Violin Forum/Message Board

[Bill Chambers]

Warmer Deep Darker more Mellow Sound.

Hello to all the luthiers out there. I am wishing to discover your experiences and knowledge in making a violin warmer, deeper, darker and more mellow.

What are your suggestions, and what techniques do you employ when making a violin warmer, deeper, darker and more mellow.

Such as, and lets get into some detail here. Neck angle, bridge height, shape of corpus, plate thickness, string length form nut to bridge, string length from bridge to tail piece fret, gut length on tail piece, … etc… And all of the other things not necessarily listed. And, Bass Bar location/placement, bridge thickness/thinness, etc… ,, Weight of this, lightness of that. ,, Thin this, thicken that, lengthen this, shorten that, curve this etc... And of course the sound post.

Thanks

[Jack H.]

is that all?

[Mat Roop]

Bill, try applying 6 primer coats of Lone Star.. if that does not work, then the usual application of 6 pints of Lonestar will surely help!
Seriously, you have asked for information that could fill 3 tomes... making, finishing and set-up.... So you will not likely get much of a response with a broad question.... try to be more specific.
Are you planning to make a violin from scratch or rebuilding an existing one?
Cheers, Mat

[DonLeister]

Yes, and then, is what he is calling darker the same as what I call darker. Or the same as what you would call darker, and so on. It might not be possible, even with a lot of time and effort involved explaining things.

[Michael Darnton]

You might have more luck messing with strings. To my ear, Helicore are too dark, so you might like them. Usually, though, I think of dark as the result of some sort of error. Do you really want dark, or are you just looking for an absence of "nasty"?
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[John Cadd]

Bill If you listen to the Glory of Cremona videos on youtube by Ruggiero Ricci use the box above the picture to run through all the violins you will hear the more soprano Strads and then the del Gesus with more of an edge to the sound. Then the Amati seems mellower (to me ) and most mellow ( to me )is the Gaspar da Salo. See if that fits in with your requirements. The (to me ) bit saves endless arguments. It`s my get out of jail free card .Then you can maybe work on his patterns to see what you can produce . French makers did things like that .

[John Cadd]

I read that a Lamy bow will , usually , give a darker sound than a Voirin bow. But whatever differences they have is something to discover. Try a different bow anyway as that will help the research along .