Guitarra renacentista

2011-08-28T23:43:00.000+02:00

This weekend we had our annual medieval festival dedicated to the van Limburg Brothers.
After performing with our group 'de Speellieden van Gelre' I 've taken part in a small exhibition demonstrating the bigger part of my products of the last five years.
The fiddle is of course the most authentic of the bunch.

2011-08-11T18:19:00.001+02:00

No additions to this blog the last days, but some progress is made!

part one of the rose cut from pear

and part 2 cut from parchment.

The pattern printed on paper and glued on top of the parchment with removable contact-glue.

With light from below on a glass surface. With minimal pressure on the (sharp) knife you don't cut the glass resulting in a blunt knife-tip....

part one and two glued together

Linings in the body to support he joint with the top

Fitting the two bars

The result after shaping the bar-ends

And to complete the top the bridge (from rosewood) ....

Back of Dias 2 nearly finished

2011-07-30T16:08:00.001+02:00

No messeges on this blog for nearly 2 weeks.
T hat does not imply that no work has been done!
Since the 17th. I've nearly fitted them all.

The exterior 2 ribs have been bent a bit different from the others.
On the outside they are more a less flat.
In the lower left corner of the picture you can see the end of the last rib to be fitted.
Hope to fit that one tonight.

Bending ribs for Dias 2

2011-07-17T21:18:00.001+02:00

After a week soaking in an alcolhol/amonium mixture I've taken some strips out

The plan was to alternate lighter and darker ribs, but that's kind of hard to distinguish now (I had numbered the ribs from 1 to 7 but the numbers have disapeared....)

The liquid has become very dark. Al lot of coulour must have been washed out of the wood.

I think the dark colour of the nutwoot has now quite evenly spread through all of them.
(Was this colour not the main ingredient of van Dyke's Crystal?)

Immersing the wooden strips for a short time in boiling water makes them very soft and bendable.

I've tied them to the molds that I had already prepared for the previous instrument

Bent three of them now. No crack's like in the ash I used on the previous instrument.
Nut is a lot easier to handle.

Dias 2

2011-07-10T14:16:00.000+02:00

Some time ago I started on the second Dias vihuela. (Original size).
Today I'm bending and fitting the sides to the neck and end-block.

It's working!!!!!

2011-05-17T22:17:00.001+02:00

After a couple of hours work (fitting the pegs, nut, strings and tying the frets) the time has come to start playing.
The construction is holding so far. The first sounds are promising.

Small parts

2011-05-15T13:22:00.001+02:00

After applying the 3rd layer of varnish it's time to prepare and collect the smaller parts.

My first set of strings (Nylgut, string lengt 645 mm, E-tuning)

0.42 (or 0.44)
0.54
0.70
0.85
1.12
1.45 (wound or 'solid' nylgut

Instead of turning the tuning pegs I've decided to order prefabricated rosewood violin pegs from Dick.

It's the 1/8 violin model. The thinnest available just the right length.

Definitely not the most appropriate design for a vihuela, but an easy way to get the instrument ready.

I made the pegs a bit thinner and the edges sharper. (Don't like the soft, sanded form very much)

(left the 'enhanced' version)

First layer of varnish

2011-05-14T12:51:00.002+02:00

After scarping and sanding I applied one layer of 'vernice bianca' (egg white with gum arabic).

To add some colour to the top I've applied a second layer with a tiny bit of van Dyke's crystal added. (only on the top).

<== With the first layer of varnish the result looks like this ==>

fitting the fretboard

2011-05-12T07:34:00.000+02:00

The fretboard is made of rosewood.

Not ornamented als in the original.

After preparing he pieces

And the result:

Working outdoor...

2011-05-11T08:24:00.003+02:00

Yesterday evening working in the outdoor workshop...

Glueing the top to the body

the bridge: guitar or vihuela?

2011-05-09T21:30:00.002+02:00

I still regard this instrument - and its ancestor the Belchior Dias instrument - as a vihuela.

When I was working on the bridge however I made up a way to devide the sting-holes in a manner that would accomodate both stringing with 6 courses as a vihuela and with 5 courses as an early guitar.

The second hole (i.e. the first of the d'-course) can equally be used as e' for the guitar.

Transforming the instrument to guitar thus only require a set of strings. Might be worth while to try.

I don't have a baroque guitar (yet).....

Rose ready ... now the bridge

2011-05-08T21:24:00.003+02:00

Good progress today

Finished the cutting of the parchment layer and glued the two layers together

Sawed/cut the sound hole in the top and fitted the rose

And started on the bridge after fitting the bars on the inside of the top.

It begins to look like a vihuela!

Cutting the parchment rose

2011-05-06T00:03:00.002+02:00

On this picture you can see the parchment with the paper design on top.

Putting it over a ground glass plate with light underneath makes it easier to see the cuts.

I've done 2/3 now so hope to finish the rose tomorrow evening

the rose in progress

2011-05-04T23:26:00.002+02:00

With carbon paper I transfered the design of the upper part of the rose to the pearwood.

Drilled holes, sawed the figures with a fretsaw. On this picture you can also see the separate designs of the upper and lower parts of the rose.

After shaping the edges with a small chisel and a knife the result looks like:

Next: cutting the lower part from the piece parchment that is lying under the pearwood rose.
The trick I used on the earlyer roses was to glue the paper design on the parchment with reovable glue and cut through the lines of the design.

thoughts about the rose

2011-05-01T11:47:00.010+02:00

Time has come to think about the size and shape of the rose.
One of the designs that I like is that of the Chambure vihuela.
(Photo from www.vihuelademano.com, gif-image from the website of Oliver Wadsworth)

Unlike the original on the left picture mine will definetely not be of 3 layers of parchment reinforced woood but 'simply' one layer of pearwood (black in the drawing) with one layer of parchment (red in the drawing)

The original treble viol by Giovanni da Brescia

2011-04-26T20:46:00.003+02:00

A picture taken by Floris Jan of the original treble viol of Giovanni da Brescia in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

My project of the construction of a copy of this instrument is filed under label treble viol

Lining

2011-04-26T20:42:00.000+02:00

This is how the inside looks after adding a lining to all the seams.

Very sturdy construction now.

final ribs of the back fitted!

2011-04-25T11:44:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening I fitted the last rib of the back so today the body could be removed from the mold.

The instrument kept its form perfectly!

The weight of the instrument in the current stage: 475 gr.

Some pictures of the result:

The form is not as regular as it should be.

It was no easy task to make the edges of the ribs meet each other at the right heigth.

I put a piece of threaded wire in the body from bottom block to neck to stabilise the form of the body.

On the picture below you can see that the 2nd join from the left is to deep.

The yellow arrows mark the spots were the edges of the ribs are not connected. You can see the april sun through them. (After applying linnen linings over all the seams this wil be OK I presume.)

A detail from the connection between the ribs and the neck.

At the left side the fitting is not 100% perfect but sufficient. On the right side it is better than I expected to be possible.

... and then there were three

2011-04-13T23:34:00.001+02:00

two down, five to go

2011-04-13T08:33:00.001+02:00

The result for the first two ribs is not to bad:

From close by the seam is not perfect, but the overall impression is all right.

Small steps ahead

2011-04-12T23:46:00.002+02:00

It seems ages ago that I wrote the previous post.

After the bending experiments I ended up with enough ribs to start building.

This first instrument will be a sample to put my skills to test and to test the building process before building the 'real' one.
With the serious possibility of ending up with two functional instruments I make this first one somewhat larger to be tuned in E. (string length will become aprox. 63 cm)

Not all the ribs are flawless but good enough to try the tricky part of glueing them together.....

After drying the ribs have got an even smaller radius and streigthened a little bit.

I 've bent the sides and prepared the neck from a piece of Sycamore.

While glueing the parts together I discovered how easyly the ash cracks alongside the grain!

Forming the heel of the neck to be able to fit the center rib was quite a job. (It would be great to have a fitting plane for every job....)

To ease the job somewhat I decided to use simple PVA glue to fit the ribs. I hope the resulting seams are strong enough.

Used lots of clamps to squeeze the ribs together

Double bending experiments

2011-03-06T11:38:00.001+01:00

I formed some pieces of sycamore in the (outer) form of the ribs.

The nails in the sides will help to tie the soaked wood to the form.

I submerged the soaked pieces in boiling water for about 20 seconds. (Simultaneously heating the wood and removing the alcohol and amonium).

After that the wood is very soft indeed and can be bend very easily

The real problem is the risk of cracking at the ends:

It has proven to be very important to apply the wrapping evenly and quickly.
The nails help to roughly tie the wood to the form and afterwards increasing the pressure/tension.
At the right time you also have to make sure that the wood is placed evenly alligned over the form. The resulting bent rib has to be joined to its neigbour later on. That will become even harder if the wood has slipped asside a bit.

My succes-rate is currently 2 x success and 3x cracked ribs. Some more to go..

Gearing up

2011-02-27T11:04:00.003+01:00

I'm finally getting on track with my new project.
Sawn the pieces of MDF for the inner mold and the back-plane on whicht everything will be put together.

Also getting ready for bending the ribs of the back.
I aquired some pieces of several kinds of wood allready thinned to 2 mm. Most of it is ash.
Planed them to approc. 1 to 1.5 mm to start with.
After soaking them in a ammonium/alcohol (In Holland household/denaturated alcohol is coloured blue so I bought some bottles in Germany where it is sold 'white') solution I'll try to tie them to the 'contra' molds that I am constructing of maple-leftovers. The far two on the picture are already shaped in form.

It took some time to find a container large enough for the 45 cm pieces. The briefcase comes in handy.

I put the pieces in a plastic bag and poured in 0.5 L of alcohol and 0.5 L of ammonia-solution (and tried not to breathe in the amonium/alcohol.) and closed the bag and the lid of the briefcase.

Hints on bending the ribs

2011-02-20T12:39:00.001+01:00

Searching the internet I came across some interesting discussions on the bending of the back ribs.
Others have done quite some experimenting:
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=9001 (topic on bending marinated wood)
http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=8363 (topic on heat bending the ribs on a heated tube)
And some pictures of the construction of the back by Daniel Larson:
http://gamutmusic.squarespace.com/chambure-vihuela/chambure-vihuela-copy/

What now?

2011-02-16T23:38:00.000+01:00

After long considerations and doubts I now am quite certain of my next project.

I hope to build a vihuela based on the Belchior Dias Guitar/Vihuela.

The original instrument is part of the collection of the Royal College of Music in London.

Last week I received a copy of the drawings and notes on the instrument by Stephen Barber.

Also very interesting to read is the comment of Alexander Batov who suggests that this instrument might originally have been a vihuela.

I quite like the idea of the instrument being a vihuela (in A?).

The great challenge will be the 'fluted' back built from 7 strips of wood bent in 2 directions.

When bent transversally with a radius of approximately 18 mm they are quite as stiff as a 18 mm thick peace of wood whith the weigt of a piece of 1.6 mm. Getting them to bent longitudinally without splitting won't be easy! Let alone joining them with a neat joint.

I've not yet decided on the wood to be used for the body. First I have to do some experiments in bendig the strips of the back.

Cecus non judicat de coloribus

2010-10-04T20:07:00.039+02:00

Graindelavoix's CD on which my bass-viol was uses has been released!

Cecus - Colours, Blindness and Memorial (Glossa GCDP32105)

It's very rewarding to hear Graindelavoix exelent interpretation and performance of pieces by Alexander Agricola, Pierre de la Rue, and others contemporary composers.

2010-05-17T10:14:00.002+02:00

Nearly all parts finished

2010-05-14T12:18:00.001+02:00

The smaller parts have been finished in the last days.
The tuningpins were allready half-finished and have been shaped in their final form.
I've decided to fit the tailpiece with an iron pin like the Linarol's. (On the drawing the hole for the pin is drawn but in the original instrument it has been replaced by a conventional fitting)
The pin is ready.
So the only part that has to be made is the bridge.

I hope to put alle the parts together this weekend.

From the bass I learned that the top will sink slightly under the pressur of the strings. I guess the bridge will have to be replaced by a higer one after some time.

varnishing with a handicap

2010-05-09T21:23:00.000+02:00

Last days I've had some troubles with the varnish. (Don't have much experience with oilvarnishing yet...)
It seems that the layers I put on were so thin that while sanding lightly between layers the varnish weared off.
After 2 slightly thicker layers the surface is neatly closed.

I've applied some colour to the top and head - van Dyke's crystal dilluted in water, applied with a sponge. It gives the instrument a more 'aged' look.

First layer of varnish...

2010-05-03T00:16:00.000+02:00

After removing scratches I applied 'vernice bianca' (egg-white and gum arabic).

In a couple of hours this has hardened and could be sanded (nr 500 sanding paper).

Time for the first layer of varnish (Hammerl 'öllack la' like on the bassviol)

Fitting the fingerboard (with a handicap;)

2010-05-01T18:19:00.002+02:00

To mislead the eye I continued purfing through the inset of the neck. At fist sight one should have the impression of the top continueing until the neck...

.... And then I had a slight mishap with the saw.Ouch!

Luckily nothing vital is hit, the work continues....

So this weekend I can fit the fingerboard....

and thereafter finishing the details can start...

re-fitting the neck

2010-04-26T08:48:00.000+02:00

After all pressing/clamping the neck in the bench wasn't such a good idea after all. The neck was not properly aligned. Removing the neck and all the glue-residu was not to hard. This time I used straps like I did with the bass-viol

And the join looks all right now

setting the neck

2010-04-25T17:17:00.001+02:00

After carefully cutting te joint I've glued the neck today.

Upside down on the workbench for aplying pressure in both directions (neck to bottom and neck to neckblock).

Pegbox

2010-04-20T23:09:00.001+02:00

The original treble-viol has a venetian style scroll. For an early instrument like this I like a more archaic sickle-shaped pegbox more. Instead of a scroll I try to carve a lynx-head.

On the picture on the left some sketches and the raw form. On the right the state on this moment.

Carving figures like this is new to me so I'm not certain what the result will be.

It takes a lot of patience and very sharp tools to succeed...

purfing in the top

2010-04-14T23:12:00.000+02:00

Tonight I've cut the purfing groove using the cutter I made this weekend and a sharp knife and a tiny chisel.

purfing tool

2010-04-14T23:06:00.000+02:00

My homebrew purfing-cutter:

Body and wedges from leftovers of boxwood and the knives of an old sawblade.

2010-04-10T21:59:00.000+02:00

I've done some measurements in Floris' workshop and dit some ajustmends. The tickness near the edge is now 1.9 to 2.7 mm. In the middle thickness varies between 3 and 4. The thckness at the bass 'bar' ridge is 7.0 mm.

And planing the edges the top has been fitted tonight

Carving the top

2010-04-05T23:41:00.001+02:00

Last thursday I joined the two halves of the top.

Yesterday I shaped the outer surface and today the inner surface.

Thickness of the top will vary between aprox. 2.5 and 4 mm.

Like in the original instrument the top won't get a bassbar but a carved in ridge at the bass side.

Purfing in the back

2010-03-21T19:56:00.000+01:00

Here I'm cutting the groove for the purfing (after marking the edges with Floris' purfing-cutter

I'm going to fit a dark-light-dark purfing of stainen maple with pear in between. (0.3 0.6 0.3 mm)

After some experimenting on leftovers I started today for real.

I transformed a cheap gouge to a very small chisel (1 mm)

This is the result before ....

And after glueing the purfing in the groove

Back fitted

2010-03-14T09:20:00.005+01:00

Last days I made the back and glued it on the sides.

2010-03-09T20:34:00.005+01:00

This weekend I've prepared, bent and glued the sides

and tonight I've joined the to halves of the bottom

New project

2010-03-04T23:03:00.003+01:00

I've started preparations for my next instrument:

A treble viol after the instrument labeled 'Juan Maria da Bressa' in the Ashmolean museum. (In the Hill collection)

It won't be an exact copy of the drawing available. The neck will be a bit longer to allow for a string length of 36 cm (with the bridge at 1/4 from the bottom of the sound holes).

The 'original' neck on the drawing would produce a too short stringlength to be comfortable for me. (And would hardly allow for a 7th. fret to be fitted)

The drawing does not suggest the use of a soundpost. The carved top has a thickening at the bass-side. Not a glued in bass-bar.

I might likt to experiment with soundposts so I think I'll prepare te back to be able to support a soundpost anyway.

Material will be a bit like the bass-viol:

- spruce ('fichte') top
- nut sides and back
- maple neck
- nut fingerboard and tailpiece (from the darker part of the plate)
- boxwood pegs

I'll do some experiments with purfing. If attempts are succesful I want to fit a black-white-black purfing in the top and maybe a white/black/white one in the darker back.

Even some decoration of the fingerboard would be nice! (light/dark/light as well)

MoodioTV webcast with my viol

2010-03-02T00:04:00.003+01:00

2 weeks ago Thomas Baete used my bass-viol for recordings with graindelavoix.

A webcast on MoodioTV with some music and an interview with Björn Schmelzer.

Can't wait to hear more....

Second videoclip

2010-02-01T21:03:00.004+01:00

And the second clip Ernic and I recorded last week.

It contains to pieces from the Musical Humours by Tobias Hume (1569-1645)

A Meditation
The Duke of Polland his galliard

Sound only is available as hume.mp3 (3.5 Mb, 192 kbps/48 kHz)

Obviously the sound of this viol is quite different from the more usual later more baroque instruments.

I myself like the more 'transparent' sound over the more 'warm' sound of later instruments.

Feel free to comment!

See and hear...

2010-01-28T23:58:00.008+01:00

Last weekend - with the help of Ernic - I've recorded a soundsample of the Linarol viol.

Sound quality will of course greatly depening on the quality of the computer's speakers.

Sound only is available as ortiz.mp3 (3 Mb, 192kbps/48 khz)

I think this piece - Recercada tercera from Diego Ortiz' Tratado de glosas sobre clausulas y otros generos de puntos en la musica de violones (Roma, 1553) nicely fits in time and character with this instrument.

Passages on the lowest to highest strings provide samples of the full range of the instrument.

Higher bridge

2010-01-23T22:21:00.003+01:00

After a couple of months the top has sunken in a bit (approx. 4 mm at the high side and 2 mm at the low side of the bridge)

As a result the strings (especially the 1st (d') and 6th(D) rattled slightly against the frets.

To correct this I've made a slightly higher bridge (Same wood, same model. Making a copy of the first one took a lot less time than the first)

Damn! A buzz!

2009-11-12T12:16:00.003+01:00

After a lot of playing I noticed a slight buzz. It seems that one of the ends of the upper bar has loosened from the top. If that proves to be true my first major repair is iminent....

Luckily the buzz only seems to appear when tuned low. I've played at A=415 with other violists fore some days. Retuning to A=440 made the buzz disapear.
At A=415 I could stop the buzz by putting a piece of a cork between the fingerboard and the top.

Yes! I'm playing a venetian viol!

2009-10-29T22:28:00.006+01:00

Finished!

Current strings:
d' 0.65 (fretgut)
a 0.85 (fretgut)
e 1.16 (Aquila HR)
c 1.48 (Barocco)
G 1.80
D 2.50 (real gut)

a and d' have to be replaced by real strings and the G is a bit too thin. 1think I'll order 1.86
The rest is playing quit well.

Frets:
1 1.20
2 1.05
3 1.05
4 0.90
5 0.90
6 0.80
7 0.75

Tomorow will be the day!

2009-10-28T23:26:00.006+01:00

All parts except the bridge are ready.

I didn't make the tailpiece hook as Francesco did, but simply put an iron pin in the far end of the tailpiece.

Tuning pegs are cut to 1:25 cone and fitted in the pegbox.

Tomorow I'll collect all the parts and the strings and put everything together.

String gauges I would like to use for a start:

1st: 0.64 mm

2nd: 0.84 mm

3rd: 1.12 mm

4th: 1.40 mm

5th: 1.86 mm

6th: 2.50 mm

(Ranging from 7.5 kg at the low end to 7.9 at the high end, thus tension of upper and lower strings nearly equal)

I don't have all those sizes at hand so I'll have to improvise a bit.

tailpiece, pegs and varnish...

2009-10-21T08:34:00.002+02:00

Monday I made the tailpiece.
Don't exactly know how I'm going to make the pin and hook to mount it to the body.
(Taking an iron rod, flattening the end en filing a thread on it .....)

Yesterday evening the second layer of varnish and turned the first 2 tuning pegs.

the dragon is starting to shine....

2009-10-18T21:52:00.003+02:00

After the ground of several layers tonight I applied the first layer of varnish.
The neck is not going to get any varnish. It would get usage marks anyway an maybe get sticky and dirty. I think I'll put danish oil or wax on the neck instead.
Quite convenient to have some part that stays clean of varnish as a 'grip' while varnishing.

the ground

2009-10-17T17:13:00.004+02:00

Drying after the first layer of the ground has been applied.
(10 g gum arabic dissolved in some water and 1 egg-white)

The wood is beginning to show it's real color.

vernice bianca

2009-10-15T20:49:00.004+02:00

Today I've prepared my own version of vernice bianca.
I left out the honey and rock candy (sugar).

Dissolved approx. 5 gr of arabic gum in some water (aprox. 20 ml? heated 'au-bain-marie')
after cooling downd I added approx. 25 ml of egg-white

I don't like to have these hygroscopic ingredients in the surface of my instrument.

After letting it rest for some time I applied it on some prepared/sanded leftovers.
I already made some samples with a glue-ground and a ground of pure egg-white so after drying I'll compare and choose the method for the real instrument.
left the egg-white and right the gum/egg mixture. The vernice is a little more viscous and less clear than the pure egg-white. Feels a lot less gelly than the egg and is easily applied with a brush.

recipes

2009-10-14T23:34:00.002+02:00

I found the following recipe in the discussion on http://www.fiddlehangout.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5979

For vernice bianca, melt about 20 - 25 grams of gum arabic in a double boiler or bain-marie, add a teaspoon of honey and let it cool down, then blend in an egg white and strain it. Sacconi used it as a ground on his instruments, as do a number of modern makers, purely for the influence on tone..

And another one at http://woodworkerszone.com/igits/showthread.php?t=7299

The following is taken directly from American Lutherie #10 in 1987 when interviewing Jack Batts. It is also in The Big Red Book vol 1 from Guild of American Luthiers.

25g of gum arabic,
1/2 teaspoon of honey,
1/4 teaspoon of rock candy,
about 100cc of water,
albumen from one egg white.

"Crush the rock candy. Warm the water but do not boil. Slowly add the gum arabic, stirring constantly until dissolved. Add honey and rock candy. Strain the mixture through a fine cloth (handkerchief or sheeting) and let cool. While the mixture is cooling, whip an egg white into a meringue and turn the bowl on edge. Allow the mixture to settle out and remove the liquid that separates. This is the albumin. Add the albumin to the cooled mixture and stir well. Use this Vernice Bianca immediately and discard the rest. Sacconi advocated that after potassium silicate had been put on very sparingly, you should cover it completely with the vernice bianca before varnishing."

ground and preparation

2009-10-13T23:15:00.004+02:00

Today a package from Hammerl arrived containing the varnish (öllack la, colorless), siccative and porefiller and liquid for mixing the filler.
So everything is there to start some experiments.
I ordered prorefiller in 'nut' color. That is open to interpretation.
According to instruction by Hammerl the filler should be applied to the raw (on-grounded) wood.
I applied some of the filler to a small piece of nut of partly light and partly darker wood. The porefiller can impossibly adapt to the surrounding colour so it can at bast fit with one of the colors. Tomorow after drying and sanding we'll see if the result is acceptable.

I think the ground will be egg-white based. No sure if I'll use pure egg-white or a 'vernice bianca'

A nice page about varnish and grounds can be found at http://www.leroydouglasviolins.com/varnish.htm

Neck..

2009-10-12T17:05:00.003+02:00

Fingerboard fitted

2009-10-10T22:26:00.004+02:00

Tonight I glued the fingerboard.
Yesterday evening I made a thin wedge and glued it to the neck to get the required angle (and resulting down bearing ratio....)

Now the fingerboard is fitted next job will be the shaping of te neck to its final form. One can see on the photo that the neck is still rectangular. This makes it a lot easier to clamp the fingerboard. There is however still a lot of wood to be removed....
The neck will be a lot thicker than in later models. The drawing of the Linarol shows a nearly parabolic cross-section of the neck.
(3.5 cm near the nut to 6.5 cm at the beginning of the heel)

Tomorrow when the clamps are removed I'll add another picture.

About varnish, wax, oil....

2009-10-07T23:08:00.003+02:00

Time to think about what to use as finish.

Choices for finish: A hardening wax, oil, oil varnish....
Possible grounds: glue, eggwhite, ...

A wax could fill the pores of the walnut achieving a smooth surface. Oil would show the structure/pores of the wood.
After filling the pores with a suitable filler an oil varnish could result in a fine smooth and durable surface.
On my other instruments the danish-/tung- oil was very successful.

I have ordered oil varnish (la-type) and pore-filler from Hammerl. If filling the pores of the body is succesful I'll use varnish on body and top. If not I'' use varnish on the top and wax on the body (Preferably a ax that hardens completely).

It'll be the first time to handle oil varnish, so I'll do some experiments on leftovers first.....

In the meantime I'll finish the fingerboard and the neck an make the tuning pins.

I hope to start varnishing in about a week....

prepairing the fingerboard

2009-10-07T23:01:00.003+02:00

The fingerboard will be made of a lighter piece of the walnut.
According to the expert opinion of my daughter the dark colour of the inner part would distract too much from the dragon....

As far as I can see from the drawing the radius of the curving of the fingerboard is approximately 9 cm at the nut as well as on the other end. More or less cylindrical. The bridge would also get nearly the same radius (9.5 cm?)
A small drawing of a possible bridge (5.5 cm high in te middle) with a radius of 9.5 cm on the surface of the top shows that all strings would be perfectly reachable with the bow.

Thus I'll make the fingerboard 'cylindrical' with a radius of aprox. 9 cm.

2009-09-30T20:24:00.004+02:00

Not too much news today.
Removed the clamps and straps.
Seams are not invisible but the result is all right I think.

Fitting the neck

2009-09-29T22:26:00.005+02:00

After pre-glueing yesterday I glued the neck to the body tonight. It took some ingeniouity to apply pressure to all surfaces but I think I succeded. One strap around the body and the heel and another over the pegbox. To increase the tension of the straps I put other straps across them.

Clamping the heel to the bottom was easy.

Conquering the dragon....

2009-09-27T19:10:00.005+02:00

Not yet finished, but definitely showing its final form
Not sure yet what to do with the eyes of the dragon.

The joint at the other end of the neck.
Not yet glued but to get an idea what is emerging.....

neck / pegbox

2009-09-23T21:29:00.004+02:00

The body of the instrument in the almost finished state:

So now is the time to start on the neck and pegbox.
The outer shape of the dragonhead is already sawn out, so I'l start hollowing out the pegbox.
After that I'll cut the dragons neck and head.....

Sound holes?

2009-09-20T16:24:00.007+02:00

This morning everything seemed ok This is the result:
..... after starting to work on the bars the tip of the upper one came lose. Have to clamp it for some time before I can continue.
Time for another important detail: the sound-holes.
I won't copy all the details of the instrument by Linarol exactly. I don't find the typical venetian scroll and the f-holes very exciting. Instead of the scroll I'm going to make a dragon-head. More or less flame-shaped soundholes go better with a dragon than f-holes.
I want the holes to have aproximately the same size/surface as te original.
After some tries...
This is what came out:
Left the original shape of the Linarol viol (left side. The right side sound hole is a lot wider)

Back to work again

2009-09-19T18:19:00.004+02:00

Wow! Long time ago that I had anything to post about developing instruments.
Lots of other things on my hands. ((Holidays in Spain, Medieval festival in Nijmegen ....)

Last week I shaped the upper edge of the sides to aproximately their final height. That was more difficult than I hoped.

To be able to guess where the top would join the side I used a fake top of thin plywood.
I'm pretty sure that I'm now within 1 mm from the final height.
The top has been shaved to aprox. 3 mm. (somewhat thinner near the sides and a bit thicker where the bridge will come)
Next difficult step is the bending of the top.
I made a construction on whitch I will be able to clamp the top in its final form. After bending I glued the transverse bars and hope that it will keep its form.
In the original there are little blocks to reinforce the join of top to sides. I'll use short glue-strips instead.Last action for today was making and fitting the little bass-bar:Hope to glue the top on the sides tomorrow.....

Guitar leaving home....

2009-08-01T23:18:00.003+02:00

The 3rd guitar will be leaving home next monday.

In the early morning on our way on holyday to Spain I will hand it over into the able hands of Floris de Rycker in Antwerpen. (He used my second guitar on the CD La Magdalena by Graindelavoix http://www.graindelavoix.be/)

I hope he will be as lucky with this one as I am with my first.

First sounds of my 3rd guitar

2009-07-21T22:22:00.002+02:00

After fittingthe tuning pegs and preparing the nut the moment was there to fit the strings and frets.

So far everything is working perfectly.

The sound resembles the former 2 instruments a lot (as one would expect and hope).

The nylgut strings stretch a lot after fitting so there still is a lot of tuning involved and not so much playing but that will change within a few days.

2009-07-08T16:03:00.007+02:00

The rosette is ready and in it's place.
The bridge is glued. (If it stays on is yet to be seen in a couple of weeks.)
Today I glued the soundboard on the body after finishing the edge of the sides and make the surface of the neck perfectly in line with the top of the body. (near the rosette the body is a tiny bit slimmer to give more space between the strings and the soundboard)

If all goes well I hope to finish the instrument within the next two weeks.

work on the soundboard of the guitar

2009-06-14T15:31:00.003+02:00

Last weeks were rather busy with al kinds of other things than woodworking.

Nevertheless some progress is made.

The body of the guitar is nearly finished (in- and outside). The neck and pegbox are more or less in their required shape.

I've planed the soundboard to 2 mm thickness.

If all goes as planned I'll continue on the soundboard. Cutting the soundhole, glueing the bars, making the rosette... and cutting and glueing the bridge!...

tricky.....

2009-05-27T20:47:00.005+02:00

Bending and glueing the upper part of the side is tricky.
As you can see in the picture on the left it is not simply bent in one direction but a bit torded to get a nice joint at the neck block. (The neckblock is fitted right-angled at the bottom. The front is approx. 3 cm shorter than the back). I had to bend the clamps a bit to reach over the edge of the side.

Fitting the other side will present another dificulty:
To acquire exactly the same shape. (Using a mould is nog such a bad idea after all but this way of building is more adventurous!)

2009-05-24T09:14:00.001+02:00

2009-05-23T23:13:00.005+02:00

Today I spent some more time on the viol.

Shaping the corner-blocks was not so easy.

Yesterday one of the blocks came of. Without any support the construction is quite delicate at this point.

I made the surfaces clean and fitting and reglued the side yesterdayevening.

Today after supporting the side with some extra clamps everithing went well:

guitar has lost some weight

2009-05-21T16:30:00.004+02:00

Now that the neck is more or less in its final shape I've removed a lot of wood of the inside of the body by drilling.

The last 5 mm has to be done by hand (removing the center-holes of the drill)

Still a lot to be done but the final shapes are emerging...

bending and glueing the sides of the viol

2009-05-21T12:18:00.007+02:00

Today is a bank-holyday in Holland, so time to get some work done.

So far I have bent some parts of the sides of the viol and glued 1 piece.Building 'in the air' without a mould requires some ingeniouity to get al the clamps on the right spots.

Update: The other side glued on this morning (22-5)

smoothing the sides, shaping the neck

2009-05-18T23:47:00.003+02:00

No new pictures yet, but some work is in progress.

I decided to postpone the hollowing of the body until the rest is roughly done.

The marks of the band-saw are removed from the sides.

Now busy shaping the neck and the peg-box.

back fixed

2009-05-10T21:37:00.002+02:00

Joining the parts of the back seems to work rather well. Not invisible but rather neat I think.

On the inside I covered the seem by a small bar. (Can be trimmed afther the glue has hardened)

(A couple of pics will be added but blogger does'nt seem to receive the images)

started on the 3rd guitar

2009-05-09T21:42:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I took half a day off at work to start working on my 3rd. guitar.

It will be very much like the earlier ones after a - very succesfull! - design by Sebastian Nunez.

Body and neck out of solid european maple (or do the english call this sycamore?)
Spruce top
Parchment rose
....

The basic form is sawn out with a bandsaw an looks like this:

back pain

2009-05-09T21:23:00.007+02:00

auch!

The saw was a tiny bit sharper than I thought. While cutting/sawing the slit in the ba

ck for the

bend I went too far.

Rather than making a new back I'll try to glue the 2 parts together.

I think I succeeded in making a nearly perfect fit.

After clamping it overnight we'll see tomorrow if it holds.

If so, I'll reinforce the seam on the inside with a couple of tiny blocks and parchment.

My first bow

2009-04-21T08:41:00.008+02:00

Yesterday evening I finished my first bow. (to be used with my fiddle)
It is made after an example by Gerhard Landwehr.
Materials used:

shaft: larch (larix) diameter from 12 mm to 6 mm. (conical)
frog: pear
hair: about half the amount of a regular violin bow.

weight aprox. 32 grams.

Details of the tip and the frog:

done!

2009-04-15T22:31:00.004+02:00

The vihuela de arco is finished!

Fitted a slightly curved bridge, strings, frets (10) and tuned the instrument to
C (1.60mm) F (1.40mm) A (1.00mm) d (0.80mm) g (0.60mm)

Yet, the most challenging part is still to come.
What to do with it?
Most obvious at the moment seems to play chords (over 3, 4 or 5 strings) acompanying melody instruments or voice. If the 'viol' tuning is the most appropriate I haven't yet found out. It might be useful to try other tunings (open chords...)
So, I don't expect to publish sound samples soon....

Making the smaller parts....

2009-04-12T21:14:00.003+02:00

I decided to try to turn the pegs from a dark piece of the nut-wood. Not perfect for turning but I don't want to use to much differend wood-types/colors in the instrument.

The only parts remaining to be made are the bridge and the nut.
Time to check if I've got the required strings.
My first setup will be a tuning like the upper 5 courses of the G-vihuela (or tenor-viol) C F A d g
Thus, my spare strings for my tenor viol/fiddle should do.

Applying the finish

2009-03-22T11:50:00.002+01:00

It's some time ago that I wrote my last entry.
Since then I fitted the fingerboard (from a rarker piece of te same wood as the back of the instrument).
Finishing up - removing little dents and scratches - takes some time as well.
To harden the surface of the wood I've applied 1 layer of egg-white. Of course after this the woodfibres have swollen and the surface had to be smoothed (grinding paper # 600).
Today I applied the first layer of 'Danish Oil'. This is a product of Rustin's based on tung oil.

Shaping the neck

2009-03-08T21:05:00.004+01:00

After shaping the neck it is time for some serious thinking about height and radius of the bridge.
An inclination of the fingerboard of approx. 2 cm from nut to body would allow for a bridge height of 2 cm.
With a radius of 17 cm I think it will be possible to play 2, 3 or 4 strings simultaneously. A flatter bridge would be needed to play all 5 strings.
Not sure yet what to do.

Fitting the top

2009-02-26T10:18:00.002+01:00

After a fabulous concert by Grain de la voix last night I rose early today and fitted the top of the vihuela after 'fine-tuning' the upper edges of the sides.

Afterwards (!) I glued a label at the back under one of the sound-holes. (I forgot to label one of the guitars I made as well. No way to correct that afterwards with the rose...)

Glueing the sides - part 3

2009-02-23T17:16:00.005+01:00

Yesterdayevening I've fitted the neck.
Today I bent the top parts of the sides and glued them.
The sides continue into the neck for approx. 1 cm. (see detail below)

Glueing the sides - part 2

2009-02-22T14:55:00.003+01:00

That went rather well I think. The pieces I glued yesterday are holding well and kept their form nicely.
A bit tricky to get everything together fitting well at the bottom block.

Glueing the sides - part 1

2009-02-22T00:21:00.007+01:00

It wasn't a kind of tricky to find the right order to glue the sides.
This is what I came up with:
- First glue the small parts of the waist to the bottom (after adapting them to fit perfectly to the bottom)
- In the same session glue the blocks in the corners (already pre-glued at the ends!)
- form the bottom block and the blocks in the corners to a make the bottom parts of the sides fit
- glue one of the bottom-sides together with the block to the bottom
- fit the other bottom part (seamless jointed on the bottom block)
- bend the upper parts and make them fit in the neck and the side-blocks
- fit the neck to the bottom
- glue the upper parts of the sides to the bottom, neck and side-blocks

Let's see how things worked out.

An advantage of fitting the corner blocks befor e the glue is hardening is that the parts can still be repositioned .Tomorrow we'll see if everithing went well....

2009-02-16T08:25:00.002+01:00

2009-02-15T14:21:00.005+01:00

Last week I more a less formed the neck of the vihuela and prepaired some other parts.
The material of the sides is ready for bending.
I bought myself an Ibex bending iron and have done some experimenting with spare pieces wood.

2009-02-07T10:45:00.005+01:00

For both instruments the two parts of the bottom have been joint.
In this picture - nearly - all the parts of the viol.
In the foreground the 'false bottom' on which the belly is to be built up.
The neck is sawn from a piece op maple (a leftover from earlier instruments).

You can see the first impression of the form of the vihuela in this picture.
This instrument won't get a top block, but the sides will be joint in the neck.

From tree to instrument kit

2009-01-25T23:24:00.005+01:00

Last days I have transfered the slice of a nut-tree to a renaissance-viol kit....

Friday the 23rd. I sawed slices at approximately5mm for the bottom and 3 mm for the sides.
Today I planed the sides to the required thickness (app. 2 mm)In the background the 'false bottom' on which the instrument will be built.
On top of the nut-wood a sample of maple to experiment with the form of the dragonhead that I want to make instead of a scroll.

first steps

2009-01-20T22:21:00.004+01:00

The project is not yet at 'full speed' as you can see.

Last friday I visited Rene Slotboom in Zeist to discuss the vihuela de arco.

(Rene and Sebastián Núñez presented their de arco and de mano twins at the Utrecht festival)

It is not my plan to make an exact copy of the vihuela de arco that Rene presented. It seems more interesting to add some variation to the available instruments. I tend to choose a somewhat larger body but keeping the neck long enough to allow for 10 frets.

First drawings will be presented shortly....

In the meantime I have made a copy of the Linarol viol scaled to the desired size. (enlargement 1,33 times to reach a string length of approx. 72 cm)

Surprisingly the resulting instrument is smaller than my 'conventional' 69 cm bass-viol. The early Linarol will have the bridged placed a lot lower (between the lower ends of the f-holes)

I want to try to build the viol without an internal mould on a 'false bottom' (see details on the website of Frederico Lowenberger.

Unlike the tipical venetian scroll I want to put a dragon on the pegbox. I asked Wanda - my daughter - to make a couple of sketches to give an impression of the result.

(Drawings will follow...)

collecting the ingredients..

2009-01-02T19:21:00.007+01:00

Today I have been to 'Kasteel ter Horst' to buy the wood that I'm going to use for the bass-viol.
I've chosen a piece of walnut.
It's large enough to build a whole family of instruments. (The wood is sold by piece at a very reasonable price.)
The original (tenor) instrument was made of maple. Walnut seems a nice choice for a larger instrument.

While I was away for the wood te postman delivered the set of drawings that

Ernic ordered for me at the 'Kunsthistoriches Museum' in Vienna.
Not only the drawing of the tenor by Francesco Linarol (SAM 66). Ernic ordered the drawings of a tenor- and bass-viol by Antonio Ciciliano as well.
I will consult those for the construction details and they are valuable as a pair to look at the proportions of the bass vs. tenor instrument.
The first job at hand will be to enlarge the tenor-drawing to the required size for the bass-viol.

New projects...

2008-11-26T19:29:00.007+01:00

I'm switching to english to enable non-dutch-reading people to keep up.

(I hope my enhlish is better than the google automated translation. Less funny though...;)

After the Utrecht festival of early music new ideas have been slumbering for some time.

It seems that the recent snow reminded me that it's winter now and high time to develop new plans.

Well then...

I decided to make plans for 2 new instruments.

An early renaissance bass-viol (venetian, mid 15th century)
A vihuela de arco inspired bij the project of Rene Slotboom and Sebastán Núñez presented at the festival

1. The bass viol

After reading articles about the early venetian viols (references .....) and after hearing the sound of them I'm sure these instruments are more suitable for playing the music I care most for.

Samples can be found on the websites of Richard Jones and Henner Harders.

Used references:

(Links are working within our university campus and other places with licenses for the offered materials)

Venetian Viols of the Sixteenth-Century - Martin Edmunds (The Galpin Society Journal, Vol 33. (Mar., 1980), pp. 74-91.)
The Early History of the Viol - Ian Woodfield (Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 103. (1976-1977), pp. 141-157)
Reconstructing 16th-century Venetian viols - Ian Harwood talks to Martin Edmunds (Early Music, Vol 6., nr. 4, pp. 519-525)
Another look at the viol - Robert Hadaway ( Early Music.1978; 6: 530-539)
Richard Jones, Renaissance viol maker - Interview for VdGS Newsletter
.... and more ....

When I discovered the soundsample on the latter by Fretwork I imediately ordered the CD PETRUCCI. Harmonice Musices Odhecaton. (HMG507291).

I will almost certainly base my instrument on the drawing of the tenorviol by Francesco Linarol (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, SAM 66 (C71) http://www.khm.at/staticE/page3091.html)

2. The vihuela de arco

One of the earlier posts of this weblog shows a picture of the vihuela de arco built bij Rene Slotboom and presented at the festival. I don't expect to build an exact replica of this instrument. I'm collecting contemporary pictures of these instruments.

En zo klinken de vedels

2008-10-05T11:47:00.005+02:00

Imperayritz de la ciutat joyosa uit het Llibre Vermell de Montserrat gespeeld op twee vedels.

Deze opname is gemaakt tijdens het optreden van de Speellieden van Gelre op het Gebroeders van Limburgfestival 2008

Festival oude muziek - Vihuela dag

2008-09-04T11:40:00.005+02:00

De vihuela - het themainstrument van dit festival - en zijn bespeler....

Op de vihueladag - 31 augustus - heel veel moois gezien en gehoord.
Vliegensvlug na het spelen op het gebroeders van Limburgfestival met de trein naar Utrecht om net de laatste vragen aan Sebastián Núñez en Rene Slotboom over hun vihuela de arco mee te kunnen maken en de instrumenten die ze gemaakt hebben te kunnen bekijken.
Zou dit dan het volgende project worden?

De alt van Floris is ook klaar

2008-08-28T21:51:00.011+02:00

De alt van Floris is vanmiddag besnaard en vanavond voor het eerst bespeeld.
Leuk om met de nieuwe instrumenten samen te spelen. Qua klank passen ze goed bij elkaar.

Alvast een paar plaatjes:

(Helaas met flits genomen. Binnenkort nog een paar foto's bij daglicht maken...)

De romp is van pruimehout evenals toets, snaarhouder en stemsleutels. Hals is esdoorn.

Een paar details.

Klaar!

2008-08-21T23:05:00.016+02:00

Vanmiddag was het zover. Met vedel en losse onderdelen naar Floris gegaan om hem op te tuigen. De stemsleutels moesten nog conisch geslepen worden en de gaten geboord en geruimd.

De kam had ik thuis al ruw gemaakt, maar moest nog netjes aangepast worden zodat de hoogte van de snaren naar wens is. Ook het topkammetje nog op maat gemaakt en de groefjes voor de snaren op de juiste plaats en diepte.

Altijd spannend te zien en horen wat het instrument doet als de snaren onder spanning komen te staan.

In eerste instantie stem ik hem op de stemming van de eerste vijf snaren van een diskant-gamba (d" a" e' c' g met snaren die ik nog kan vinden in de voorraad. Dat werd: 0.54 mm, 0.74, 0.90, 1.20 en 1.50). Ik denk dat ik later een stemming in kwinten en kwarten ga proberen (d" g' d' g d). Dat past beter bij de middeleeuwse muziek en geeft hem bovendien het bereik van een 6-snarige diskantgamba.

Om er meteen wat op te kunnen spelen wil ik er voorlopig ook fretten op hebben. Later gaan die er misschien weer af. Voor zover aan de meeste afbeeldingen te zien is werd een vedel in de middeleeuwen waarschijnlijk niet van fretten voorzien.

Om ze er snel op te kunnen zetten had ik een idee:

Tie-wraps als fretten heb je er in een paar minuten op. Ze zijn in allerlei maten te krijgen.

Probleem is dat deze verschillende maten in dikte niet zoveel uiteenlopen. De kleinste die ik had - te kort om om de hals te kunnen) was 1.0 mm de 2 grotere maten 1.15 en 1.25 mm. Dat bleek te dik te zijn om nuttig als fret toe te passen. Daarom uiteindelijk toch maar gewone fretten geknoopt (nu van oude nylon gitaarsnaren. Darm is natuurlijk beter)

Ook de vedel van floris vordert. Wordt een bijzonder instrument. Op allerlei plaatjes zie je instrumenten met 4 klankgaten, maar je ziet ze zelden met 4 klankgaten gebouwd. We zijn heel benieuwd naar de klank van de beide instrumenten samen.

Op het Gebroeders van Limburgfestival gaat Floris op mijn diskant spelen (op de schouder en dus ook zonder fretten) en ik op de alt van Floris.

het vordert gestaag

2008-08-20T09:49:00.003+02:00

Als het mee zit zit de laatste olielaag erop. (2 lagen op 1 dag ging net)

Indien nodig morgenochtend nog een keer. Hangt een beetje af van of het resultaat al goed genoeg is of niet. De uithardingstijd wordt wel elke keer iets langer. Vanavond nog een laag lukt denk ik niet.
Nu nog de kam. Ik wil hem aan de voet plm 7 mm dik maken en boven plm 3 mm. Als ik de snaren bij de toets 5 mm ruimte wil geven wordt de kam iets meer dan 3,5 cm hoog. Ik maak hem maar 4 cm denk ik. Heb nu 2 modellen bedacht. Allebei met een gotisch boogje er in. Een die een vrij grote 'poort' heeft en een met een kleintje zodat er ook nog ruimte is om evt. gaten erin te maken.

Donderdag meer.....