15 3/4 inch (40.0cm) viola based on Paolo Maggini |
|||
return to work in progress February 2010 This viola is a commission from a player with a keen interest in, and knowledge of violinmaking. So it's been a lot of fun for me to spend time with him discussing the details of the commission - size, wood, varnish colour, fittings..... as well as some of the more intricate details of the craft. We've picked a model I make regularly, a 15 3/4 inch viola that I've developed from measurements I was lucky enough to make from an original Paolo Maggini violin. This was a fantastic instrument, but slightly on the large side, so it worked well to scale it up to make a viola. It's a really useful model - easy and comfortable to play, but also powerful and projecting, with a good C string and warm A.
March 2010
April 2010 The viola is now varnished, a warm orangey red which was in Paul's mind to banish the dull dark days of the long winter. I've set it up carefully using high quality fittings - and the most lovely rosewood chinrest from Alexander Accessories. First impressions are that it's powerful and even with a real viola edge to the sound.
|
Paul
has chosen a lovely, quietly figured slab-sawn one-piece back from maple
that I bought in France two or three years ago. My first job with
this is to roughly shape the arching from the solid block of wood, using
a large gouge.
The
front for the viola is made differently. Rather than carving from
a solid piece of wood, I steam-bend thin sheets to give the curve of
the arching. This helps to make a viola with a more powerful,
responsive and projecting sound than one with a carved front. I
steam the two halves of the front held together round the curved edges,
then drive wedges in to get the required shape. The steamy wood
goes out into the garden to cool down! 
The
ribs are made from maple planed to just over 1mm thick. I bend
them using heat and a little moisture, and glue them round a mould.
Once
all the ribs are bent, I fit the linings - small strips of spruce that
strengthen the joint between the back and front and the ribs.
These are glued into place using small brass cramps.
I've
now finished carving the head. Brescian heads vary a lot in shape
and style, although they all have a few points in common - a very open
throat and undercutting of the turns. Usually the viola heads are
all rather on the large size, which for the modern player adds
unnecessary weight. So for this viola, I've used a scroll design
that I've adapted from a larger Maggini viola, reduced in size so that
it's barely larger than a violin head.
I've
now finalised the outlines of the back and front, making the shape a
regular margin from the ribs. The archings are well on the way to
being finished, ready for fitting the two rows of purfling.
I
like to fit authentic Brescian-style purfling to my own Brescian
instruments. This is made from strips of ebony for the blacks and
boxwood for the white, inserted into the channel as three separate
strips. The ebony blacks have a lovely crisp sheen, and as the
wood is stiff, it produces clean crisp curves. This instrument is
double-purfled, and the picture shows the purfling glued in place, and
fine shavings of the waste purfling that was proud of the surface.
Purfling
done, I've now finalised the arching shapes of the back and front.
The archings are quite high and full, which I think helps to give a
sound quality of warmth and character. 
The
next job is to reduce the back and front to their final thickness.
The bulk of the wood of the back is taken out using a large gouge, and
then I work close to what I'm aiming at using a small brass thumb
plane. The tool at the back of the picture is a caliper calibrated
in tenths of a millimetre, which I use to measure the thickness of the
wood.
Thicknessing
finished, I've cut the f-holes in the front.
This
is one of my favourite stages in making an instrument. I've taken
the ribs off the mould and finished the internal work; reducing blocks
and linings to their final shape. Then I've glued the back to the
ribs, and suddenly it really starts to feel like a real instrument.
I've
now finished all the work on the front; the bass-bar is fitted and
shaped, and all is ready to glue the front to the ribs.
The
body finished, I've fitted and shape the neck, so the viola is finished
"in the white", ready to varnish. A good moment!
The varnishing will now be a complex procedure. First I will stain
the wood a rich golden colour, which enhances the reflective properties
of the wood and gives a strong visual support to the coloured
varnish. Next, the wood will be sealed to stop the coloured
varnish sinking into the pores of the wood. Then, finally, the
colour.
