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Never played... Need advice.

 
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Altar
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Joined: 04 Nov 2012
Posts: 3
Location: Austin, Tx

PostPosted: Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:48 pm    Post subject: Never played... Need advice. Reply with quote

Hello! I'm a 13 year old bassist/drummer/guitarist from Austin, looking to learn violin. I'm fairly skilled with wood, and want to learn to play violin. I need to know how good the kit from stewmac is, as I would like to take a break from furniture restoration and dive right in to luthierie.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Kits/Fiddle_Kits/Fiddle_Kit.html?tab=Pictures

I'm also extremely curious how a violin would sound hollow, but without f holes. Would it eliminate feedback plugged in?

Does anyone know any other kits similar to the stewmac and in the same price range?

Edit: I see it has been moved. My apologies, it was an intro/question, wasn't sure where to put it.

-Preston
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Cliff Green
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Joined: 01 Apr 2007
Posts: 111
Location: Amissville, Virginia

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello Preston,

Stew Mac has a good reputation especially for guitars but for violin gear check out International violin in Maryland. They have kits as well and a full range of violin building supplies and tools.
I don't know anything about electric violins but an acoustic violin without F holes would not work, period.
Being from Austin you're in luck. There is a fine violinist named Beth Blackerby who has a web site http://www.violinlab.com that has violin lesson videos. I've taken a lot of music lessons and I can tell you that if I was in Austin I would be taking lessons from this lady. You have to pay a fee to use her site but it is very affordable and you can view some of her lessons free.
Her husband runs a violin shop, Blackerby Violins. Violin shops can be kind of snooty but I don't get the feeling that this shop would be that way. Take a visit, offer to sweep the floor, take out the trash, maybe you could learn something about violin building there.
Good Luck


Last edited by Cliff Green on Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Altar
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Joined: 04 Nov 2012
Posts: 3
Location: Austin, Tx

PostPosted: Tue Nov 06, 2012 10:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is this one any good? the rest are pretty pricey for me.
http://www.internationalviolin.com/item_detail.aspx?ItemCode=VK4

How's this look?

http://www.amazon.com/Vio-Music-Violin-in-the-white-4/dp/B008J1NNY2/ref=sr_1_152?ie=UTF8&qid=1352255216&sr=8-152&keywords=white+violin
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polkat
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Joined: 16 Aug 2012
Posts: 32

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Stewmac kit is pretty good, but remember that any kit is only as good as you can make it. You'd learn more by building from scratch, but kits will give you experience in certain skills like clamping, gluing with hide glue, fine finishing and setup, and particularly in varnishing (read what you can about tools and about varnishing-you don't just slap varnish on raw wood).

I'd skip the fiddle in the white. That won't teach you anything about luthiery (except again about setup and varnishing). The other kit just looks cheap.
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Altar
Junior Member


Joined: 04 Nov 2012
Posts: 3
Location: Austin, Tx

PostPosted: Wed Nov 07, 2012 10:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks. I would love more than anything to build it from scratch. This is my first time making an instrument and I don't have the tools or skills to bend the sides, carve the scroll, etc.

Still, if I had books and templates, I could try. Probably just be throwing away money though.

If I were to go scratch I could buy the neck from stewmac and some high quality fittings, and go from there...

Great, now I'm talking myself into it.
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FiddleDoug
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Joined: 08 Sep 2007
Posts: 227
Location: Hilton, NY

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:18 am    Post subject: Violin kit Reply with quote

You'll have to remember that the kit is only part of the expense. You'll also need to buy a peg shaper and reamer (figure $100 or so), and perhaps a few other tools to do the work.
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