Correcting two violins

Post date: Feb 27, 2014 5:56:49 PM

A while ago I started a thread on Maestronet "Right" amount of varnish on a violin as I was wondering about how much varnish is suitable to put on a violin. At the same time I had opened a violin with a, by my standard, quite thick varnish coat.

The one I just finished was varnished about the same thickness. On both violins the B1 modes had increased above their critical limits. Previously I have stated that varnish is not to blame for too high B1 modes. This is not completely true because on violins with "thickish", quite hard and even varnish coats the B1 modes increases ~10+ Hz, relatively to the weight of the plates. The lighter the plates the more influence such a thicker varnish layer has on the M5 modes and B1 modes. I also think crackling the varnish would lower the modes.

The violins are now corrected to M5 of 350 Hz. The bass bar tuning gave different shapes, due to different wood performance, the closer one is from Finnish old timber .