Technical – Page 10
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Premium ❘ Feature
Making Matters: How to be a bow pro
Bow maker Gary Leahy presents a simple guide for players to care for their bows, as well as offering advice on how to improve a bow when it feels past its sell-by date
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Feature
Accessories 2021: Packaging and Shipping a Violin
A method for sending instruments long distances, giving the smallest possibility of damage to the package’s contents
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Focus
How I repaired a cello splattered with hand sanitiser
When a cello suffered a calamitous hand sanitiser accident, it looked irreparable at first sight. John Simmers explains how he restored it to the way it was pre-Covid
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Premium ❘ News
Analysis May 2021: Seeing the wood for the trees
A new campaign is under way to save Brazil’s endangered pernambuco tree, the wood most favoured by bow makers. The goal is clear, but the devil is in the detail. By Anthony Fort
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Trade Secrets: Gluing the linings with counterforms and springs
An efficient method for a complex process, which allows freedom of movement
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Making Matters: A cautionary tale for our times
When a cello suffered a calamitous hand sanitiser accident, it looked irreparable at first sight. John Simmers explains how he restored it to the way it was pre-Covid
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Premium ❘ Feature
Trade Secrets: Reinforcing a cello bridge
A method of inserting carbon-fibre rods to ensure the bridge retains its shape
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Making Matters: The height of perfection
Double bass repairers know the value of raising the saddle to help the instrument’s sound open up – but how much do you raise it by? Felix Habel reveals the formula that can give an exact measurement every time
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Blogs
‘A pizzicato rendition of Elgar’s Cello Concerto wouldn’t have quite the same ring’ – Matthew Barley
Ahead of the UN International Day of Forests on Sunday, the cellist makes a rallying cry to save the last 6% of the pernambuco forest for musical bows
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Making Matters: Secrets of the sticks
New software, soon to be released as a free download, promises to help bow makers measure historical examples and adapt their own methods accordingly. Nelly Poidevin explains how it works
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Trade Secrets: Carving the neck on a viola da gamba
One of the last jobs to be tackled in the process of making the Baroque instrument
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Trade Secrets: Making a pigment grinder
A device that removes the effort from the tiresome business of grinding varnish pigments by hand
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My Space: Marcus Kimke
A peak into the workshop of the maker based in Angers, France
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Making Matters: Graduation studies
Is it possible to customise the sound and response of a newly built violin, in playing condition, for a specific musician? Ulf Kloo explains how it can be done, with the help of a small wooden pin in the back plate
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Focus
What can we learn from CT-scanning the ‘Messiah’?
In 2016 the ‘Messiah’ Stradivari was the subject of an extensive CT scanning project. Francesco Piasentini and Gregg Alf examine the resulting data, discovering repair work in the neck, and attempt to determine how it had originally been set
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Focus
What to do if your violin bow won’t tighten or loosen
Korinthia Klein presents a simple player’s guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on luthiers’ territory
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Focus
Tips for changing your violin strings
Korinthia Klein presents a simple player’s guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on luthiers’ territory