrustean bed of his 'calcolo.'
