MIMF

Thanks, Carl!

I wish I could find buyers for my work...

To All: I have not been on MIMF for a while, as I have been pretty tied up with work, here at home. In January, I was permanently laid off from my job of 33-1/2 years, so lutherie will now be my only job. I am somewhat specializing in 5-string instruments, now, which you can see at https://fivestrin...

She came and took possession of the fiddle this past Saturday morning. She is happy and so are we.

Thanks, Bob!

So, to all who found the earlier report interesting, here is the final chapter: https://fivestringfiddles.com/2020/02/12/completed-five-string-fiddle/ The customer gave her enthusiastic blessing to my taking the fiddle to the Wintergrass festival and exhibiting it with my other work, so that is wher...

Thanks, Bob! I'm anxious to see how it will look under the varnish. This evening, I completed most of the varnish-prep, but broke off for suppertime. If I can really have it done tonight, I will rub the mineral ground into the wood, and let it dry overnight. Then the sealer, tomorrow, will let us be...

Here is another update: the body (corpus) is closed, leaving a fair amount of final carving and scraping before the instrument will be ready for varnishing. https://fivestringfiddles.com/2020/02/03/commissioned-5-string-fiddle/ I think it will be a good fiddle. Feels good...sounds good when I tap it...

Bob, if you look at the top of the page, there is a tab for "Books": there is a photo-story there of a whole five-string fiddle, which you may find enjoyable. It is in a pdf format, so you can download the whole thing if you want, or read it online, I suppose. It's about 135 pages... Anywa...

I recently had a person call me and ask whether I could build a 5-string fiddle of primarily Oregon woods ( Sure! ) I was about to start a stay-at-home vacation from my regular job, during the Christmas season, so I decided to get going on the new project. I have begun chronicling the build, here, i...

The fiddle is one of the literally millions that came here around the end of the 19th century. Sold through Sears Roebuck, etc. sometimes for $2-$5. Made as cottage-industry offerings in Germany, sold to schools for their students to complete, and passed on to dealers elsewhere. The rope-looking edg...

I think you will find this a very satisfying build. I usually recommend that people begin with Henry Strobel's book, Violin Making, Step by Step , just because it is very straightforward instruction, and it sticks to traditional methods, not veering off into "here's and easy way to...", wh...

Those are good numbers. I use those myself, and go a little higher on the D and A: 5.5 mm.

Orchestral set-up is a little different than fiddling set-up. What you have there is typical for orchestral.

The few people who I have personally coached through their first instruments all came up with an instrument that far exceeded anything they could have afforded to buy. You can do this if you choose to...and the results will be great, if you follow directions well, and do careful work. This fellow di...

My son's name?
Brian Bishop.
https://www.facebook.com/Bishop-Guitars ... /timeline/
Not much of a web-presence, yet. We are trying to convince him, but it has been slow in coming. He would rather be building guitars than websites. (I can relate...)

I built my very first instrument (of any kind) under similar circumstances. My youngest son needed a viola, so I built one. He quit playing about that time, but has since returned, and, in the interim, he learned to play and build guitars. He now builds guitars for a living. I went on to build 10 vi...

Ha! Yeah, you're right, but if you are going to have any peace working with these things you have to keep in mind that, ultimately, "it's just a little wooden box". That is what I tell customers who are shy about handling them. And you know what? No one has ever dropped or damaged one, and...

I have seen such stuff before, and I think it is just the sapwood-- it looks different, and responds differently to varnish. You'd love the back, though-- it had pretty severe runout, so if you tip it one way longitudinally, the treble side is light and the bass dark, but tip it the other way and th...

This is a five string fiddle made from wood given to me by a friend...no idea of the origin...he just finally decided he was not going to make a fiddle, and asked that I use it to make one...so, here it is. I will post again when it is complete. http://www.bluefiddles.com/2015/06/latest-five-string-...

You could undoubtedly handcraft one of heavy foam (styrofoam or similar) available from the Home Depot or some other building supply house. It comes in a variety of thicknesses, is very stiff and very light. My suggestion would be to get a sheet of the 2" stock, and laminate it to the thickness...