All Technical articles
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Cutting the f-holes
The traditional method adopted by the luthiers of the old Mirecourt school
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A c.1690 violin by Giovanni Maria del Bussetto
Aidan Mullerkin examines the elusive maker’s instrument
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Premium ❘ FeatureForms follow function: early Stradivari violin patterns
Unlike his contemporaries, Antonio Stradivari was trying out different violin patterns from the start of his career as a luthier. Philip Ihle examines a number of his early violins to discover how his art evolved
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Home-made tools for violin making
A range of innovative implements made by hand from carbon steels and high-speed steels
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A 1705 violin by Antonio Maria Lavazza
Claudio Amighetti examines an instrument by the little-known maker
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: An 1895 double bass by Vincenzo Postiglione
Luigi Sisto examines the late 19th-century instrument
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Custom crack-levelling clamps made with 3D printing
A new way to glue cracks without the aid of a mould
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Fitting a marquetry inlay
A guide to adding a unique, personalised touch to an instrument front or back
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Premium ❘ FeatureSmall violas: does size matter?
Luthiers Bas Maas and Francesco Piasentini report on a series of experiments in Villefavard, France, seeking to discover conclusively whether small violas can produce sound as ‘big’ as larger models
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A 1705 violin by Giovanni Battista Rogeri
Julian Hersh examines an instrument made only a few years before the Brescian maker’s death
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Premium ❘ FeatureBridge acoustics: the invisible bridge
Is it possible to simulate the effects of bridge adjustment in a computer? Physicist Jim Woodhouse presents the results of a series of experiments to demonstrate the possibilities
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Creating neck graft sockets – part two
The second of two articles shows the completion of this intricate and sometimes tricky process
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A 1659 violin by Nicolò Amati
Colin Adamson examines a mid-17th-century violin by the revered Cremonese maker
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A 1942 violin by Arturo Fracassi
Leonardo Cella examines the mid-century instrument by the Italian maker
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Creating neck graft sockets – part one
The first of two articles on this topic gives a full and thorough account of casting a scroll and pegbox
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Sharpening gouges
A practical method for maintaining the sharpness of this essential tool for all makers
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Tips for tricky bow rehairs
Practical techniques to overcome common challenges in bow rehairing
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: An 1859 violin by Gulbrand Enger
Jens Stenz takes a look at the Danish maker’s 19th-century instrument
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Replacement of pearl eyes in a bow
Sarah Bystrom shares a method for a common task in bow restoration that respects the intention and style of the maker
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Premium ❘ FeatureIn Focus: A 1753 viola by Carlo Antonio Testore
Sean Bishop takes a look at a relatively rare example of an 18th-century Italian viola
