r/violinmaking

I’m on a roll

For questions this week.

I’m getting a hand-me-down 3/4 violin prepared for my daughter. It’s in good shape but it’s been sitting a while.

It’s a Karl Knilling violin. There is no year marked in it but I can narrow down the age based on the fact that it belonged to my nephew who played it about 16-20 years ago and it says it was made in Germany so it can’t be older than 1990.

The strings are at least 16 years old, and the fine tuners that were on the tailpiece were all dirty and stiff, plus they were a bad design and were marring the finish under the tailpiece. So I bought a whitner-style Fiddlerman tailpiece for it and Fiddlerman strings.

Well, it turns out Karl Knilling pegs have unusually tiny holes in them, and the Fiddlerman strings are too fat.

My options:

- I have precision tools that are entirely capable of boring out the holes *assuming* that there isn’t anything more technical in a peg hole than just, well, a hole in a stick.

- I could buy all new pegs and pay a luthier to fit new pegs to the violin. I’m not sure this is my best go-to solution for a violin my daughter will probably outgrow in a year, but it’s an ok backup plan in case I try option 1 and fail.

- I can find much thinner strings that will fit the pegs.

-

The E string was a bit of a tight fit but worked. The A string was very difficult to install. The D string was incompatible but I’m stubborn and managed to cram it in there after shaving off a little of of the outer layer of windings. The G string was an entirely lost cause - it’s just bigger than the hole no matter what. So currently the violin only has 3 strings on it.

So… is there a very thin string set or at least a single G string I should be trying?

Is there any reason why I should NOT attempt to widen the holes a little, given that needing to replace the pegs at the luthier would be an option if it doesn’t work?

I might cross post this to violinmaking.

As an advanced 5 year violinist playing things like Vivaldi winter solo concertos, Butterfly lovers, Meditation from Thais, and Scene De Ballet. What violin would you recommend and what price range should i target. I’m looking for a nice one as my current one cost about 5,000. Would Cremona be a good place to purchase?

I'm a luthier and I'm trying to make some small interior lights for instruments. Basically it's a small strip of LEDs that slide in through the F hole so I can better illuminate the interior.

Here's an example that a friend has in her shop. Unfortunately she's had it so long she can't recall where it came from.

Example Strip .....it's not obvious in the photo but the strip is folded over so it gets light in the back too

I'm trying to make myself a handful of similar lights, in different lengths, for different size instruments (this length gets in the way in a violin, but doesn't light the entirety of a cello).

I managed to make myself one prototype out of a Paulmann SimpleLED kit, but it meant cutting off about 1.49 meters of LED strip to use just 10 cm...and now I can't find a good solution for connecting the rest of the strip....at least among the materials I can find in Europe at small scale. Part of that may be that I can't figure out my search terms.

Does anyone have a good supplier in France or Europe for ....? (No Amazon, please)

1. the intermediary wire LED strip connector / adaptors (probably soldered connection, as slim format is important to fit through the FFs; I'd like to be able to choose a longer wire here, as once I hit the cord-to-cord adapter, it won't fit into the FFs)
2. the plugging DC adapter on the power side if it's not built into the cord above (it would be very helpful if I could connect it to USB or USB-C power rather than a wall power outlet)
3. thin, clear tubing to hold the LED strip folded (maybe shrinkble?)
4. thin, shrinkable tubing to smooth over the soldered connection
5. the DC power element that connects with #2 (if I can't just use a USB / USB-C brick)

Bonus points if I can re-use the excess strip from the Paulmann SimpleLED kit, but I realize the kit may not be made to avoid waste.

Here's what I managed to make at home with the kit:

The pre-fab kit connector doesn't add any thickness, but the cord is very short, and the rubberized LED strips are already pretty thick

I used the backing to tape the folded strip to itself, but it's not holding its glue – so I need to super glue it or slip it into a sleeve to hold the fold.

https://preview.redd.it/f9ej2fbp3yvg1.jpg?width=2364&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29c254d3e765954f28a36db322636070a8bf310b

It works well enough as a one-off, but I do not want to spend 15 EUR and waste meters of material for every one of these that I need!

I want to create these in a way that isn't terribly expensive, but will hold up for years.

If anyone can help me with the appropriate terms, and point me to a good place to buy these parts in Europe (not Amazon) I would really appreciate it.

Hey all, I’ve made a 15” Viola and looking for a chinrest that is “high” enough to accommodate the extra thickness I’ve given it. Measures 50mm in total, would the Wittner Zurich fit? Thanks!