I am starting a new violin, “The Edward”. This is commission from Ed Lawrence (former Principal Violist with the Houston Ballet and Opera Orchestra). Ed has chosen a Strad model and picked out the wood to use from my stores (notice the beautiful flame in the maple for the ribs and back).
We will start with the rib assembly. Blocks are cut and glued to the mold. The blocks are then shaped to the outline of the violin. The ribs are planed to a thickness of about 1.2 mm, bent and glued to the blocks. Linings are cut and bent and inlet into the blocks. The picture below shows the rib assembly with linings ready to be glued in place.
The linings being glued in place.
Finally, the points are trimmed to size, the back is flattened and the top of the assembly is brought to proper dimension (32mm at the bottom block and 30mm at the top).
With the rib assembly done, we move on to the back.