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Audio Sample
The Soloist
From the start, we intended it to be the most powerful violin that could be made. The back is a beautiful piece which is light and deeply curled. We don’t think the back is the primary concern when it comes to power, but this piece certainly does not hinder. It is also flexible in the way that well flamed maple is, which adds to the complexity of the sound. This is important for the instrument because if we were to amplify too clear a sound to the maximum possible, it would sound too shrill. Not acceptable! It is all too common for very loud fiddles to rake at the ears.
The top is special–in fact it’s quite special. There is a type of spruce which is called hazelfichte in German. This is the name I learned first but I have also heard it called Bear claw or hazel spruce. In any case it is a type of figure that appears in the top. The hazelfichte spruce we have worked with tends to be quite strong and do generate a healthy sound. But the best pieces are the ones with very few figures. You can see them when inspecting the slab-cut faces of the wood but they are so few in number you might not see the figure at all in the final piece. This piece has the inherent strength of the more figured wood, but it is also light with straight and clear winter grain.
I am very partial to a deeply cut the channel, that is, the area around the perimeter of the outline, top and back. It is strikingly beautiful to see the curves and the fluting toward the edge. A deeply cut channel allows for playful ways of finishing the edge and it flows very nicely into the corner allowing for wonderful contrast where the purfling meets in a bee sting. Varnish pools in this area, naturally, in an aesthetic manner. But it is not what we did here. Whenever one is trying to eke out the absolute most performance from something, it is often the case that he is left with just the marginal gains. And this is what I pursued with regard to the channel. It was kept flatter to the edge so I could extend the convex vibrating space by just a millimeter or two around the perimeter while strengthening the wood near the gluing surfaces. And so this decision pushes the violin in a certain way. All the aesthetic aspects of the violin such as the f hole fluting and the scroll cutting must not clash with the shallow-cut channels and must themselves be more gently shaped. The result is still strikingly beautiful. And I do know my tastes change with time so I enjoy doing things, and making shapes I know to be beautiful but which may not be my current preference.
The last bits of the wooden construction I will touch on are the F-holes. Ours are thinner than convention. It’s an element of our making that does draw the attention of many, particularly experienced, eyes. I firmly believe that the conventional f-hole width is a modern one and it was not followed by the early and golden period violin makers which so many of us luthiers take our inspiration from. Moreover I feel on this model there is no reason to widen the f holes further than what I do. You lose both quantity and quality of sound. And for my other model you can change the timbre with more open sound holes but they aren’t necessarily better or worse. With this type of fiddle I find it is always a negative. There has been some research done by acousticians at MIT about width of f holes and what they found is that air moves faster through a tighter exit. There are some analogous examples in fluid dynamics whereby constraining the exit points actually increases efficacy. This is essentially how rockets work.
I have had the occasion to play this instrument in an orchestra sitting in the last row of the firsts. Pauline has commented on how easy it is to hear it even when it is buried so deeply in the section. I usually believe every instrument is appropriate for an orchestra but, perhaps, this instrument ought to be saved for the one who stands in front of it!
The Soloist
From the start, we intended it to be the most powerful violin that could be made. The back is a beautiful piece which is light and deeply curled. We don’t think the back is the primary concern when it comes to power, but this piece certainly does not hinder. It is also flexible in the way that well flamed maple is, which adds to the complexity of the sound. This is important for the instrument because if we were to amplify too clear a sound to the maximum possible, it would sound too shrill. Not acceptable! It is all too common for very loud fiddles to rake at the ears.
The top is special–in fact it’s quite special. There is a type of spruce which is called hazelfichte in German. This is the name I learned first but I have also heard it called Bear claw or hazel spruce. In any case it is a type of figure that appears in the top. The hazelfichte spruce we have worked with tends to be quite strong and do generate a healthy sound. But the best pieces are the ones with very few figures. You can see them when inspecting the slab-cut faces of the wood but they are so few in number you might not see the figure at all in the final piece. This piece has the inherent strength of the more figured wood, but it is also light with straight and clear winter grain.
I am very partial to a deeply cut the channel, that is, the area around the perimeter of the outline, top and back. It is strikingly beautiful to see the curves and the fluting toward the edge. A deeply cut channel allows for playful ways of finishing the edge and it flows very nicely into the corner allowing for wonderful contrast where the purfling meets in a bee sting. Varnish pools in this area, naturally, in an aesthetic manner. But it is not what we did here. Whenever one is trying to eke out the absolute most performance from something, it is often the case that he is left with just the marginal gains. And this is what I pursued with regard to the channel. It was kept flatter to the edge so I could extend the convex vibrating space by just a millimeter or two around the perimeter while strengthening the wood near the gluing surfaces. And so this decision pushes the violin in a certain way. All the aesthetic aspects of the violin such as the f hole fluting and the scroll cutting must not clash with the shallow-cut channels and must themselves be more gently shaped. The result is still strikingly beautiful. And I do know my tastes change with time so I enjoy doing things, and making shapes I know to be beautiful but which may not be my current preference.
The last bits of the wooden construction I will touch on are the F-holes. Ours are thinner than convention. It’s an element of our making that does draw the attention of many, particularly experienced, eyes. I firmly believe that the conventional f-hole width is a modern one and it was not followed by the early and golden period violin makers which so many of us luthiers take our inspiration from. Moreover I feel on this model there is no reason to widen the f holes further than what I do. You lose both quantity and quality of sound. And for my other model you can change the timbre with more open sound holes but they aren’t necessarily better or worse. With this type of fiddle I find it is always a negative. There has been some research done by acousticians at MIT about width of f holes and what they found is that air moves faster through a tighter exit. There are some analogous examples in fluid dynamics whereby constraining the exit points actually increases efficacy. This is essentially how rockets work.
I have had the occasion to play this instrument in an orchestra sitting in the last row of the firsts. Pauline has commented on how easy it is to hear it even when it is buried so deeply in the section. I usually believe every instrument is appropriate for an orchestra but, perhaps, this instrument ought to be saved for the one who stands in front of it!