The violin and the art of its construction: a treatise on the Stradivarius violin

Chapter 12: VIII. WORKING-OUT THE THICKNESSES OF THE BELLY AND BACK.

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About This Book

The treatise offers practical, step-by-step guidance on making, repairing, and caring for violins, grounded in the author's decades of workshop experience and admiration for Stradivarius. It begins with selection and properties of woods, then proceeds through construction details—ribs, back, belly, arching, purfling, thicknessing, f-holes, bass-bar, neck, fingerboard, and dimensions—and continues with fittings such as pegs, bridge, tailpiece, sound-post, and strings. Final chapters address varnish, cleaning, maintenance, and bow construction, combining technical measurements with hands-on tips for professional makers and informed amateurs.

VIII. WORKING-OUT THE THICKNESSES OF THE BELLY AND BACK.

The thickness of the breast in the back amounts to 4 m/m. at the spot where the sound-post stands and remains the same to a distance of 50 m/m. towards the bottom block, and 60 m/m. towards the upper block, while it decreases to 3 m/m. towards the middle rib. The cheeks must be 1 to 2 m/m. thick. I have assured myself by numberless measurements that Stradivarius often changed the thickness of the back; and has even gone so far as to make it 6 m/m., while the belly which he made from the soundest and most perfect wood, with very evenly disposed grain, measured always exactly 2¹⁄₂ m/m.