Alto Viola da Gamba

A few years ago I started building a Viola da Gamba under the guidance of Gesina Liedmeier.

The original model is from a 1629 Alto viola from the renowned british maker Henry Jaye.

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According to its dimensions, it could also be considered a big Treble viola.

I started with the viol’s pegbox, carving out with chisels the main volumes and preparing a pattern for the scroll.

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Parallelly, the wood plates for the top (3 pieces) and the back (2 pieces) were cut to dimensions and planed. Spruce is used for the top plate and flamed maple for the back plate, as well as for the ribs.

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There are various techniques to give the front plate its shape, according to the time in history and countries. For this model, I first pre-bent the 3 plates and then proceeded with carving. Wood bending can be done in different ways, sometimes involving boiling the wood pieces in water or just bringing them to a higher temperature.

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Glueing the pieces together is made with a special mixture of hide/fish glue.

After that, a lot of time is spent planing the plates, measuring their thicknesses in order to match the historical model.

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The C-holes are carved with knives, and the inside of the top plate is also carved. At that point a small accident happened and I got an insight into restoration techniques.

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The back plate has additional reinforcing bars which are influencing its strength and flexibility.

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The ribs are then prepared and dry-bent with a bending iron. The shape has to match exactly the one from the template, which makes it an especially challenging but also very rewarding process. While bending the wood, one must beware of maintening the right humidity level else it just cracks!

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The neck/head is then carefully assembed to the ribs. Its overall alignment is crucial for the instrument’s quality.

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After adding the bassbar to the back of the front plate, which is going to participate in the mechanism of propagating the bridge vibrations to the rest of the body, some linen cloth bands are added inside the box to make the structure stronger.

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Finally, the front is glued in place.

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The fingerboard and tailpiece are then prepared. Again, the exact curvature has to be attained, which is a work of patience and precision.

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The black line underlining the top plate’s outline is added (the purflings) :

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To be continued…

 

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