Lutherie
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FocusBlank canvas: unvarnished 5-string instruments
These unvarnished five-string violins and violas are built by a Chinese maker using flamed maple and seasoned spruce. They feature extra-wide necks, extended pegboxes and adjusted bass-bars, and most have one-piece backs. Both designs are based on Stradivari models and include ebony fingerboards, nuts and saddles. ...
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News
Saving Stradivari's forests: effort to harvest precious tonewoods felled in storms
A factory in the Fiemme valley has launched a crowdfunding effort to enable it to quadruple its processing capacity before the wood deteriorates
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Focus
In focus: 1850 violin by Giuseppe Rocca
John Dilworth examines a violin from the height of Rocca’s powers, after he left the Pressenda workshop to strike out on his own. From the January 2011 issue of The Strad
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Focus
Master stroke: Schilbach varnishing brush
The tapered and split synthetic fibres of this brush are designed to absorb a large volume of oil or spirit varnish, to enable its controlled and uniform application. It has an untreated hornbeam wood handle and solvent-resistant plastic ferrule, eliminating the risk of staining to the ...
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Focus
All kitted out: violin accessory set
Manufactured in India to Italian designs, these accessory sets comprise four heart-shaped pegs, a decorative end-button, a Guarneri-style chinrest with Hill-style clamps and a Hill-style tailpiece. They are available in ebony and rosewood with a black trim to the tailpiece and black pin collars and pegs, and in boxwood trimmed ...
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Focus
Firmly fastened: the Schilbach Kevlar tailgut
Using military-grade materials to improve set-up stability Kevlar is familiar to most people as a material used inside bulletproof vests. According to German manufacturer Schilbach, however, this strength also makes Kevlar a useful component in the tailgut that fastens an instrument’s tailpiece to the button at ...
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Focus
A cut above: Lee Valley stainless steel pocket plane
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, Canadian woodworking firm Lee Valley has produced a limited-edition version of its pocket plane in corrosion-resistant stainless steel and with a nickel-plated lever cap. The plane measures approximately 115mm by 30mm and weighs 285g; its blade measures 22mm across and is ...
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Focus
In focus: 1764 violin by Giovanni Battista Gabrielli
In this article from the February 2009 issue, Gabriele Rossi Rognoni examines an instrument by probably the most prominent Florentine maker, about whom very little information survives. Photographs by Marco Rabatti, Serge Domingie
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Video
The 'Four Circles' approach to violin making
In the January 2019 issue of The Strad, luthier Kevin Kelly describes his geometrical method for violin design. This video is intended to provide a visual accompaniment to the article. ’In the past, there must have been a system of design that makers could easily understand and follow, with ...
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Video
Photographing a Stradivarius
In this video from 2013, still life photographer Søren Jonesen photographs the 1714 ‘Yoldi-Moldenhauer’ Stradivari. The photoshoot was organised by Danish high-end digital photography company Phase One working with Andy Lim of Darling Publications, which printed a monograph featuring the photos and history of the instrument. The concept was ...
