Young Strings Field Trip

After reading Music in the Wood written by Cornelia Cornelissen and photographed by John MachLachlan, my young strings class was inspired to take a field trip to a local violin maker. The trip was organized in an instant by two of my student’s parents, Robin LaRoy. Two weeks later we met at the house of my friends, Kay and Tom Deluca. Tom has been making violins for many years and showed us each step of the process.

Tom DeLuca in his studio.

We learned to begin with wood that is at least 5 years old. A piece of wood used for violin making can be cut from the tree in either pie or slab form. Tom likes to pick interesting wood with interesting marks. That way a stolen instrument can be easily identified. At all stages of working the wood it is important to determine the quality of sound inherent in the wood. This is achieved by tapping the wood in its various stages beginning even with the pie and slab state.

The wood is checked by tapping.

We were shown patterns, designs and molds used to trace the violin shape into the wood. There is a machine used to steam bend the ribs into place. A channel for the purfling, a protective inlay of ebony, is carved into the top. Tom showed us the trickiest part; carving the bee sting. This is where the purfling meets in the corners of the violin.

Beesting!

Tom’s wife, Kay, mentioned that there is no straight line in the violin. The way the top and bottom of the violin plates are carved along with the thickness affects the sound. This is one of the key benefits of acquiring a hand-made instrument. All the parts have tap tones that match resulting in a connection of parts that is sometimes not found with factory made instruments, even factory hand-made instruments.

Once the body of the violin is carved, the neck and scroll are carved as one piece and glued in at the correct angle and height.

This violin has the neck in position. We can also see the bass bar which supports the bridge.

Now the pegs are set so they can turn and hold correct pitch. The fingerboard is fitted and hollowed in order to prevent the string from buzzing. Tom showed my students the soundpost and explained that the location is very important to the condition and sound of the instrument. Next the bridge is carved to perfectly fit the violin. Extra wood is removed from the bridge so that it doesn’t deaden the sound.

Students Observe Neck Placement

At this point the instrument is considered “white finished”. Next it must be coated to seal the wood and then varnished. We learned about two types of varnish; spirit and oil. The spirit varnish is fast to dry so several coats go on quickly. Oil varnish is slow to dry and may need a week of dry time between each coat. Then the varnish is rubbed out with pumice to either mute or retain the gloss.

A violin in the “white” stage.

Mr. Deluca showed us all his files, tools and scrapers. Many of his tools he modified himself and must be kept very sharp. We briefly covered how to set up the strings. Different strings sound different on different instruments. This is very similar to picking a bow for the violin. Robin LaRoy could relate to this. She said “picking a bow was like picking out a wand in Harry Potter”.

Tom Deluca did not know about the book, Music in the Wood, but his presentation was remarkably similar. From tap tones to gluing the pieces the pictures and story of this book really prepared us for our field trip. I can’t believe that after all my years playing violin, I still had questions for Tom!