Making a Violin from scratch

In the images below we take up making a Violin at the raw ingredients stage, But there is a little bit of work before this stage if you plan to make one for the first time! The first job is to decide what model of violin you wish to make, Do you want to copy an old instrument from a great past maker like Stradivari or Del Gesu, or come up with your very own design using maths or just your imagination to guide you? Personally I would recommend using a great sounding old instrument as your starting point as in all honesty you will have enough other things to think about on top of designing it. For those who may not be able to find a genuine Strad to draw around (and lets face it that is most of us) A very useful resource is the Strad magazine Library, over the years the Strad has produced many fantastic posters of really interesting instruments with (and this is the really important part) all the measurements you need on the back of the poster, including outlines and arching heights etc, to be able to build a copy of the instrument!

Your first objective is to make edge outline and mold templates, the mold template is arrived at by subtracting the edge overhang and rib thickness form the edge template t give you the internal size and shape of the instrument.

Getting wood

There are many suppliers of tonewoods which who are experts at sourcing correctly cut and seasoned woods to make musical instruments, I'll put a list of a few up at some point, but you should find a few quite easily with a quick google search! It is important that the wood is the proper stuff, it should make a nice ringing noise if you give it a tap and preferably be sawn on the quarter.