Has anyone ever made a violin, viola, cello etc?

[Jacob]

I made a lute but it was from a kit, before I was really into woodworking. It still involved a lot of bending, shaping and jointing but the bits were planed to size and the tuning pegs were turned. Much like building a Kielcraft model aeroplane.
The main thing is not to be intimidated by the top end instruments - just see it as another careful craft exercise - it's all in the planning and layout stage, and start with something simple.
I collected a number of wrecked instruments at one stage, with the intention of mending them and learning about it in the process, but they were kicking around for years and ended up in the fire

PS I used white PVA on the lute. I thought it might creep or something but it's still stuck together perfectly after 40 years. Oddly enough it crossed my mind I ought to start learning to play it, and being in Saltaire last Wednesday (Salts Mill) I spotted the Early Music Shop and popped in for a new set of strings (expensive!). They do luthier supplies and kits too - but much more finished than the one I did, and more expensive
http://www.earlymusicshop.com/

 

[heimlaga]

I also know an old car mechanic and blacksmith who has made at least a dozen fiddles. He started by forging the tools he needed from scrap iron.

I'm always a little bit sceptical about these tales of exceptional self sufficiency. My grandparents lived in northern Canada and it was grandfather's proud boast that the only things they bought were window glass, salt, and nails. Even as a small child I'd look around at their extensive range of consumer goods and realise this might be a little bit of an exageration!

Of cause he did not make all his tools. He says that he already had store bought tools for ordinary woodworking but when he started making fiddles he made the specialist tools he needed because he could not buy them anywhere locally.
I have seen some of those specialist tools and they looked hand forged to me.
He is a very humble man when it comes to his own exploits. He just spoke of one or two fiddles with which he wasn't fully satisfied..... later I learned through mutual friends that in reality the fiddles are close to a dozen..... and good quality they say.
When he brags he brags about the skill level of his grandfather and other craftsmen he remembers from his childhood and youth 70-80 years ago.

By the way that is by no means any extraordinary level of self reliance.
-Myself I have forged the scrapers I needed to crape the new white metal bearings I had poured in my cirkular saw bench..... using a portable forge which had spent 50 years outside after being rather mutilated by a collapsing barn roof and an anvil which I had to put new edges on all around.......and I have made my own roller guides for my bandsaw plus a full set of modern guards.... and made quite a few wooden planes..... and rebuilt my 50 years old stick welder with parts that werent't intended to fit...... and shifted the camshaft chain on my car..... and built a log shed from windfallen timber I had collected from the woods.
-My uncle built a hydraulic log loader where only the rotator and the hydraulic valves and hoses are factory made. He even turned the hydraulic cylinders himself. He has also built a 28 or 30 foot decked motorboat from timber he felled and processed himself and in it he installed an old Volvo car engine which he converted for marine use. He has also cut an A-ford engine in half with a hacksaw and made it into a functional 2 cylinder boat engine.

 

[AJB Temple]

Maybe we need a new thread about tales of self sufficiency? Some quite interesting things might emerge. We can call it the bodger's bonanza or something.

 

[bugbear]

I also know an old car mechanic and blacksmith who has made at least a dozen fiddles. He started by forging the tools he needed from scrap iron.

I'm always a little bit sceptical about these tales of exceptional self sufficiency. My grandparents lived in northern Canada and it was grandfather's proud boast that the only things they bought were window glass, salt, and nails. Even as a small child I'd look around at their extensive range of consumer goods and realise this might be a little bit of an exageration!

Returning to luthiery, it is normal to make many of the specialist tools needed, because the required tools were needed by so few people the factories simply didn't make them.

I had a long conversation with a luthier at a show, and they said a LOT of time [EDIT: on their european course] was spent learning to make, and then making, various tool, including the thumb plane used for plate shaping.

(I suspect in the modern amateur+internet age this may have changed; small scale makers of very specialist "stuff" can now find the customers they need as a tiny proportion of a world scale marketplace)

I don't know about hide glue being a "trick" or "secret" in luthiery - I thought it was pretty much universal practise!

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

....
I don't know about hide glue being a "trick" or "secret" in luthiery - I thought it was pretty much universal practise!

BugBear

But does it work; I have tried to separate parts of old instruments but without success. I wonder if it's another woodworking myth.
OTOH hot glue is good for avoiding having to clamp and is easy to clean off

 

[D_W]

....
I don't know about hide glue being a "trick" or "secret" in luthiery - I thought it was pretty much universal practise!

BugBear

But does it work; I have tried to separate parts of old instruments but without success. I wonder if it's another woodworking myth.
OTOH hot glue is good for avoiding having to clamp and is easy to clean off

It does work for repairability. Some luthiers like it because it makes a harder glue joint, too (in acoustic instruments). George has suggested the same.

I don't know that any manufactured instruments that I've bought use anything other than yellow glue or some other modern glue, though. If they can save $2 on a $3000 guitar, they'll probably do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K48FezBoPWg&t=398s

This is an old video made of George and some apprentices making a violin and a spinet at Williamsburg. Of course, they're using hide glue because of the museum setting (they eventually weren't even allowed to use double iron planes day to day). The violins made in this shop were not for show, those not used in the museum by performers were sold and a lot of them have ended up in professional symphonies over here.

From the videos I've seen of other violin makers, it's probably safe to assume that they are much more traditional than guitar makers and others (they still brush varnish and do most of the work by hand). I'd imagine that they use hide glue more than guitar makers.

 

[bugbear]

....
I don't know about hide glue being a "trick" or "secret" in luthiery - I thought it was pretty much universal practise!

BugBear

But does it work; I have tried to separate parts of old instruments but without success.

Plenty of videos of people successfully taking apart hide glued joints when repairing instruments on the 'net. Works for them.

BugBear

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes, hide glue separates easily. Especially easily when new - when for example one is correcting an assembly error one made when not fully with it (attached wrong neck for example). (DAMHIK)

 

[Jacob]

But how do you get to it - say it's a mortice and tenon or a housing, like a neck joint?

 

[AJB Temple]

In a new joint you may get lucky and be able to loosen it with a hot air gun applied to the local area. In an difficult joint one way is to drill a small hole(s) and inject hot water with a syringe. Can take a few goes and some means of applying spreader pressure (opposing weights). Old glue can yield to a sharp tap with a Birmingham spanner - but can equally split the surrounding wood. Gluing incorrect neck on is a stupid screw up as in this case I had to do quite a lot of stripping back to get to the joint, even though I realised the next day. I would not like to earn a living from repairing old instruments.

 

[iNewbie]

But how do you get to it - say it's a mortice and tenon or a housing, like a neck joint?

You steam it.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... eamer.html

 

[rxh]

I have made various instruments including three violins completed and two others under construction. It was lutherie that got me into tool making.

 

[Jacob]

But how do you get to it - say it's a mortice and tenon or a housing, like a neck joint?

You steam it.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... eamer.html

Neat bit of kit. Would it work with PVA I wonder?

 

[bugbear]

But how do you get to it - say it's a mortice and tenon or a housing, like a neck joint?

You steam it.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... eamer.html

Yeah - obvious; heat, moisture or both. Heated palette knives are sometimes used to open joints.

BugBear

 

[MIGNAL]

But how do you get to it - say it's a mortice and tenon or a housing, like a neck joint?

You steam it.

http://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tools/To ... eamer.html

Neat bit of kit. Would it work with PVA I wonder?

It would work with PVA. PVA is thermoplastic and the heat from the steam is probably enough to release it.
Hide is better because you don't have to clean the joint, just slap more glue on. If anything it makes for a stronger joint because it effectively has already been sized. I haven't used PVA for decades. Hide just has too many advantages. It doesn't have a shelf life in it's dry state. It's easy to clean the squeeze out. It doesn't suffer from creep. I've even glued guitar bridges on without using any clamps, just held it in place for a few minutes with light finger pressure.

 

[AJB Temple]

The trouble with steaming in my (very limited) experience is that it is difficult to control in an area where you want to release a joint and not affect everything else around it.

 

[NazNomad]

I made a double bass neck & headstock but never got around to making the body.

I did make an Icelandic Langspil, which is very nice.

 

[dkaardal]

I've never made any instruments... but that's mainly because I had to switch projects this year. I'm currently working on two cellos and 3-4 violins - I found that making several at a time took the stress out of it.

Carving up the scrolls is my favorite bit, though the backs are really fun too.

Here's a quick pic of some spillover of parts from my dining room workshop into my living room. They are all 'in progress' parts.

 

[heathw]

never made a violin, but have made quite a few high end electric basses an guitars an one acoustic guitar, great fun id recommend it to anyone who plays an who is a woodworker. seem to of worked ok for brian may! ;-)

 

[profchris]

It's OK if you can stop at just one. The problem is when you get obsessed about making a better one (I've stopped counting, but probably 40+ ukuleles now, I clearly need help.)