The distinctive Hopf violins, notably for the burnt in label stamp near the button on the back have many copies – of which this “Hopf” violin that came across my desk, is most likely one. This particular instrument had a broken button and is missing its scroll. None the less the rest is in good condition structurally. The bottom table is sound but the surface has been scratched up pretty badly. The top plate bears the scars of a life well lived and apart from a small crack and a chipped off corner (where the upper bout meets the waist on one side) is quite intact.
I chose to remedy the Hopf’s broken button with a clavette style repair. It’s less invasive as you don’t need to take any of the plates off, nor carve the back plate for a patch.
I was able to refit the original fingerboard, the nut needed replacing (it was to thin and held on with a maple shim in any case). The violin string length was a fraction short in the body , so pushed the fingerboard just a smidge into the pegbox to get the string length almost up to regulation. (Violin standardisation is relatively recent)
I elected to replace the entire neck using a blank, which still requires fitting and plenty of shaping. I used a figured maple neck rather than the plain neck, so while not truely authentic the aesthetic is more pleasing. I elected a light touch on the tables, there is a history there which I think is part of the charm, something I consider with my restorations
Using some pigments from my teacher I was able to get a reasonable match for the colours, and a light touch of antiquing to get it to a closer match to the rest of the violin (with over doing it).
I was happy with the overall sound and looking forward to seeing how it behaves under tension, after far too long in a cupbord
Chladni plates refer to a vibrating plate onto which fine particles like tea, sand or salt are placed. The plate is then vibrated by a speaker directly coupled to the plate. Invented by Physicist and musician Chladni
Depending on the frequency of the sound and the shape of the Chladni plate geometric patterns are formed. The particles come to rest in sound waves nodes to make these patterns. The patterns are from standing waves created in the plates based on the excitation and reflections of sound.
Old school Chladni plates were often excited by running a violin bow along the edge of them, but with a speaker you can deliver precise frequency of sound and at much higher amplitudes. Luthiers use these to tune the plates of violins to get them sounding just right – though I am yet to do something more adventurous than tap tones.
The examples below are for a STEM science trip on the Maths of music and motion see stem-fit.com. The setup has been made to be portable so its a smallish speaker, battery powered (courtesy of a power drill) and a circular plate (you get nice annular symmetry of the patterns, one of a violin to show some of the complexity there.
For this trip as my wife Charlie is also talking about ear biology and hearing, so I have also made a liner model to represent the cochlear (if it was unrolled) and kids are asked to imagine them as the little hairs in their ears. Education about the ear is particularly important outback as almost half of indigenous children have hearing loss owing to a particular infection that spreads in their communities. So a bit of fun really engages the learning aspects of it as well.
Just for fun we are not only putting pure tones through the plates, but also Beethovens 5th and my son plans to whip out his electric violin as well…sliding around to find resonant frequencies doesn’t quite count as violin practice though dude!.
A little while back this lovely violin came to me in many pieces, in a case that was in just as many pieces. It is a treasured family violin that had just gone through its second Lismore flood.
As restorations go this was one of the more memorable and not without its challenges. As became clear this was the second time it had been back together, featuring the good the bad and ugly of repairs in years gone by. There were some other types glues used, that had to be removed and an end block needed to be replaced.
It was held together with flyscreen and staples, and various tinted finishes applied that were not always a perfect match.
One of the challenges of a restoration is somewhat idealogical. I’m not there to fix, but instead to preserve, so there is a fine line here to walk, especially with the idiosyncrasies of any instrument and how far back to take a previous repair. In this case the violin had a least a few round of repairs, evidenced by the cleating style, replacement of some of blocks with Australian hardwoods and some more agricultural style repairs
Fortunately I was able to dialogue with the owners and make decisions along the way in accordance with their wishes and budget! If the violin was to be played regularly I would have updated the running gear, but as a display piece and a part of family history retaining the orginal components for example the tail piece and pegs maintained the authenticity in accordance with their wishes (and could still be played). If a future generation decides to use it for playing these can easily be switched out then. My motto , if it doesn’t need something done to it in the near term, then don’t do it.
Heres a few pics from the restoration, I started with the case and again one of the challenges was not to bring it back to sparkly new, but to restore it without changing it, so only a light cover of spirit finish on the parts that needed it was used, rather than redoing the entire case i felt was the best fit.
One of the challenges with the wood for both the case and instrument was removing the mud from it and then working with pieces that had differentially warped, that even with re-bending were a little un happy about returning to their former form.
Still it all came together quite nicely and was a pleasure to work on.
Ever seen those great looking cheap violins for sale online for $99 and thought “why are all the other violins so expensive”. Of course one play of them is usually enough to know why…but how do they make them for the price ? This one looks like reasonable spruce on the top and lightly flamed maple on the back. These violins are sometimes called VSO’s violin shaped objects
Looks like good quality spruce on the front
A deceptive nicely flamed maple back
Once the top is off all is revealed, what you have instead is a ply wood violin with light veneers of both on the outside. The plywood here is pressed into shape rather than carved (whoch takes a lot of time to do) and stuck together with what looks like a white PVA style glue. The bar bar looks like a piece of offcut pine with grain lines all over the place and the top and bottom blocks are similar. It’s very hard to get any kind of resonance out of a violin like this cross grain ply is just too stiff.
The piece de resistance though I think is the sound post – its actually fine grained spuce, so to the casual observer looking inside “oh good sound post, nice timbers on the outside…this violin must be OK!
The asking price for a violin like this is less that $100AUD – its probably a fair price for the instrument, but when you consider this is the cost of just a few violin lessons…it’s probably better to spend a bit more! See my new violins here and my preloved secondhand violins as well.
It is said music is a balm for troubled times. I find this to be true both as a player but also listner of music from this times. Here in Brisbane we have had an unseasonally large amount of water…it was also lapping at the door to my workshop…but thats another story.
Nearby composer Grant Arnold composed a piece about it for piano on his website. What I loved about it was not only the composition, but also he provided his thinking behind it…a real insight into a composers mind.
Further afield I came across ths image of a cellist in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The contrast of the music and the horrors of war all too apparent…errie and a powerful message communicated to the world through music.
The tail piece are an essential element to any violin, without it there is nothing to hold the other end of the strings tight with. Traditionally the tail piece is made of ebony or another timber like rosewood. Traditionally strings were all low tension gut, so tuning up at the scroll end with pegs was no big deal.
However today we have much high tension strings and so it means there is more need for micro adjustments, so it’s a bit trickier up top. This is especially true with the E string which has the highest tension of all the strings.
So along came the fine adjusters to be added to the tail piece, which you often see on all strings, just the E or the A & E string. Why is in not on all strings rountinely? The problem is fine adjusters add weight to the tail piece and this is thought/shown to alter the tonal qualities of a violin. While the strings vibration is mostly on the other side of the bridge, there is a contribution from the tail piece side and extra weight meaning extra dampening of the vibration.
A committed player thus might just have a E string fine adjuster then and happily adjust all the others at the peg box end. The A string is a little tricky to adjust with the left hand for many, as keeping the peg pushed into the peg box and turning it ads an extra level of finese required. On many instruments out of the factory you will see all four with fine adjusters ….the manufacturers thinking is probably “let the player decide how many to keep on their violin”. Fine adjusters then also become something of a ‘signal’ to other players as to how advanced you are in your playing. Having just one is more traditional, thus looks way cooler, as you demonstrate your knowledge of knowing about tail pieces weights and its effect on your sound (imaginary or otherwise) to seperate yourself from the pack.
Enter the inbuilt self adjusters, these tailpieces come in at the weight of a wooden tailpiece – without the weight of the fine adjusters, the fine adjusters are also more discrete so you can’t see them from a distance. Purists don’t tend to favour them out of tradition, but also about concerns about the resonance characteristics in wood tail pieces being superior to any modern material.
For students the convenience of inbuilt fine adjuster tail pieces I think out weigh the aesthetics, also people playing outside of classical traditions tend to favour them as they are much easier to do a quick tune on in a band situation. They are a fairly quick thing to swap over and not to expensive either at ~$20 for an entry level one.
Getting fancy there are tailpieces with variable string lengths to the bridge to help with the tone production of each string. Lower notes have a longer wavelength and this give the tail piece side more room for them to swing. I’m not convinced but hey on an instrument as standardised as a violin and being one of 20 violinists in an orchestra, having some self expression and individuality on your instrument ain’t a bad thing and gives you something to talk about at the after party 😉
A lot of noise is made about “has your violin been setup” and setup correctly? Why? because its really important! Most factory violins arrive at a music store not ready to play and thus need to be setup. Higher quality instruments the maker will usually setup though.
Setup refers to making sure the violin is ready to play, of which the most important characteristics are the string height above the fingerboard, via the bridge is at the right height and fitted correctly to the body of the instrument and also at the nut. . Checking the pegs fit and can move freely with a dab of peg paste is next. Next is that the finger board has the correct scoop and that inside the violin the sound post is properly fitted and located and the tailpiece is the right length. Its a specialist thing and string stores all have people trained that can do it…but a generic music shop may not…and an internet violin…well you won’t know till it turns up! For a secondhand instrument these might need to be revisited
Violins are unique each and every one, however for sound production and easy of playing they are incredibly standardised. If strings are too high above the fingerboard that can’t be pressed down easily and will frustrate a player and their tone production.
A poorly fitted (and located) bridge will not allow the string to vibrate correctly, nor transmit its vibrations to the body correctly.
Some quick rules of thumb if you are checking out a violin, up near the nut you should only just be able to fit a business card between the strings and fingerboard. Any higher and fingers can’t press the strings down properly, any lower and the string will buzz.
Down at the other end of the fingerboard. The player should be able to fit the tip of their pinky just under the G string, and the gap under the E string is nearly half that. A smaller hand is probably on a smaller instrument where the heights are smaller. Also I didn’t give away the “trade secret” measurements of 5.5mm under the GString on a full size violin…oops
Looking at the bridge the feet should line up with the inside notches of the f holes and if you can see daylight between the feet and body it hasn’t been fitted. Inside there is some stuff with the sound post…a whole topic in itself.
So if your Ok on the fingerboard and the bridge probably the rest is ok..if its not …go to another store.. like Fiddler Dan 😉
Side note on beginner instruments I tend to leave the finger board nut heights a shade higher, as they are fitted with steel strings that tend to wear down a nut over time – as there aren’y too many 7 years old playing Paganini’s Caprices on them they are still quite playable. I also leave the bridges a bit chunkier, it takes out the shrill squeaky tone (admittedly at the expense of some finer aspects of tone production) and the bridge is less likely to warp if left unadjusted for a longer period of time so less likely to need a repair.
For many years I’ve found myself in Brisbanes various violin and musical instrumental shops, as well as the workshops of various luthiers. Like musical composition, every experience has something special. My local areas general music shops, now closed, include Music Express – where an acquaintance from school was working off and on for the last umm… 30 years, and Masson’s music. I’ve got to know John Masson a bit through the mens shed – he’s been in the game for a long time and knows just about everyone on the scene from my first violin teacher Pat Mallon and luthier Frank Williams to more recent times. John also gave me the encouragement to have a go with my own enterprise.
Across the river is the fabulous Animato strings. Dietrich is a former professional viola player from Europe and runs a wonderful instrument “cave”, full of European instruments and a good range of student instruments as well. He’s been my goto as I got back into playing, very generous with his time (if you go when its quiet), he is kind of like everyones favourite uncle in persona. I’ve bought more than a few instruments, strings and parts here (before I discovered wholesalers)…he also has these old European cases which make great restoration projects for my sons.
Closer to town in Red Hill is Simply for Strings, really built for the customer experience, its in an airy old church building and full of happy people and a wide variety of new instruments for you to try, with a good range of books too; bring your cheque book though its a salivating experience. On the Southside is relative newcomer Vivace with the main strings section down in their Underwood store and some branches in surrounding suburbs. Their string section is in a glassed off room at the back, with an impressive, somewhat imposing range of instruments on display, quite different brands to the other 2 stores too.
Trying out instruments
If you are in the market for new violin instruments, beginner to advanced these are all good places to visit , though I hope you’ll come see me!. One of the challenges with buying an instrument is being able to put it through its paces, especially if you are not as good as you want to be. Its easy to be put off by an imposing atmosphere, and a crowd…don’t be! you are there to find the instrument that works for you so take your time, try to go when its quiet if having other people around might put you off!
Brisbane Violin Luthiers
Brisbane is also host to some quality violin luthiers, while I like my luthier teachers workshop (its in an Artists community..kind the full package), he’s not in Brisbane so I’ve spent a bit of time in other over the years Frank Williams way back (who’s son now runs String Tech down Logan way), theres the Grawert brothers Olaf (at Dutton Park servicing and repairing high end instruments mostly) and Ilja (formerly at Woolongabba now at the Gap or up North Qld way), trained by their father. Holts Violin Shop, once a mainstay opposite St. Andrews in South Brisbane, closed long ago, though Mark Holt is still doing some luthiering if you know where to ask. Further south is Lance Scott, formerly of Holts and his own workshop in West End. On the Northside is John Simmers he is almost exclusively a maker now, trained in England at the Newark school he’s paired with some makers in China, so you can choose violins made entirely by him or in partnership with China – which really helps with the price point. I sometimes send clients to these chaps, depending on the instruments, it’s important to get the right expertise on the trickier jobs.
In a series of sound clips, heres an experiment in repairing a cracked violin eventually replacing a relief carved bass bar with a seperate fitted one.
To start with this was a student 3/4 violin (see inside it here ) that was sat on, the top cracked open quite badly – from the fingerboard through to the bottom in two places, also splitting the bass bar underneath and the back plate separated as well. This is right in the middle of where the violin develops much of its timber and tone on the spruce top tone-woods. After repair, cleating etc.. I put it back together…it sounded surprisingly good…dare I say better. This might be because I touched up a few other areas on the inside as as well…and that the repair to the bass bar stiffened it slightly. Have a listen as I compare it to an identical model violin…not bad hey?
Next up I replaced the bass bar with a fitted one, as the original bass bar was a relief carved one. Relief carved bass bars are a faster way to manufacture a violin as you simply leave the timber behind when making the violin, rtaher than having to fitt a seperate piece – which takes time. It tends to be done on cheaper violins..but you also see it on some old European factory/farmhouse violins as well.
The bass bar sits under the bridge of the violin on the lower strings and carries the vibrations to the top plate (lower notes need bigger vibrations a the wavelength is longer) as well as strengthening the violin.
A relief carved bass bar is made from the same timber as the top plate so the grains aren’t optimally aligned – neither can the bass bar go slightly cross grain. Whereas a fitted bar bar can travel slightly cross grain, has the grain lines in a different direction and when mounted adds a slight tension to the top plate – all of these factors allow it to improve the sound.
Here are the various sound files so you can see…err… hear for yourself the difference in sound between it as it undergoes the various transformations when compared to an unaltered violin of the same make.
I think it sounds better, though maybe after all the repairs doesn’t look quite as pretty
Of course this is a cheapish student violin so repairing a crack commercially costs more than the violin is worth…but its good to know that the sound quality hasn’t diminished from repair..what do you think?
Our good friend COVID is back in the community, this time the Omnicron variant. I am committed to keeping my workshop open, but have implemented some precautions. These are in line with the regulatory guidelines, as well as to sensably protect friends and loved ones, boths yours and mine!
When you come by please use the COVID Checkin App if you have it. I have a table setup just outside my workshop, so we can interact in an outdoor environment and stay socially distanced with little in the way of inconvenience. On your visit I will put on a mask, use hand wash on my hands and chin ( touch areas to a violin). I’ll wipe down the touch areas of any violin I handle before passing to you or your child, and afterwards as well for the next customer. I will do the same on my card reader and checkout tablet as well. Lets keep each other safe.
Our family has chosen to vaccinate, your choice is yours to make, you are welcome at my workshop.
