Violin Forum/Message Board

[bulerias1981]

Hi all. working on my first instrument here. I have a question about the ribs.

I've got my ribs thicknessed nicely and uniform. They are all glued on the my internal mold.. however. I started them at 30mm width, and with planing and so on, they are almost 25mm wide!!! Is this bad? What are some repercussions? Perhaps the instrument will be weak with producing bassier tones. Should I continue with this size?
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"I only write the notes as written, it is god that creates the music." J.S. Bach

[MANFIO]

Hi! 25 mm for the ribs is too, too shallow.

I would make another rib cage. If you are intending to make your ribs 30 mm deep, leave them with 33 mm so that you will have space for planning, adjusting and, eventually, get your ribs with 30 mm. 5 milimeters is a big number in violin making.
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www.manfio.com

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[bulerias1981]

Thats unfortunate. They were nicely flamed ribs, too. Took me a while to do them, being my first ribs. But now I'll do it alot better and faster. One mistake I made was cutting the ribs to a little more than 30mm. Then the next mistake I made was glueing them onto the form while the form layed on its side. I certainly wont do that again. Live and learn I guess. Thanks for the input.
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"I only write the notes as written, it is god that creates the music." J.S. Bach

[bulerias1981]

So I measured my ribs when I got home, and the most shallow part is 28mm. Not 25. Sadly, there needs to be a little more planning.
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"I only write the notes as written, it is god that creates the music." J.S. Bach

[Jack H.]

[JWH]

On narrow ribs consider some of Carleen Hutchin's work with violas. She made experimental instruments to test the effect of moving main resonances up or down the scale. By doing this she was able to emphasize the subharmonics of these main resonances which were normally off the scale of normal sized instruments.
What did this do to a viola that she built with ribs 1/2" high? Her words, "the thin shallow instrument had a full, rich tone and a particularly
strong, low C string, where the normal viola is notably weak. This was because the air tone had shifted upscale so that its sub harmonic came into the useful range near 150 cycles on the low C string. Many musicians remarked with astonishment at the full rich tone of the thin one with the small air volume. Ribs half inch high are structurally not very practical, but application of the principles involved has made possible the construction of very good small violas."

If you scale down for a violin, you may find that ribs are not needed at all. Your 25mm ribs seem more than ample based on her findings with adjustments to thinning down the instrument. Sorry to disrupt the customary thinking on 30/32 mm ribs.

[JWH]

Though the point that short ribs somehow makes an instrument weak sounding is relative to individual notes but not necessarily the character of sound. What I didn't mention about Carleen's viola was that although the notably weak C string was strengthened, the B to B flat notes were weaker than a normal size instrument which means that music, for example, written specifically for viola (i.e. Mozart) may not be appropriate. On the other hand, her work proves that lowering the ribs does not take away the richness or full character of the instrument but only shifts emphasis onto an otherwise weak lower fourth string.

In the same way, the violin has it's weaknesses concentrated on the G and especially in higher positions. I don't know if anyone has radically lowered violin ribs to bring the sub harmonics of the G into being, but again, it would seem by Carleen's work that some very beautifully full-bodied instruments could be made.

[Moodivarius]

This is how I did my ribs. Everyone has different ideas so it may help you in the construction of the new set.

http://www.moodivarius.com/making_ribs.htm

Scott
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Scott, a.k.a. Moodivarius
www.moodivarius.com

[antonio]

I would like to know what you think...
Can the upper and lower bout ribs be made from one piece of wood? Yes they can, I think, but for the upper bout it doesn't have to be like that because you have to cut it to install the neck, but what about the lower bout, wouldn't it be easier to make it out of one piece?

[ctviolin]

[kubasa]