Letter: Experimental Violin

by Robert A. Edelstein

Originally published in American Lutherie #93, 2008



Hi Tim and GAL Staff,

I built this violin to be played at a Suzuki camp our family has attended for the past ten years. Both of our children are players. Just for fun, I tried to break every rule I could think of. The top of the instrument is made of eight pieces of 4" wide, 1/4" craft grade balsa from a hobby shop. I laminated them into two stacks of four boards each, then joined the two stacks side by side to make a blank 8" wide by 1" thick. Balsa is a pleasure to carve, but beware of chipping. The finished top was surprisingly resonant.

I used a carbon/graphite free-floating bass bar made from an old bow and slid into balsa blocks. It could be changed for stiffer or lighter ones depending on player preference. The soundpost is made to function as a very stiff spring; I wanted to see if it could “self adjust.” The neck is carved of mahogany and has a slide-through cam resting against the back which helps do a quick neck adjustment during construction. The headstock uses mini-tuners in a pattern suggestive of a traditional pegbox. For speed of completion, the back and sides are from a Stewart-MacDonald violin kit. Bessie Blum, an artist friend of ours in Cambridge, Massachusetts, did a wonderful decorative finish. The instrument plays well, but is a little top heavy from the mechanical tuners.