Official Luthiers Forum!

I've built violins, and an arch top, and if the neck and body moves, in any direction, the bridge can usually take care of it. The belly on the arch top seems to have risen, but I'm not sure if it's body or neck. The upper frets have very little clearance and the 12th is 2.5 - 3mm. so it is ok for now. The carved bridge is lower than the original adjustable that was running out our room.

If a violin does that, I think it's the neck. Thinking about the neck on a guitar, it seems like the Spanish slipper foot, a long one, would help reduce neck movement. I can see some movement on the arch top if I really move it at the head, but I think that's part of what makes it sound good.

But on the baroque I have a set bridge. The way it is done there is some leeway in the height, and even intonation, even the frets can be moved, so it isn't a real big deal; but if I have 3mm of clearance at the body join, 10th fret on this one, and things move so it is 4mm, I can put a 1mm fret gut on, and have 3mm. That would be fine. The guts go from .65 to 1.0 so there isn't THAT much leeway. If it only went up to 3.3 it could work. If it went up to 4.25 it could work. I can tie them lower or higher at the bridge too, but that is cut in half, so it probably isn't much.

I'm sure that you guys deal with this all the time. I have no idea what to expect the neck/body to do. The strings are low tension, but with 10 of them, it is still about 70-75#.

How much do yours usually move when they are strung up? Does the clearance always go up?

_________________
Why be normal?

We deal with it all the time but on 'normal' guitars. If I built a baroque I'd have no idea what to expect. So I guess you are learning. Is the baroque top dead flat? That might cause it to pull up more due to string tension.

I love it when I ask questions, and get questions. Believe me, I get that just about every day while writing my blog.

I knew that I had the ribs a little curved height wise on the belly, so I used a couple of straightedges to see how much. Then I made the lower harmonic bar straight, and the top one has a slight curve. The bottom half that vibrates is curved both ways, about 4 mm n/s and 1.5 mm e/w. So it IS arched some, at least when it is glued on the ribs. The back is pretty much dead flat, with no bars.

I drew out a picture, and I'm going to put it in my book, so I remember. what I had, and what it did.

The neck is straight in line with the top of the blocks, but now that I have that cool Voboam plan, I see that he sets the neck back the thickness of the belly by placing a strip cut from the belly on the solera at the top of the neck. Setting the neck back would probably work better, but I'm not going to do that now. But I might cut 2.5 mm or so off the lower block to drop the bridge that amount instead.

I have more of an idea of what I have now, by answering your question. It is fun figuring things out.

_________________
Why be normal?