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For tops you need some kind of spruce, there is lots on ebay. You will need a calipers to check thickness etc...$$$ching ching ching, so the money sucking begins.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Frankly, you could practice on pine for the top & Home Depot maple for back/sides & neck....might even end up with a reasonable sounding violin. At least it would give you experience at carving plates & scrolls (without the added headache of working figure). Once you've got the basics though, I'd move on to proper tonewood, even A or AA. Considering the time you'll invest, you'll be glad you did.

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Dave
Milton, ON

If you want to be traditional, practice with Spruce. You should check out Simeon Chambers on ebay. His Spruce is phenomenal and if you tell him you need something to get started with he will take the time to look through his stock for you. I'm in no way affiliated with him. I'm just a happy customer.

Others may correct me, but let me suggest this. Instead of pine, if you can find a lumber yard or specialty shop with spruce, get that, and look for reasonalby quarter sawn. Some woodworker hobby shops, such as Woodcrafters, have spruce. Some other lumber yards have it, if you ask. If you are near the ocean or other areas that build or repair boats, the yards that work on boats may have it. Spruce frorm these sources will not be expensive, like the luthier sources that you see. I would think for practice, better than slab cut pine from a lumber yard would be to get quartered western red cedar, which many lumber yards and even Menards have. Cedar is not a traditional violin wood, though. A small amount of lumber yard spruce or cedar will not be very expensive, and neither will some maple. You are going to practice on some very inexpensive wood that most consider not acceptable for a good instrument, and I don't think that you should at all be concerned about the method of drying the wood for such a project. If it is reasonably dry, that is OK for what you are doing. Look it over to be sure there are no splits. As another mentioned, you might actually end up with a decent instrument even though you are using poor wood.

Are you trying to find all the wood for a violin(top, back, sides, blocks, neck and so forth) for $30 shipped? That would be tuff, actually that would be tuff to at a lumber yard for lumber prices, assuming you do all your own resawing and such.

Maybe you could find a place that recycles wood from buildings. As long as you are willing to join up some pieces I bet you could find some old 2x4 studs(dry) and try to select the straightest grain bits you can find. That would be a good way to get some practice stock.

For a real project though I would look for a reasonably priced student grade set of violin wood(local would be nice, but shipping is not going to be very much for such a small amount of wood). There is so much effort that you will put into a project that it only makes sense to build with reasonably nice wood. Doesn't have to be the best flamed stock or 200 year old Spruce, but good, clean, solid student grade wood has the potential to make a wonderful instrument.

Rich

Where in Europe do you live?

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Aoibeann

Agapetos, I understand. Maybe it would be worth it to wait a month or so, save some money and then shop around. Where are you located? I recall a European based tonewood seller that has some great stuff. For practice grade wood it would be cheap I think. Yes, you can use pine. It's very unconventional but good for practicing. Bob Benedetto built a guitar out of ugly pine (knots, etc..). It actually looks great and supposedly sounds fantastic.

Hey, I told you Simeon Chambers would have something. I was just on his page and saw a 50 year old violin set for $26! He's reasonable and a nice guy too. Here is the link:
http://www.rockymountaintonewood.com/ca ... tegoryId=3

I have spent a lot of time in Serbia, working with the lumber mills, mostly in the Podgrab area close to Sarajevo. I home based at the Hotel Majestic in Beograd. I'm not sure how beech will perform for violins, but some words of caution. Most beech is cooked in large vats of hot water while in log form to kill bacteria to stop discoloration. This is why most beech is pink to red in color. There are few kilns for drying in the country, so most domestic beech is air dried. Moisture content is going to be your concern. Winter harvested beech that is not cooked is a beautiful honey amber color, ( this would be my choice). With the abundance of pear trees on the farms in Serbia, I would look for some. Same as beech. Cooked is pink, natural is light golden brown. For everyones education, lumber is cooked to cancel the effects of the sugars creating fungal mold and mildew as the lumber air dries. Even kiln dried lumber is air dried for many months prior to the kilns. Good luck finding your wood. Also, on the way to Podgrab is a beautiful forest of Alpine spruce with arrow-straight, 30 meter instrument grade trees and there is a mill right there. Worth the trip, even from Beograd.

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Dean