Andrew Carruthers Violins

04/08/2024

My latest viola with plenty of tool marks and texture.

As far as I can tell the extra carving has no detrimental effect on the sound, the tone of an instrument is more noticeably controlled by the model, and materials used. Perhaps the tooling on these Off-beat Fiddles even mimics some of the notoriously uneven graduation patterns seen in classic master instruments and thought by some to contribute to their tonal color and richness.

Given all that, I've been enjoying the excitement, risks and rewards of exploring the uncertain and unknown.

04/08/2024

My latest viola with plenty of tool marks and texture.

As far as I can tell the extra carving has no detrimental effect on the sound, the tone of an instrument is more noticeably controlled by the model, and materials used. Perhaps the tooling on these Off-beat Fiddles even mimics some of the notoriously uneven graduation patterns seen in classic master instruments and thought by some to contribute to their tonal color and richness.

Given all that, I've been enjoying the excitement, risks and rewards of exploring the uncertain and unknown.

04/06/2023

The making of a violin from start to finish, with no shortage of satisfyingly crisp wood shavings

04/28/2021

Very happy that the Redwood Violin was covered by Strings.

Thanks to everyone who has been involved in the project!

04/23/2021

Here is a short summary of the "Made local" phase of the project. I've taken some of the main ideas and action from the six and a half hours of video I've p...

03/12/2021

Here's an account of Kalia Kliban, local woodturner, making pegs for the Redwood Violin. Kalia whole heartedly engaged in this process and the pegs came out great!
Heres an account of Kalia Kliban, local woodturner, making pegs for the Redwood Violin. Kalia whole heartedly engaged in this process and the pegs came out great!
Kalia Kliban's Woodworking Page

I talked with woodturner Kalia Kliban back in December about making some pegs for the violin. She had cleared some time in her schedule, done some research,

02/15/2021

Our project, The Redwood Violin, made the local Sunday paper!

Thanks to everyone who has been helping to bring this thing to life. Especially to my Valentine (and tech support), Tina Stenger.

More about the project www.theredwoodviolin.org

The Press Democrat story https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/lifestyle/santa-rosa-luthier-builds-redwood-violin-from-all-local-materials/

01/12/2021

Here's a new major project. Something that I thought of some years ago and now have time to work on -- Thank you COVID!

This newsletter represents the launch of The Redwood Violin Project. https://mailchi.mp/34849b26d64e/community-violin-project-launch

I am building a violin entirely out of local materials. The
finished violin will be available for some months for diverse local musicians to use in concerts or recordings. It will then be donated to the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra to benefit young musicians into the future.
You can read more about all of this, including accounts of the violinmaking process and of people I meet along the way, on our website https://theredwoodviolin.org

Please support this project by sharing this post and following this page!

10/23/2020

I've completed the carving on the outside of the plates. It was fun, making a lot of it up as I went along. When I laid out the two designs in pencil I thought that the O pattern was a little boring but now that they are carved I think that it is the stronger, more direct design.

Next week the really interesting part begins: tuning the plates. I'll be measuring the frequencies for the X and O modes. I'll give the two backs the same X mode frequency and see where the O mode falls. I suspect that the modes will be further apart on the X-Fiddle and closer together on the O-Fiddle. Some makers, who are more sophisticated than me, shape their plates to control these relative frequencies for tonal reasons. If you have any experience working with this I'd love to hear from you.

10/15/2020

And a sound comparison of the turtle fiddle to a violin on the same Del Gesu model

This is a sound comparison of two violins on the same Del Gesu model. One, the "Turtle Fiddle" has a scalloped surface.

10/15/2020

Here is a sound comparison of the Dimpled Viola with a "normal viola of the same model and dimensions

Compares the sound of two violas of the same model and dimensions (412mm back) . Both are made of similar poplar woods. The Dimpled viola has a scalloped sur...

09/29/2020

When the Turtle Fiddle turned out to sound very much like a normal fiddle I wondered how far I would have to push this sort of construction before it did have a noticeable effect on the sound.

Here are a number of ideas I considered all based around patterns of repeated units or "cells".

I'm going to build two violins with contrasting cell patterns and see what the affects will be. As much as a science-lite investigation into violin sound, this is a framework that allows me to have some fun with elements that I like in Nature, Geometry and Architecture.

You can read more about the ideas behind these fiddles on my website:

https://www.andrewcarruthers.com/cellular-fiddles-part-1-braces-modes-and-the-possibilities-of-shaping-sound/