A Strad Inspired Violin - Log Date 9/1/2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Grand Prize

The Athenaeum Pops Orchestra

The APO Dr. Samuel W. Siurua Memorial Violin No. 001

Today I picked up the new violin which Benjamin Parrott expertly varnished and set up for the coming Athenaeum Pops Orchestra Young String Players Competition.

The white violin with which Ben started was a Chinese instrument made from fine aged tone wood.

Before: The Chinese white violin above arrived in March, 2011

After: The finished Dr. Samuel W. Siurua Violin No. 001 on August 31, 2011

The APO Prize SWS violin in its Bobelock case with Coda Diamond GX bow, Kuhn Shoulder Rest and Bernardel Rosin

John Rihani shows off all the above accessories provided with generous consideration through
Encore Orchestral Strings, of Paige's Music

What is the Athenaeum Pops Orchestra's(APO) Young String Players Competition?

It is a live performance competition for low income high school violin and viola players from the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) and the Indianapolis metro area.  The prize awarded to one winner in each category will be a fine violin or viola.  Honorariums in amounts from $50 to $200 may also be awarded 2^nd and 3^rd place winners.  As well the two winners will perform their solos with the orchestra at an Arts Garden Concert and possible other events yet to be determined.

What is the Purpose of the APO Competition?

It is to further the goal of the Athenaeum Pops Orchestra to mentor younger musicians; to increase the intergenerational diversity of the orchestra string sections with young musicians; and to remember

the late Dr. Samuel W. Siurua who dedicated his life to teaching hundreds of young instrumentalists during his 30 years in the Indianapolis Public Schools.

What is the Athenaeum Pops Orchestra?

The original Athenaeum Orchestra was organized as a zither ensemble in the 1870’s.  About 1875 Emil Wulschner organized the group as an orchestra first known as The Musicverein. All the members were the finest German musicians in the city and spoke only German.  From 1897 to 1918 this group was considered the finest orchestra in Indianapolis.  Due to anti-German sentiment, the Musicverein was disbanded in 1918. In 1930 when the Indianapolis Symphony was organized, several members of the old Musicverein became its charter members.  Constantine G. Borshoff organized the Athenaeum Turners Orchestra in 1940. Former conductors of the Turners Orchestra include David W. Hughes, Jackson Wiley, Edward Staubach and Dr. Charles Conrad. The orchestra was reorganized in 1995 as the Athenaeum Pops Orchestra, Inc. under the direction of Benjamin Winkler. It was later conducted by Richard Marcus, Peter Heins, Richard Moon and José Valencia. The Orchestra is currently under the direction of Dr. Lee H. Jones.  The purpose of this organization is to contribute to the cultural aspects of the City of Indianapolis and nearby communities and groups by presenting formal and informal musical programs and concerts.  The orchestra’s mission is to provide a quality playing outlet for our members that is musically rewarding, to entertain our audiences with both familiar and unusual music of high quality, and to mentor younger musicians in their goals of being better musicians.

How do I find out more about the upcoming competition?

Please contact me, Jerry D. Allen, at jallen120@gmail.com or by phone at (317) 359-3159. 

A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 10/12/2010

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
Regraduating the Top Plate

The most significant alteration Ben will make to the violin parts before reassembling them with a new bass bar, neck and fingerboard is the regraduation of the plates.  While this violin does not appear to be modeled after a specific Baroque maker, Ben hopes it will replicate the sounds of the early Amati instruments.  The plates in this instrument do not have quite as high an arching as an Amati or Strad but Ben hopes to remove enough wood in the regraduation process to increase flexibility and still maintain their strength.  His goal on the top plate is to reduce the thickness and weight down to that more common in the Strads and Amatis.  Below is the inside of the top plate before any graduation has started.

Ben is setting up the drill press to act as a depth gauge when he drills pilot holes that will determine the depth to which he removes wood from the plate.  This will go in phases.

Here Ben starts by drilling holes down the center line of the plate.  The gauge on the drill press prevents him drilling the plate deeper than 3.5mm.

Below you can see the pattern of holes covering the plate.  Because parts of the plate were less than 3/5mm thick originally there are no holes or even impressions made by the tip of the drill bit.

The raw wood exposed in the center between the F holes is where Ben has already finger planed down to the bottom depth of the drilled pilot holes.

Here using a caliper thickness gauge you can clearly see he has hit his initial thickness of 3.5mm.

Below the gauge shows some of the original surface was already at 2.7mm.  This is the goal Ben has set for the overall thickness of the top plate.

Here before further drilling and planing Ben is removing hardened glue using a file.

Here he uses a scraper on the glue as he gets closer to the wood surface.

Below a new series of pilot holes have been drilled to a depth of 3mm.

Again, Ben finger planes the plate down this time to the new 3mm thickness.  Before doing this he checked the weight of the plate at the 3.5mm thickness and found it was 77 grams without the bass bar.  His goal is to reduce the weight to below 70 grams including the new bass bar which will probably weigh 5 grams alone.

More planing is shown in two photos below.

After completion of the second graduation pass, Ben reweighs the plate and it has dropped by 4 grams to 73 grams.  This means he may have to further graduate more areas down to as little as 2.7mm or he will not reach his 70 gram overall weight goal.  Throughout this process he tests the plate bending it slightly in his hands to test for the strength and flexibility he wants to achieve.  This is a highly subjective process, his personal judgement of the feel of the wood that has been learned through years of experience testing and hearing the end results after the instrument is completed.

Below Ben is evening out this work using a scraper which will not impact the weight significantly.

Here checking with the calipers again after the second graduation he verifies that he is at 3mm thickness.

A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 9/27/2010

Monday, September 27th, 2010
Making an Impression of the Back and Button Nub

In preparation for replacing the button on the back plate which will attach to the new neck Been needs to make an impression of the remaining button nub and the area surrounding it on the back plate.

On the left below you can see the green dental compound that will be used for the impression.

To protect the plate and make it easier to remove the dental compound Ben usually oils the surface and or place a piece of plastic wrap between the wood and the compound.

The dental compound has to be heated and worked in your hands until it is soft enough to be be pressed over the surface of the wood.  Below the softened compound is shiny as it is pressed against the outside of the back plate with a block of scrap wood.  You can clearly see the button nub against the green compound.

Below the impression is shown after it has hardened and been removed from the violin.

A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 9/16/2010

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Removal of Remaining Neck and Ribs

Ben saws off as much of the remaining neck as possible.

 The part too close to the back to be safely to sawed must next be removed.

Ben finger planes the rest down to the back plate.

Below after finger planing Ben will need to remove built up glue.

He applies hot water below.  There is a sweet but nauseating odor given off as the glue liquifies.
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Then he can scrap the softened glue down to the button which will eventually need to be replaced inserting a keystone linked new button just outside of the perfling.

Below Ben is examining the remaining ribs that will need to be removed again using hot water to soften the glue.

Here Ben is working with the C bout corner blocks some of which can be saved while others will need to be replaced.

He needs to separate the C bout blocks and rib lining so that he can remove the bottom bout.

Below is the back plate after the bottom bout ribs have been removed.

Because the bottom bout ribs were formed from a single piece of maple Ben was careful to remove them in one piece. 

Next he needs to clean them up by removing the cracked end block that will need to be replaced.
Below he is using a chisel to cut the block back to the rib.  Interestingly when he examined the bottom bout block and saddle he found additional indicators that this was probably a Mittenwald, German made violin.  The varnish appears to be soft, there is a notch in the rib for centering and inserting the saddle and there was a rosewood or ebony alignment pin that had been nailed through the top plate into the block.

A Strad Inspired Violin - Log 8/30/2010

Monday August 30th, 2010

Violin Restoration: From Broke to Baroque

The Work Begins

Ben is loosening the bottom bout rib from the back plate in the photo below.  Additional photos show steps in  working on the top plate.

Here Ben is using a chisel to cut away the top of the bass bar.

Once most of the bass bar is removed he switches to a small finger plane which he uses to remove the remainder of the bass bar and the glue which has held it to the top plate.  He uses this technique since the top plate is very thick and he plans to regraduate/thin it anyway.  In the case that the plate was not to be thinned he would use hot water to loosen and remove the last layer and glue.

Below Ben is checking the cracks on the top plate including the one on the lower bass bout which was repaired with cleats(lighter colored wood above his thumb) years before.  The small cleats used previously were not effective and the crack had reopened and will need to be repaired again.

Applying hot water Ben is cleaning the cracks.  

He has removed parts of the old cleats and glue as well as dirt from the cracks that were never repaired.  Below you can clearly see the separation needed so he can apply glue.

For final cleaning he will use water and soap which will cause the foaming seen below.

Before starting to glue the cracks he always does a test clamping to see how the parts will fit together and usually lets the cracks dry out while clamped..

Below he is applying glue to the top bout crack that had never been repaired.   He uses the old "brush and Finger" technique.  First applying the hide glue to the top of the crack with a brush as seen here.

Then he uses his finger to push the glue into the crack and clean the excess off.

On the under side of the plate he will remove excess glue that was forced through the crack from above.

Below the glued cracks are clamped for drying.  After all of the top plate cracks are glued solidly Ben can start the process of thinning/regraduating the thickness of the plate.  That will be at a later date.  When that process is complete however he plan to inlay and glue oval patch (like a sound post patch) much larger and more durable than the cleats used previously.