PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Fri, May 23, 2008 01:48:30I reckon work's overrated. The big company I work for full time has offered me Voluntary Redundancy (VR), and with getting to the big 60 now I want to do more fiddling, more fiddle making and have a lot more time with my family before my mortal coil even thinks of getting shuffled off: providing the dollar sums add up.
So at the end of this year I'm ging to spend more time in the garden shed I don't have, and really looking forward to it too. I'm a lucky one: left with enough health, shekels, hobbies and interests to have the prospect of 20 years of STKIng (spending the kids inheritance), and being respectably irresponsible.
So much to do, so little time ........ well, I hope to have it all on a plate. Properly tuned of course.
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Tue, February 19, 2008 00:18:29Update:
Well, gone back to basics this month. I found & added what must be C M Hutchins 'Scientific American' 1982 paper
off the web (scrounged): an
article that has much better detail on front & back Mode 2 & 5
frequency matching, compared with the one of 20 years earlier in 1962.
I've
added a page on an experiment where I record the bowed loudness of
every semitone of a fiddle over nearly 3 octaves with a mic + computer,
just as CMH did 46 + years ago. This
works ok, but really needs quite good non-reverb. acoustics (a large
furnished room, or hall or outside?!). It doesn't work that well with
Audacity (now in version 1.2.6) as it can't read off RMS value of a
waveform easily, but is quite easy with 'Cool Edit 2000', or other such
software. Open strings are not really on.
From CMH's point of
view it shows the 3 key resonances ('wood prime', air and B1 body) of a
finished instrument, as in her article.
I bought Roger
Siminoff's book last month - on "The Art of Tap Tuning" and which has me
engrossed. I'm going to have to spend this next year working this
through on violin plates.
He recommends specialist Peterson equipment
(strobe tuners like Strobosoft) for adjusting tones and frequencies.
These strobe instruments have a big advantage in allowing a note
(tap tone) to be tuned at any octave, and tones in his view are almost interchangeable
between octaves. Most important he would have us only doing or
setting tap tones on plates when they are clamped at the edges!
So good luck with the lutherie,
Jonathan. back to
platetuning.org
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Tue, January 15, 2008 00:03:03I've been asked to help with advice on removing a violin's belly/front, so here's a bit of guidance:
There are couple of websites that say how to remove violin fronts, so try .....
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Violin-2164/violin-repair-woods-used.htm
(but the writer means 'steam' not 'sream') and
http://groups.google.am/group/rec.music.makers.bowed-strings/browse_thread/thread/d0ecccc3e5c65cb2/e5c941bb415cce4e?lnk=raot
In fact you will be trying to very gently lever open the front's join (the glue joint to the sides) with the knife rather than 'cutting' into it. Work the knife round the edge, lifting the front as little as possible. At the 6 blocks, use the knife as carefully as possible to cut into the join not the wood: difficult because you can't really see what you're doing.
The edges of the front will need some repair (set in some spruce wood) where any damage has been done. Some fronts I've removed that have been too well glued-on have needed a lot of repair - small pieces off new spruce wood
*all* around the edge. It can take quite some time to do it!
The join should have been made with 'weak' or diluted animal (pearl) glue to make it possible to take off the front without serious damage.
But opening a violin is easier to do than to explain!
Use a shortened and thin kitchen knife, with quite blunt edges to get into the seam or joint. Too sharp a knife and it cuts into the sides and/or the top you're taking off! And *mind that left hand*: keep it well out of the way in case the knife slips.
So good luck.
Jonathan.
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Thu, January 03, 2008 01:03:47Hi again.
I've just been re-reading Ed. Heron-Allen's book called
"Violin Making: as it was and is", published in 1885.
I was astonished to come across a reference to plate tuning on page 133. He talks about the 'normal tone' of a plate of wood,
"clamped at a point where two nodal lines cross and vibrated with a bow drawn along the edge" . We would call this 'normal tone' Mode 2, with it's first overtone Mode 5 also sounding because the plate is held as shown on my
webpage! Have a look halfway down under 'Historically Speaking'. He used sand spread on the vibrating plate to show the 'nodal lines'.
So here's a guy, who trained under Georges Chanot, who was a well known and revered violin maker, talking about 'nodal lines' in 1885.
I had to pinch myself. That's 123 years ago, and we are still unsure where tap tones and plate tuning fit into the pantheon of violin making.
Guys, just what is new under the sun? Indirect evidence here that Chanot may have been or was using plate tuning 125 years ago. And if the tones weren't an octave apart they would sound discordant.
Think on't.
Jonathan. Back to the
www.platetuning.org.
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Mon, November 26, 2007 01:01:15 What a privilege it is just to take part in Handel's Messiah. I played in the violas over the weekend in Banbury (UK), and some of the numbers send shivers down my back, especially "
I know that my Redeemer Liveth". The Choral Soc put everything into it. Wonderful. I know why I do this playing thing: it affirms us as human beans.
J. back to
platetuning.
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Wed, November 21, 2007 12:24:45Apparently Sr Niccolò Paganini is alive and well and living in Hawaii: I've just heard from him. He seems to be concerned about two things: tickets for his latest concert are not selling well 167 years after his official death, and secondly he's worried that Il Cannone may not fare well in the humidity of Hawaii.
I can reassure him on one thing - if Il Cannone were to fall to pieces in the humidity, then since Sr. Guarnerius is not available at this time, I am more than willing for a small sum to re-tune the plates of Il Cannone to turn it into a violin worth at least £1500 (about $ 30,000 these days).
Jonathan. back to platetuning.org
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Wed, November 14, 2007 23:53:48Hi again. I've just had a request to explain how to use 'Audacity' software, so I've added the details on the
'How to tune plates' page.
Plus now I really can be found with a Google search, but look hard!
I'll be adding pictures of the tapping/measuring technique when the rehearsals and concerts are over this weekend. Trouble is that instead of working on fiddles and this website, I really love to play: in fact in any band that'll have me. I even took up viola a couple of years ago so I'd be more in demand. I didn't say that. I
love viola, really I do.
Bye 4 now. J.
back to platetuning.org
PlatetuningPosted by Jonathan Sat, November 03, 2007 01:06:04Well ........ done it, my first blog on my new site. Took some doing for a BoF who don't get out much.
Why 'One eyed man?' We each need to look for that community where we are the 'one eyed man among the blind'. Being able to read the black dots on a page makes you king in a folk club. Remember. But sometimes you need to look for a long time.
All this fiddle remaking to do, and yet it's so good to fritter way another hour or 2 playing the latest fiddle: just done a well-made
Mittenwald that needed a new neck and bassbar: but it sounds great, with a breathy bowing sound ..... I do love the sound of Irish fiddle/dance music on a good violin. Cheers me up. So time for a lie down.
Tra. Jonathan. back to platetuning.org
