All Technical articles – Page 10
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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking 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 ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Reinforcing a cello bridge
A method of inserting carbon-fibre rods to ensure the bridge retains its shape
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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking 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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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking 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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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade 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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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade 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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Premium ❘ FeatureMy Space: Marcus Kimke
A peak into the workshop of the maker based in Angers, France
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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking 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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FocusWhat 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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FocusWhat 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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FocusTips for changing your violin strings
Korinthia Klein presents a simple player’s guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on luthiers’ territory
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Premium ❘ FeatureBasic Maintenance: Avoiding instrument carnage
Luthiers often see the same basic problems when repairing instruments – and most of them could be solved by some simple care and attention from the players themselves. Korinthia Klein presents a simple guide to violin maintenance, without encroaching on the experts’ territory
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Making a partial plaster cast
A useful restoration method that can be used when a full cast is unnecessary
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Premium ❘ FeatureMaking Matters: Making fingerboards green
With speculation rife that ebony might soon be added to the CITES index of forbidden woods, Alan Beavitt shares his method for creating a fingerboard using veneers rather than full blocks of the wood
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Premium ❘ FeatureFrom the Archive: January 1911
The weights of a Stradivari violin’s plates are revealed for the first time, although modern readers will likely be left none the wiser
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Premium ❘ FeatureTrade Secrets: Preparing an instrument for varnishing
A guide to the steps needed for the final coat of varnish to show up to its best effect
