Fitting the soundpost in a cello or other bowed instrument is such a delicate matter and musicians often ask how I can set and fit it inside the instruments body. Here is some rare footage of the sound post setting process filmed from the inside as well…
…perfect fit to the inner surface…with the right tension…in the best position
…gives the instrument an even, beautiful & carrying sound🎻❤️
Finally it stopped raining a bit so I could start the varnishing process of the beautiful cello. The ground varnish coat has the purpose to seal the pores of the timbers, making it more stable and resistant to humidity changes. As well as preventing pigments from the colour varnish coats to soak into the wood.
The golden ‘Fleur De Liz’ painting starts above the ground coat and will be repeated on each subsequent layer of pigment to then at the end adding shading and colour texture. I need very fine brushes and a steady hand to paint such fine detail.
The reflection in the moving light on the flamed maple wood is just fantastic…
After the bass bar has been fitted and glue it now needs to be shaped that it can fulfil its purpose or spreading the deep sounds as fast as possible over the whole top plate and act as a support for the high pressure from the bridge onto the top plate. Then it is time to roughly adjust the thickness on the inside of the back plate.
I just started my new project… another 7/8 studio cello as my other one in my web-shop sold recently. There will be a pre-purchase option with a lower order price and a finished product price again like the last times ( link to the last 7/8 studio cello). If you wish to order in the early stages of the building process you can influence some parts and measurements to make it a bespoke made cello directly for you. If you order in the later stages there will be lesser options for special requests as some parts will be already finished. The time frame to finish this cello is highly dependant of the wishes on the musician if pre-purchased, and/or all the restoration and repairs which are urgent for other players.
Update March 2024: THIS 7/8 CELLO HAS BEEN PRE-SOLD! If you would like to order one there will be now a around 6-9 month waiting time
This 7/8 cello has been prepared in the European Union from well seasoned European flamed maple and fine grained spruce. The top & back have been left very thick (nearly double the thickness from the finished product) to ensure I have the space to achieve the best possible shape and thickness for the arching of the plates. I can adjust the height of the sides if needed for good sound and the neck can be adjusted to your individual hand size. This cello and all other studio instruments will be varnished using only natural products which were available 300 years ago. Fleur De Liz paintings are available on request.
The studio cello, violin, viola & double basses are a special line of bowed stringed instruments prepared to a point an apprentice would have done 300 years ago and the I apply my masterly craftsmanship and 42 years of experience to the instrument, tune the plates with the special Ilja Grawert – violinmaker sound-system to ensure a beautiful warm, still carrying and even tone to each single instrument.
For the last seven days I have been working firstly correcting the outside arching of the 7/8 size studio cello changing all around the f-holes and in the middle of the top. Then I was removing lots of material from the inside of the top plate with the little thumb planes preparing the plate for the fine tuning so the cello will sound beautiful. Go down to video
Next will the fine-tuning of the top plate start and the bass bar. There will be another update for that.
Recently I received a bow for rehair where it was said that the bow has mites. Mites are definitely a bad cause for loosing bow hair as you have to clear the case and all other cloth items including the cloth around the rosin of those little animals.
However it turned out that the cause wasn’t mites at all but either a bad knot in the tip of the bow or the bad habit of the musician of pulling a broken hair instead of cutting it with scissors (or even a combination of both)
When you pull hair out of the tip you pull it out of the knot and then makes the knot looser, soon more and more hair will fall out until there is hardly any left.
Currently as a little side hobby I learning to stamps on wood. So far I am getting closer to acceptable quality with every new attempt. When I am happy there will be new, traditional stamped labels in my violins. beautiful look and no printing involved…very traditional old craft, old time. Stamp No1 was the first trial ever in rubber and is just not good enough, and No2 is done in a soft rubber and a little bit better but triggered a material change and Stamp No3 is my first trial in end grain hardwood. I am still improving the method and am already getting better results.
I was just cutting a bridge for one of my own older, fully handmade by me, violins. Using the best bridge timber, which is now a minimum of 40-50 years old. The finished bridge is promising to be of the highest sound quality. I am very much looking forward to hearing this violin again after a good service.
In 1982 the wood of these bridge blanks was already well seasoned and cost around $7. If I would have invested the same money in gold or houses I would now roughly end up with a return of 400-500% valued at $28-35, which is equal to the inflation rate from 1982 until now.
However over time gold, houses and most other investments are not improving in quality the same way that violin timber does. This is why most of the violin wood saw mills in Germany raise the price of older wood by 10% per year of storage, which means the accumulative price doubles every 7 years. Looking at a price of $7 for this bridge blank in 1982, it would be 7.70 in 1983, 8.47 in 1984, $9.317 in 1985 and so on and just under double by the year 1989. In 1989 I would pay $14, in 1996-$28, 2003-$52, 2010-$104, 2017-$208 and by next year, 2024 I would be paying $416 for the same piece of timber for which I paid $7 forty two years ago. Can you imagine paying around $400 for the same bridge blank, the small piece of well seasoned maple in the right of the photo, and this is only the wholesale price.
The bridge on the left beside the blank is fully cut and ready to be used on this beautiful violin. When all the work is done, including putting strings on and adjusting the sound, it will have taken anywhere between 3 and 4 hours of my personal labour. I would end up at a very high price for one of those bridges.
This brings me right back to why I am doing this beautiful work… sure it is for money to live and support my family… but it is more for the love of beautiful violins, violas, cellos and basses and the love of good music played on well serviced instruments. Even after 40 years of working as a violin maker as my only source of income I still get excited with every instrument on my workbench to create the most beautiful sound it is capable of.
This also applies to professional musicians who never get paid for the years of hard work, often from as young as 5 years of age, with daily practice, often for hours after school.
I own a substantial amount of violin, viola and cello wood which I purchased in Germany between 1982 and 1994 relatively fresh (5-10years seasoned) for anywhere between 150-500 for a set to make one violin. Imagine the value of a hand made violin adding 160-240 hours of labour.
You cannot imagine my joy when I walked into the local post office today, where I am well known and was greeted by: “Guess what is in your Po Box…” After month and month of waiting for the October issue of The Strad magazine, I think maybe 15 emails to the publisher, as well as driving everyone crazy with my daily question about those magazines, I am happy to finally see this article in print…
The 3/4 studio violin which I am building at the moment is ready to be closed. The plates are tuned, the bass-bar fitted, glued and tuned, all thicknesses and sound proportions are right….The ‘Ilja Grawert – Sound System’ has been applied. The next steps will be to clean the violin outside again and prepare the foundation varnish.
