done!

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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.

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.

first steps

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..

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...

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.

1. An early renaissance bass-viol (venetian, mid 15th century)
2. 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.