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Ahh,

It's been a while since I had one of these posts.

I broke the little pin on the viola scroll. I glued it back on, and started working on cutting the neck closer to where it is supposed to be. Now I have a roughed out violin scroll. Somehow I cut it 10mm short. I thought it looked short! I should have drawn the actual outline on it, and left stock. I have a 3/8" blade on the bandsaw. It works for guitar stuff, but 1/4" is needed for scrolls and violin/viola outlines.

The new piece is hard maple. How much will that add to the time? We'll see.

One of these things is not like the other.

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Why be normal?

I still have a neck I made for a size 5 guitar that I cut 1/2" too short. Got to remake that one too but fortunately I just made it out of mahogany and didn't have to carve the scroll That's too bad that you have to redo all that work.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I have certain oopses that weren't really fixable that stay in my shop to remind me...

Dave

Just yesterday I did this, one of those things you think will never happen to you. I was routing the purfling channel on my latest, and put the guide bearing on a binding channel that I had already cut, instead of the side, having forgotten why it's better to do the purfling channel first. Hoping for the best on the patch, which is about to be glued with HHG, but not expecting a miracle.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat,
It may be silly but could you extend the error and turn it into a design addition. Balance it on both sides of center with addition of color or additional purfling.

Best of luck!

Philip

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aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Hi Ken,
Would the short neck work for a Baroque style violin? You could pick up some string length by butting and nailing the neck on, rather than morticing it in and moving the nut further up on the peghead as the old violins did.

Hi Pat,
Although it is less usual to add this style decoration on the back, if the patch doesn't work out something similar to what this uke has on the lower bout might look fine. https://vintagemartin.com/DitsonUkes.html

Clay, the neck will work fine for a violin It is 135+ long, and that is a normal length for a violin neck, 130 + 5mm for the overhand of the belly, and to get it into the block. I keep the end at 90 degrees so that the mortise is deep at the bottom.

The viola has a ~142 mm neck, + 5 is ~147. 356 scale versus 325.

I do have a violin experiment, and the neck is going for that. Even if I didn't have something for it, I could make something.

The mahogany next was very stringy, and apparently easy to crack. I wasn't too worried about strength; it will only have about 50 of string tension. But the hard maple neck certainly would be more bend resistant. It carves really nicely. Nice crisp cuts. Not nearly as easily, but the clean cuts make up for it.

In 1.5 hours I got through the mortise step. Instead of digging out with small gouges, I pounded it with 6 and 9 mmm Japanese chisels and a hammer! The inside is good enough for finish; depending on what you want. The mahogany one looks terrible.

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Why be normal?

Well, I have 4.5 hours in each of these. I'm much further along with the maple one. Both sides of the maple one are like this side, the far side of the mahogany one is finished. But what is carved on the maple one, is almost in a finished state; it just needs final finessing. Same with the pegbox.
Lesson:
Don't carve things that need a crisp edge with wood that won't give it.

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Why be normal?

It's a classical, and they're a pretty conservative bunch, so I'll go for the patch.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Call it a flamenco. Those guys don't mind a little bling.

Violinists are VERY conservative. That's why I started making guitars! I don't like that much conformity. At least on classicals, you can still use birdseye, and do your thing on the rosette.

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Why be normal?

Seems violinists wouldn't even tolerate a too-nice finish, where classical guitarists would. It's changing, though. Eric Sahlin puts abalone inlays on his classical guitars and has a long wait list.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com