Violin Project 3/4 Begun

Earlier this week the guitar tuners came in the mail. It's a set of six open tuners with 3 for each side of the headstock. The "open" refers to the fact that you can see the peg screw and the gear that it turns. Since violins only have 4 strings, I'll end up with 2 spares.

Now that all of the hardware I ordered has been delivered, I started sketching out the blueprints to get an understanding of dimensions. I made both a side view and top-down view. They're mostly finished except I haven't decided on what angle the headstock should be. The neck of the violin is 3degrees lower than the body; this sets the strings and fretboard in line with one another. Yet the angle of the headstock does not effect the functionality of playing so the angle can vary. Seemingly different manufacturers claim it effects the tone of the instrument and as a result the manufacturer selects an angle and makes it their standard. I might just decide to make it 5 degrees, very scientific.

While mentioning the headstock and drawings, companies patent the design of the instruments' headstocks. Though the shape of the headstock doesn't change the sound much at all, companies usually put their brand name on it and try to make a recognizable shape to associate to their brand. So I went ahead and sketched tons of different shapes to try to find my design but in the end simply rounded the top to make the woodworking as simple as possible.

Also since the dimensions have been drawn out, I can make an educated guess as to the amount of wood I need. And if it stays dry enough, I'll stop by the lumber yard after work today to pick some up. Another thing after work today is going out to dinner with Oz's parents which means I get a random assortment of tools!