Handbook Of Violin Playing - Online tutorial

A Tutorial For Classical Style Violin, full online instruction.

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	THE INSTRUMENT.	13
	Amount of pressure upon the upper table. Through the combined influence of the strain and pressure of the strings upon the upper table, it supports a weight of about ioo lbs. Against this burden, this, in other respects, fragile instrument, opposes a wonderful power of resistance, an example of its ingenious yet simple construction. Size of the violin. The wood of the violin. The upper table is made of pine. This must be very old, dry, compact, straight in grain, whereby the choice of suitable wood is rendered difficult. For the back, ribs, neck and bridge, maple is used. The sound post and bass-bar consist usually of pine. For the finger­board and pegs*, ebony is the most serviceable. The old Italian violin makers procured their pine wood from Italian Switzerland, and from the South Tyrol; maple from Croatia, Dalmatia, and Turkey. instrument is level. The sketch shows the amount of slope to be made on the E side; the distances for the notches to receive the strings, and the amount to which the feet must be thinned in an ordinary full sized instrument. The height of the bridge is depen­dent, (for convenience of stopping), upon the height of the finger­board. A high bridge gives more power, but often the quality of tone is not so good. The E string being harder to press down (by reason of its greater tension) is kept a little nearer the fingerboard than the others. From the end of the fingerboard, the E string should be about this distance                    ________________________