dimensions

I came across this transcription of a talk given at Lutherie2006 Conference, Newark on Trent, 13 May 2006 by Helen Michetschläger. It is posted on her website here. It is a really good and useful description of her philosopy on viola design and the particular challenges the larger instrument poses. Good stuff!

I'm particularly pleased to have the opportunity to talk about one of my main areas of interest, making violas. This is going to be a practical rather than a theoretical talk, based on my experience of meeting and working with many viola players and teachers, discussing ideas with colleagues and trying things out at the workbench.

I think that making violas is one of the most interesting aspects of violin making today. Players demand powerful and responsive instruments in a size they can manage. As there are fewer good old violas than violins or cellos, viola players are often less conservative in their expectations. This gives us as makers a wonderful opportunity to be creative; to experiment and to test out ideas.

Here is a nice article by Åke Ekwall that appeared in the Nexus Network Journal. It deals with the possible design principles underlying the design of violin scrolls from a historical point of view. Nice read! (cick on the thumbnails for fullsize pictures)

This article is available for download in PDF format for registerd users here.

The densities of five classical and eight modern violins were compared, using computed tomography and specially developed image-processing software.

Berend C. Stoel¹, Terry M. Borman²

¹ Department of Radiology, Division of Image Processing, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, ² Borman Violins, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America