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Had a guy bring a violin into the shop. Someone else kind of hacked up the nut on it plus he says the strings are too high when he frets the notes up next to the nut. I don't mind fixing it for him but I haven't setup a violin before. Can someone point me to setup specs or where I could get some good information? Thanks!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Steve,

My go to is this:
http://www.alangoldblatt.com/specs.html

I have violin/viola/and cello printed out. It seems like a good start point anyway.

I'm not sure if the spec for the nut is on the cheat sheet; but the ones I've seen by good makers are very low.
Think of how a good guitar setup is. The difference is that we don't have the fret right up against the nut. I've seen places that say the thickness of a credit card. That might be a start point. Most of the ones I've seen look like less than that.

The specs for the end of the fingerboard always seem high to me. If my bridge is higher than 42 mm, and the strings seem high there I drop it down. But I don't play. I think classical guitar strings are ridiculously high. The ones on my
Stauffer, technically not a classical I guess; are at 3 and 2mm, I guess that is on the low side. They don't buzz and seem very high to me.

On the viola I made that a guy plays all the time, the belly rose more than I thought it would. I altered the board to get as much height as I could. The strings are maybe 1.5 -2mm lower than spec, and I added more recurve in the board, so it played. A professional maker in the VMA noticed how low the strings were right away. I showed him the extra relief, and he was satisfied.

But I saw Charro? play guitar on Martha Stewart one day. I don't know why. The strings were as high as can be. It boggled my mind. She is pretty good.

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Why be normal?

Thanks Ken, that's a start but what I'm trying to figure out is the height of the strings at the nut (credit card is a good start point) and the height of the strings over the fretboard at the octave point (or wherever violin types measure that), this one seems higher then I would expect. Guess I'll take some photos tomorrow in the shop.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Hey Steve

Numbers from my notes on some builds and rehabs.

Bridge string spacing G - E 33-34mm

I used a 3 1/4" dia disk to mark the arch of the bridge top.

Nut spacing 16 - 16.5mm

Measured at the end of the fingerboard, bottom of string to FB -

G - 5 - 5.5mm

E - 3 - 4mm

Nut height over FB -

G - 0.4 - 0.5mm

E - 0.3 - 0.4mm

These are just starting points to kinda stay within.

Every fiddle is different and so is every playing style. A powerful player is going to need higher setup than someone just playing along. The instrument also may direct measurements that work. Lots of geometry going on.

I just used these measurements to rehab an old fiddle and they seemed pretty good.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Thanks Brian, those numbers look like a good starting point. I think this one is quite high at the end of the fretboard, perhaps the person who hacked up the nut but a too-high bridge on. I'll check it out tomorrow when I get back to the shop.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

They work off the end of the fingerboard. Maybe something like 3-5 mm. The cheat sheet will say. I like lower, but no one likes a short bridge. A good check is to see the bridge projection. That is the measurement from the body to a straightedge at the bridge point. Somewhere around 27 mm. If it is really low, the neck angle may be really low.

If the fingerboard is thick, you can engineer it for a steeper angle. Most aren't. They say that 3 mm on the edge is the cutoff point where it is too low. So if you could drop the nut end down 2 mm, on a normal 5 mm board, you would raise the projection, and the string height would drop. But you would only gain about half of that.

Then you can do the New York neck set! Open out the back at the neck, and push the bottom of the neck heel in some. File a little angle, keeping it flat, don't round it out; and glue and clamp. You don't need a lot. You don't want to make it so you need a taller bridge.

If your bridge is 32 or so, you could drop the strings there, but you don't really want to drop the bridge 2, 3, 4 mm. If the bridge is higher, that would be a better option.

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Why be normal?

Thanks Ken. I think I have enough between you and Brian to at least do a decent evaluation of the instrument.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Had to take a break to get surgery on my hand to get a trigger finger fixed. Third hand surgery this year, other two for carpal tunnel. All pretty easy, low impact, very little pain as surgeries go. Anyway I evaluated the violin and whoever worked on the nut previously did a lousy job and gouged up the fingerboard too. I'm going to replace the nut and fix the fingerboard too. Nut popped off pretty easy with a seam knife. I appreciate the help!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Got the violin done. New nut plus leveled the fretboard. Customer was real happy. Thanks for the help!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"