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Interesting and very beautiful.

I'm very happy for you. That is a very fine instrument executed with class. If you told me about all the inlay, decorations, and such I'd think it too busy but seeing it is another story. I'm in awe.

-j

I am simply blown away. Everything about this is wonderful! Well done.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I would love to see a video clip of it being played. Nice work.

Beautiful, Douglas! And just in time for canoeing season!

You might want to check out: "Tous les matins du monde" which is streaming on Netflix. The movie is historical fiction based on the life of Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, who is credited with adding a 7th string (lower bass string) to the gamba. Jordi Savall performs solo and with his orchestra on the soundtrack. Incredibly vital performances.

Very nice work, Douglas. About 25 years ago I made a similar English-style gamba with bent stave soundboard.

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Stay with the happy people.
--Reynolds Large

Thanks, everyone, for the very nice compliments. Solitary craftsmen appreciate having their ego stoked a little, it helps keep us going during the long solitude.

Now I need to go back over this thread and respond to questions asked.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to get any video or audio of this instrument. My wife is is getting acquainted with it now, and her entrenched habits as a cellist are helping in some ways but hindering in some others. I know that she won't want to commit to video until she is comfortable with what she can do. But rest assured that it does sound like a proper bass viol.

BTW, in case anyone ever wondered why the stand up bass is often called the "Double bass"? Its because it, too, is a viol. My instrument is a bass, effectively a "single bass", and the next register down is the "Double bass". I finally had my "A hah" moment when I realized this.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

The tail piece on this viol is completely traditional. They're all like this. The tail piece has a hole in the end which catches on the hook. The hook pin is simply glued into a small slot cut into the end. Very simple, very effective.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

I do have some photos. I'll talk about that later when I can devote enough time to it. I'll write about the bent stave top as well.

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

There is some staining/colour that I added. I dislike overly dark colours. Many viols are dark from age, many are light. There is an incredible degree of variety which makes building them, for the luthier, very engaging. I used General Finishes dye, two colours Russet and amber, mixed about 2/3: 1/3, and diluted about 50%. I went through a lot of samples finding the right combination that, under varnish, matched what my wife wanted.

Yes, Pau Ferro for the fingerboard and tail piece. Also called Santos Rosewood. My choice was dictated by cost and availability as much as aesthetics! Many viols have very dark fingerboards, and many are actually Maple. Most, in fact, are veneers laminated over a Spruce base in order to keep the mass down. I didn't know this until after I made it!

The scroll is not totally open, there is a connecting web at the lower part. Hopefully you can see it in this photo.

The lower bout rests between the calves of the player. It is surprisingly comfortable and stable. It also makes the instrument more intimate, less removed, as a tool.

Renaissance viols would have minimal back bracing and no sound post. Later Baroque viols had a soundpost and so needed a more robust back which was accomplished with ladder braces as in a guitar. There is a large flat brace upon which the soundpost sits. The back and sides are dimensioned as in a guitar.

Dennis, what you are describing already exists in the form of an Arpegionne. Designed and built by guitar maker Johann Stauffer, it has 6 strings, is tuned like a guitar, and has fixed metal frets like a guitar. Traditionally it had smooth sides like a medieval fiddle, though one might say that the shape of the sides was more influenced by guitar making that any fiddle making tradition. The photos show an older and newer Arpegionne. From what I could find, the Arpegionne had a scale of about 60cm whereas the bass viol has a scale of about 66-68cm. I can give more dimensions, but they are not top of mind right now, I'll have to go measure.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Michael,

This is warms my heart! I have long admired your work, so to receive compliments from you are especially well received.

Add Jordi Savall, Paolo Pandolfo, and Hille Perl to your listening list. Paolo has done a version of the Bach cello suites on bass viol that is a marvelous, and revealing, interpretation, it is my current favourite of the suites. He argues for his use of the viol in this work that the suites were written during a transition time for the viol, the cello was a "new" instrument at the time. Cello music and performance would still have been substantially influenced by the tradition of playing the viol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y99G32NYm0A&list=PLB50EF46420CD784E

Play this through some good speakers, sit back, and enjoy! You'll wonder why you should ever listen to cello again.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Oh Dan,

You know I'm planking a new canoe and should have it off of the mould by this afternoon.

I was working with Pink Turtle playing in the shop yesterday, but I think that today it might be Pandolfo's Bach Cello suites.

Pink Turtle "Hotel California"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZe701YG4mM

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Thanks for the info! The scroll webbing looks good. Hard to see except straight from the side, and prevents getting any leverage on the short grain where I was worried about it breaking.

Watching some videos, I can see how it's held now. I'll have to give that a try with a cello and see how it feels... I think I'll stick with the end pin on my viol-ish instrument, though.

I'll definitely be using a soundpost, so I'll put in the large flat brace for it. Just makes too much mechanical sense, making one bridge foot a pivot, to translate the side-to-side vibration of a bowed string into pumping motion on the other foot.

Arpeggione does indeed look close to what I'm after, though I prefer the C bouts of your viol rather than the continuous sides, so I'll do that.

No need to go measuring everything. Now that I think of it, I really only need the scale length to calculate the rest from the photos. And being basically guitar sized makes it easy, since then I can just use one of my existing hoard of back/side sets. And I may actually be able to do a bent stave soundboard using some salvaged redwood house siding, so no need to buy new wood at all. I'll be looking forward to your writeup on that

So much for getting all my current projects done this year

I was having a hard time relating this instrument to the cello,especially how it was to be played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj7awwByBl4

Beautifully crafted! Thanks for sharing!

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Michael Lloyd

“I was born to ignorance, yes, and lesser poverties ...
I was born to privilege that I did not see ... I didn’t know it, but my way was paved” – John Gorka

That's just nuts, in the best possible way. Awesome! I'm looking forward to an explanation of bent stave construction, as that is something I've wanted to try for a while, albeit for a guitar (or GLO) back instead of a viola de gama soundboard.

BTW, I think you are the same Douglas Ingram that made the Clairtone globes on DIYA?? If so, it would be nice to see a picture of them together, if possible.

That's me

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Wow I love it.

Sent from my HTC One mini 2 using Tapatalk

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Nick

Follow my musings on getting started in luthiery http://www.tredwellinstruments.co.uk

Way to go Doug. That is amazing!!

I bet it was super stressful bending the head piece into that curly shape.

Very nice work, but seriously, looking forward to hearing it played

This is what the globes look like. Lots of holes to be drilled in a clean pattern! At the moment the Project G project is stalled here as I needed to get the viol finished, as well as home renovations, and work to pay the bills.

Careful readers will not that this post is still relevant to a luthiers forum as it shows three of my guitars on stands in the back.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Excellent! Thanks for the pic. The past and the future together, though I guess that future is a bit old as well.

Just got to this thread. Oh, my! That is really, really something! What do the insides look like?

I think the cello is my favorite instrument of the standard orchestra set of stringed instruments, and have listened to a fair number of Jordi Savall's recordings, but I think I need to look some more.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I am impressed, but who wouldn't be.
I have been following this project for a while and the results are scary-good.

Bob

Don't be silly Mike! Obviously that was not bent to shape. It is an extra heavy plane shaving with relief carving. You have to do a lot of canoe paddling to develop the arm strength to take a cut that heavy with a plane.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Here are some photos of the bent stave construction. Getting your head around what you are about to do is more complicated than actually doing it. There are several advantages to making an arch top this way as compared to carving it from full slabs as is usual for violin/cello or arch top guitar.

In typical OLF fashion, the photos end up showing in reverse order!

First, you can use much less wood! Several staves of good quality wood is all that is required, about 1 cm thick and about 5-6 cm wide. They are slip matched, bent, and glued together.

Secondly, there is a lot less carving to do as the arch is already established.

On a work board with the outline of the top drawn, set up a block at the highest point of the arch, and establish the angle for the second staves. Your staves will be bent over this block and it will maintain the curve while the wood dries. On the center stave, plane off some of the wood at each end so that the wood in its arched form has a flat spot on the bottom.

Soak all of your wood overnight.

Most builders use a hot pipe to bend the wood to its shape and residual scorch marks can be seen on historical instruments. I tried bending on the pipe but found that it was not very effective. Ultimately I used some boat building tricks and just bent the soaked wood using clamps and let it dry clamped. Leaving it dry in place for a few days, or longer, the wood keeps its shape very well. If you are impatient, just plan for this.

Once the wood keeps its bend, use your hand plane shooting style and establish the gluing surface. As you've bent the wood, its edges are no longer true for gluing. The gluing edges will all be vertical.

You will notice that the second stave out from the center has a double bend in it which creates a wide gap near the center. What to do? You could plane both ends till you have a straight edge, but traditionally the staves are wedge shaped, wider at the lower bout and tapering to more narrow at the upper bout. This simplifies how much wood you need to remove while shooting your edge.

Only the center three staves really need any bending as the viol has a kind of barrel shaped belly. The arch is more or less consistent along a center line rather that being wide in the upper bout, narrowing in the waist, then getting wide again in the lower bout. Some later instruments show some of this kind of shaping, and you can do it if you want. As a result of this shape, the remaining staves are simply glued on flat.

Once your glue is dried you can proceed to shaping. I'll post my photos of that later. I'm a little short of time right now as I need to go make dough for supper! And, in OLF fashion, the emoticon for the word p i z z a shows up instead of my word!

_________________
Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/