May 6, 2012

Swenson a' Livremour violin nearly finished !

Aftger 6 months of work, my first violin is almost finished. I got to play it for a week and realized I had not brough it to its full potential. Was missing lots of lower frequencies - sounding kind if thin. I assumed that was due to the fact in my plate tuning I only paid attention to the tomnes and not the overall plat thickness and total mass of the top plate.

I decided to take off the top plate again and finish scraping the plate down to its "proper" thickness of about 2.5 mm. Doing that reduces the mass of the top plate from 74 gm down to 66 gm right in the middle of the recommended 61 to 71 gm range. I also cvleaned up the inside of the violin from extra glue from gluing the back. One of the traits of good vilin making is a well built instrument with attention to detail, even in areas you can't see once the violin is assembled. So I also scraped the corner blocks to even up their inside face.

I also did not measure the fianl thickness of the violin plate now that it is scraped fairly well. One of the templates I found recommended the thickness to start at 2.6 mm and gradually increase to 2.9 mm on the edge. I ended up with about 2.4 to 2.6 mm overall. A couple spots were even thinner 1.5 mm in the depression near the top of the C-bout on each side.

The next step is to seal the wood with a "ground" coat of Vernice Bianca - inside and out.
The recipe:

A recipe for “Vernice Bianca” from Sacconi

The following is taken directly from American Lutherie #10 in 1987 when interviewing Jack Batts.
It is also in The Big Red Book vol 1 from Guild of American Luthiers.

25g of gum arabic,
1/2 teaspoon of honey,
1/4 teaspoon of rock candy, 
about 100cc of water, 
albumen from one egg white. 

- Crush the rock candy.
- Warm the water but do not boil.
- Slowly add the gum arabic, stirring constantly until dissolved.
- Add honey and rock candy.
- Strain the mixture through a fine cloth (handkerchief or sheeting) and let cool.

While the mixture is cooling,

- whip an egg white into a meringue and turn the bowl on edge.
- Allow the mixture to settle out and remove the liquid that separates.
(This is the albumin) - Add the albumin to the cooled mixture and stir well.
Use this Vernice Bianca immediately and discard the rest.
Sacconi advocated that after potassium silicate had been put on very sparingly,
you should cover it completely with the vernice bianca before varnishing.

October 23, 2011

New Mixies going up... for June 2011 "Tell Me" CD Recording Session!

Cleaver Smith Swenson and McKnight (CSSM) are once again getting material together for a new CD project. Tentatively called "Tell Me" after Robert Smith and Bill Cleaver's latest collaborative efforts. A spritely list of songs have been recorded: Robert Smith's and Bill Cleaver's "Tell Me" (title song), "The Fast One" (J.D. Souther), "The Nearness of You" (Hoagy Charmichael), "Sometimes" (Jonathan Edwards), "When You Get Back to Town" (David Mcknigh), "Mecklenburg Waltz" (David McKinght), LIvely Cello Tune (Jill Soha), Blue Ridge Morning (David McKnight & Bill Cleaver), "Tennessee Trot" (David McKnight), and "Miner's Holiday" (David McKnight) are on the current list of tunes for this upcoming CD. Check out the current mixes on the "Works in Progress" page.