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

Chapter 15: XI. THE HEAD OR NECK.

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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.

XI. THE HEAD OR NECK.

In Fig. 8 we have a very beautiful model, representing as it does a perfect specimen of Stradivarius. Its form can be obtained by exactly copying the external outline and the measurements I-XV. The inner curve of the head must be worked out as shewn in Fig. 8 b. The back at the head (Fig. 8 c) should be 4 m/m. thick on the upper side and gradually increase by 3 m/m. towards the under side, so that at this point it reaches a thickness of 7 m/m. The peg-holes must be placed exactly as shewn in the model. If they have short heads, they can be placed a few millimetres nearer together from A to G without destroying the appearance of the instrument. The wood for the head and neck must always be so chosen that the grain and surface lie horizontally.