I recently received a commission to build another viola from someone who very much liked the 1st one I made and wanted one like it. This is a small instrument with a body length of only 390mm (15.4″) that is based on an 1830 Guadagnini and the record of the first build can be found here.
I visited Steffen Nowak again in Bristol to select the wood. His selection was a little limited due to Covid but still had some lovely figured sets to choose from. What I ended up with choosing was some well seasoned Bosnian maple from 2011 for the back sides and neck and some Alpine spruce from 1992 for the front.
Here are some pictures of the finished instrument which weighs in at 522g (without chinrest):
I am keeping the design the same but the build process for #2 is recorded below:
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Wood from Steffen Nowak. 30 year old spruce and 12 year old maple.
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Neck blank rough cut out to give it a chance to settle before final shaping.
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Spruce blank sawn through
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rib blanks
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Ribs thicknessed to 1.1mm
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Maple back blank resawn before bookmatch jointing
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Rubbed joint on back
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Ready to glue in the willow blocks
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Spruce front rubbed joint
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Willow blocks glued into the form
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Blocks marked for carving
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Blocks carved ready to take ribs
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Inside of the back flattened
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Front flattened
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Front rough thicknessed to 18mm
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Back rough thicknessed to 16.5mm
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Ribs cut to length and grain patterns oriented
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Glueing in the C bout ribs
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Gluing in the lower bout ribs
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Gluing on the remaining ribs
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Marking out the back profile around the ribs using a washer to give the 2.8mm overhang.
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Back marked up ready to cut out on the bandsaw
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Front profile marked ready for cutting out
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Gluing in C-bout linings on the back
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Linings fitted to back and levelled off flush with top of ribs.
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Back cutout on bandsaw
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Front cutout on bandsaw
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Rough carving the back with chisels
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Carving the back using thumb plane
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It’s a long process and the maple is really hard!
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Back profile finally finished after days of chiselling, planing and scraping
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Started to chisel out belly outside profile – so much easier than the maple on the back
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Nearly finished with thumb planes on the outside profile – scrapers next
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Temporarily tacking the back and belly to ribs in order to set the edge overhang before marking and cutting purfling grooves.
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Standoffs taped to file for finishing the edge overhang
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Edges all trued up ready for marking purfling slots
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Veneer cut ready for gluing up the purfling sandwich
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Gluing the purfling sandwich
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Started purfling slots
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Purfling slots cut on the top
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Purfling sliced up on bandsaw
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Purfling slots cut on the back
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Purfling dry fitted to back
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Purfling levelled off on back before cutting the purflng channel
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Finished cutting and fairing in the channels on the back
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Finished cutting and fairing in the channels on the top
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Carving out the back with gouges
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Carving out the inside of the back with thumb planes
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Mode 5 309hz – early stage in plate tuning process
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Mode 2 – early stage in plate tuning process
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Roughing out inside of top with gouges and thumb planes
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Mode 2 @ 130.8Hz on belly
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Mode 5 @ 260.9Hz on belly
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Final contours on back
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Mode 2 @ 126.8Hz on back
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Mode 5 @ 263.2Hz on back
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Marking out f holes
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f holes cut
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Gluing in bass bar after chalk fitting
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Initial mode 2 @ 133Hz after fitting bass bar
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Initial mode 5 @ 282 after fitting bass bar
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Mode 2 @ 127.1Hz on back
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Mode 5 @ 262Hz on back
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Mode 5 @ 255.9Hz on belly after bass bar tuned
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Mode 2 @ 127.8Hz on belly after bass bar tuned
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Blocks carved back ready for glueing on the back
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Gluing on the back
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Adding the linings on the front after removing the form
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Measuring mode 5 frequency (dropped to 227Hz) on the attached back
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Blocks carved back and cleaned up ready to glue on the top
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Gluing on the top
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Box closed up
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Neck blank trued up and marked up ready for carving.
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Just needto add flutings now
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The finished scroll
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Fingerboard shaped
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neck joint cut
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Finished neck and fingerboard ready to glue onto body.
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Gluing on the neck
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After a couple of coats of Vernice bianca
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Finished instrument after 2 coats of Vernice Bianca, 1 coat of shellac and 10 coats of oil varnish.
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