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 […]
Category Archives: Workshop Projects
After spending the last few month building the two studio cellos and the studio 15 1/2″ viola, and restoring two more old German ~1920s viola and old Hungarian/German ~ 1950s viola, all are now set-up and ready to be played. I am extremely happy with the sound of all 5 instruments. The cellos are very […]
To get a little inside of what I have been working on in my North Queensland workshop in the last few month, visit my current projects page and see some of the steps in the building of two of my studio cellos, 7/8 & 4/4 size and a 15 ½” viola. They will be finished […]
Now the cello is varnished in a dark brown colour. Again I decided to paint some ‘Fleur De Lis’ again like on the 4/4 studio cello the painting is higher up in the varnish so they stay highly visible and not hidden behind layers and layers of dark varnish …as well as preparing the fingerboard […]
After the top plate was finished, glued to the sides…the back finished and fine-tuned …the body closed… the varnishing started. The varnishing process is now nearly finished. I wanted to create a dark brown, classic old looking colour this time…with the ‘Fleur De Lis’ shining through the many layers of varnish. What do you think […]
Another one of my current projects… a full size studio cello nearly ready to be varnished. Look how well this plate is balanced. this cello will have a beautiful song
Carving a scroll so much smaller than I typically would was a really interesting experience, one that I really enjoyed, and learned a lot from. I ended up having to use a lot of the smaller gouges that I would usually have only needed for the finest work on a full-size for a lot more […]
After closing the cello the cello was ready to have the neck fitted. I was so lost in the work on this cello that I totally forgot to take photos . It is very important that the neck is in the right position, in the right angle overlapping the top plate the perfect amount to […]
A 15.5 inch studio viola. thicknessing the top-plate is finished, the bass bar wood is prepared to the right thickness. I chose a high quality, well seasoned, split peace of spruce. After checking all the proportions, lots of measuring & calculating I could mark the final length and exact positioning for the bass bar to ensure most vibration of the top
Each cello carries a song of its own, telling a story of its proportions, the tools and the hands shaping it from a block of wood into this beautiful creation of sound.

Exceptional 3/4 Size Istvan Nemez (Stefan Nemes) Violin – Immaculate Condition, Big Warm Sound, Professional Setup



