Viola neck reset
this was my first real project in the shop. this school viola needed its neck rest because the figerboard was too low and we could no longer just put a shorter bridge on it. so with hot water and a thin blade, i popped the neck of (and by popped, i mean struggled for days to take it off carefully...)
Violin bass bar project
this was fun, my frist time gettting her, er, i mean its, top off. this school violin looked good on the outside yet didnt perform well. so i got to pop the top off (see pop above, again a very delicate, time consuming process) and low and behold the inside looked like shit. the bass bar (the structural reinforcement on the house left side of the belly, opposite the soundpost) was WAY too short for a violin of this size and the lining was all splintered.
this is the top or belly of the violin. the old bass bar is the lower chunk of wood and the hard to make out piece is the piece of spruce that i will/did carve to replace it
the fitting process. again, another time consumming mind rattling good time (there are reasons i drink, this being one of them) the belly of the violin has two different curvatures (the x axis is VERY different then the y axis) this took the better parts of 4 four hour days using a block plane, a knife/scraper, and sand paper (mostly the sandpaper)
ones the fit was perfect and the top of the bass bar was shaped to match the strad pattern, it was glued in place (note: the lines drawn on the belly, the placement was very prescise to make of the best sound[sub note:when working with instruments, only hide glue is used. HIDE GLUE ONLY, no elmers, not woodglue, and for sure as shit no epoxy])
replacing the worst of the lining...
me, with the bass bar in place getting ready to put it back on the rest of the carcass
glued and clamped...
my bench...
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