Thanks, I get it now.

Is it your experience with other instruments that changing the bolt tension alters the sound? Or are they a set-and-forget structural component?

As far as the specific bolt tension goes is a question mark for me. That will be a case of experimenting with different setups. What I “Think “ is that it will be important to have even tension on either of the soundboards. This is uncharted territory really, I know it works wonderfully for guitar but the violin is a very different animal. The way a fiddle top vibrates when it is bowed may not suit this system and we could end up with what Rich describes as just another novel item (the loudest violin ever so long as it’s plucked). Figuring out how to mount a chin and shoulder rest is in the front of my mind right now.

Meanwhile. Onwards and upward. Here’s the 4 port holes to allow the body to breathe.

Onwards and upward…Orville and Wilbur Wright had many planes that crashed before their design (literally) took off!

( here in NC our license plates say proudly “first in flight”) :-)

3 pipers, guitar and fiddle last night at Montgomerys in town. The new guy Darragha popped in from London. Very good piper, he was born and raised a few miles out the road. That guitar that John is playing is a Lowden (northern Ireland). One of the best sounding guitars in a session I’ve ever heard.

A bit more work done while I’m waiting for the bolts to arrive from the UK. I’ve started on a headless variant or should that be pegboxless? Anyhow it will easily fit the airline carry-on dimensions. I took some photos of the glueing of the walnut strips to make up for not getting them earlier.
The fingerboard is placed on the neck to get an idea of where it has to be trimmed down. The angle of it is very close to right. The fingerboard needs to be lowered 2mm at the nut end get the action/bridge height right. There’s some photos showing how the whole thing lines up with a standard instrument in the background.

No work done over the weekend. The Leitrim County Fleadh was on in full swing! So anyhow it’s all back to work today. I cut out the correct line for the top of the neck where the fingerboard attaches and cut the sides. Then I set up some sandpaper on the granite tabletop to sand it down to perfectly flat. You can see how much material has been removed. Now the pegbox and scroll is marked out ready for drilling and cutting.

3 pipers! Our piper would be jealous. There is only one other piper in our area that we know of…he’s happily going to Swannanoa to gather with a bunch of pipers there. We had a visiting bodhran player…he walked in with big round case and the session organizer said hesitantly, “Is that a bodhran??” But he turned out to be very good. (He wasn’t offended at all, I think you develop a thick skin as a bodhran player LOL) Our visitors are usually stronger players than us! I guess you have to be a fairly confident player, to go around visiting strange sessions.

FIddle seems to be coming along well.
The scroll looks like it’s going to be fun to do!
WIll it fit into a standard banjo or mando case for carrying?

Coming to think of it, didn’t see any pipers around the Fleadh on the weekend. Plenty of good fiddle players one sensational flute player from Cavan and last year’s All Ireland champion (miscellaneous) bouzouki player. They ran a street busking competition for the U18s. €600 prize money. The street was packed the whole way up the town with the most serious kids I’ve ever seen! The Offaly County Fleadh is on this weekend, that is usually a good one too. Ours (Westmeath) is just under 3 weeks away so I need to pick up on the practice.

I did a bit on the fiddle this afternoon drilled out and cut out the rough shape of the scroll. I want a lightweight scroll to balance the neck better. When you see how it’s done it is easy to do and when it is finished it will look pretty classy.

Oh as to the fit. It will be exactly the same length as a regular 4/4 violin. Height will work out about the same. The width is 9 & 1/2 inches. It probably won’t fit into a violin case, so maybe a mandolin softbag might suit.

The scroll is looking very modern and classy!