I think it important to keep in mind the original premise as stated by Dennis at the beginning of the video. He wants to break with traditional violin crafting methods and craft a violin with a CNC. He also acknowledges the traditional woods that the masters used in their violins but, again, breaking with tradition using olivewood. At the very least Dennis has crafted four beautiful pieces of art that would grace any home or office and what a conversation starter! Watching the care Dennis takes with the string components [fingerboard et al] I find it hard to believe the sound will be 'horrid', but certainly as good as, at the very least, as a mass produced student violin, hopefully better. Remember, Dennis never stated that his quest was to produce an instrument rivaling the sound of the masters. What I think would be interesting would be to compare the sound of the four. I say well done, Dennis! You are to be congratulated for your CNC and hand crafting skills.
Thank you for concisely reiterating what others may have missed or forgotten (or maybe some chose to ignore) by the time they got to the end of the video. You sum it up quite well, and I appreciate you pointing that out. :) I think I'm just as curious to know what they sound like in the hands of a skilled violinist, and I'm working hard on that most frequently asked question answered. But the pandemic hasn't made it any easier to reach out to orchestras and professional violinists. A follow up video will be posted... some day...!
'Magic Woods' are overrated. It's like winemakers talking about tasting 'the soil' in wines. Geometry of the parts is most important, which a CNC can excel at repeating. Blind professional player tests of Strad vs modern made violins reveal over and over they can't tell the difference, which is better/worse. People listen with their eyes and there is magic in marketing.
I would really like to hear this violin played by a professional violinist and hearing his opinion about the tone, feel, performance and the overall look of this violin.
It wouldn’t make a sound or be dull and scratchy Imagine a violin being a finely tuned automatic wristwatch compared to the watch from the dollar store Yeah, might make a sound.... but not one you’d want to listen to Also.... I’d expect it to just rip apart The strings of a tuned violin have a downwards pressure of around 27kg and the vibrations are extreme. It also looks like he didn’t install a sound post (a vertical piece of wood, roughly under the bridge that makes sure the instrument doesn’t collapse) It’s nice to look at, but as someone who plays the violin.... that’s not gonna happen
@@arwo1143 You are making a lot of assumptions without even a test. Yes, all of what you said is true and the violin might explode when you look at it the wrong way, or it might also not. Hence why we are asking for a test with a professional. You on the other hand are trying to sell the fur before shooting the bear, or in this case you are judging the violin before it got a chance to explode and rip apart on us while playing.
@@arwo1143 He sure did install a soundpost starting at 26:55. All the same this violin will not make a great sound because the top is of hard olive wood which will not resonate in the sound range of a violin. The top is usually made of spruce, sometimes fir or similar. This is for resonance reasons. The rest of the instrument is usually made of maple. Dennis mentioned both in the video. I believe these violins were made for the fun of building some string instruments with modern tools and remarkable looks.
@@arwo1143 "finely tuned automatic wristwatch compared to the watch from the dollar store" A dollar store watch is more accurate. Actually, a cheap watch is almost as consistent as an atomic clock the size of a bathtub (consistent and accurate is not the same). No comparison to a mechanical watch.
@@arwo1143 At 29:21 he plays open strings with full tension and the sound post was installed at 26:53. I'm no expert on violin tone, but I think the sound is tolerable at least.
I couldn't help but comment on your humour here; nicely said! You have spent years of skillful work (I am sure) at creating "sawdust and woodchips"! With this amount of humour, I would be interested to see what kind of creations you came up with!
Wow that's a beautiful violin! The olive wood is stunning, the craftsmanship looks excellent! Now the question on everyone's mind is: how does it sound? Please post a video of an experienced player demonstrating it, thanks!
I was COMPELLED to send Dennis a PM. This makes flags, signs, cabinet and furniture parts seem like I've been whittling with a dull pocket knife. This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
I am not into violins per se....but woods, as I always look up woodworking videos, thus, that is likely how your video hit me. The wood is striking. This is absolutely the most beautiful violin I have ever seen, I am not one for heavy stain and would much rather see the beauty of the wood and it's grain. Thank you for posting.
Although I am not a violin maker, my dad was, and I learned a lot from him, and even with the background of having observed a violin maker growing up, I am impressed by what CNC can do. I think the integrated bass bar is brilliant. Also, CNC-cutting the scroll is brilliant as well. The scroll is incredibly skill-intensive to carve properly. The idea that a CNC machine could give you a nice scroll without that kind of difficulty is fantastic. I am persuaded that there's no good reason a CNC'ed violin can't be just as good as an old fashioned hand-carved violin. I also learned a tremendous amount from this video about CNC wood carving methods. Thanks for making this video.
@@dennisvanhoof9958 would you like to do a violin enhancement experiment that doesn't strictly depend on CNC, but would be super interesting to do? I have an idea that I feel someone needs to do, since I'm not a violin maker, and am not equipped to do it.
@@Berkana Thanks for the offer, but I'm not a luthier either, and I do not plan on making more violins. I'm a wood artist, and have already moved on with many (totally) different projects after these violins here. Check out my RUclips channel for more work to get an idea.
When i was very young i choosed to study music. But because i had serious problems with carpal tunnel syndrom i had to stop playing music instruments so i switched to study mechanical engineering and many decades i designed cnc machines (very big ones) and other machines which where mostly build with any kind of cnc machines, but never build any music instrument. Now i am old and i love to see how you created a beautiful cnc version of a kind of traditional instrument and i really love to see that. It really touches me, loved to watch your building process. Good work !
I'm a classical musician (piano, harp, and flute), and I'm a firm believer that instruments are technology and should be tinkered with for the sheer fun of it from time to time. These are wonderful and fun, and I would seriously buy an acoustic one if you were to put them up for sale, just out of curiosity and to support people who explore new materials and methods of construction. The only thing that made me cringe was the permanent wood glue. Definitely consider hide glue in the future so that these instruments can be opened up in the future if need be.
there is the rosa string works channel and that luthier says the old masters used hide glue because that was the best they had. now rsw says that the green tightbond 1 is far superior and will allow for disassembly again the same as hide glue. if the old masters had tightbond they would use hide glue selectively and use tightbond more often.
@@texas77563 If you need to open an instrument held together by wood glue -- you'll just end up destroying it. Yes, use alternate glues but use a water soluble one. No one with a valuable violin should get it fixed by Rosa String Works. I do like his channel though.
It doesn't matter what the violin will sound like. It is a piece of art created with passion and a lot of skill. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
If they do awards for best youtube video this should work of yours should be a definite contender. What a great video and great workmanship. I also appreciate that you think of your viewers as adults who know their way around a wood shop. I was impressed with how humble your shop was, it proves the kind of craftsmanship that can be accomplished with modest tools. Bravo Dennis, great job. I can't imagine violin makers of hundreds of years ago saying "get that cnc out of my shop !!
Thank you for the awesome comments! It is exactly those appreciative and kind words like yours that make it worth the effort to keep posting videos. And I'm happy to share any new techniques and insights that may inspire and encourage fellow woodworkers to push their tools/machines, craftsmanship and engineering skills to the max, so that they can realize projects to be proud of. It shows that imagination is the only limitation to what humanity is capable of. Thank you, sir; you made my day! :)
that was awesome, and now we want to hear it played (my mom was a professional violinist so I have a love for quartet music), and to all the folks that say this olive wood violin can't sound good I say nonsense, I've seen classical guitars made with every conceivable wood and they almost all sound good, the old timers mostly didn't experiment they just used what was available and what worked in the past, but now we have so much more to chose from and we can experiment.
I am a indian classical musician coming from generations of musicians & film composers in my family, we have lots of traditions so before my uncle's nobody learnt western music and we learnt it too so breaking tradition is a good thing it helps to learn new things, this violin is a beautiful sounding instrument and would be excellent when a master plays it
I have never seen anything quite like this, I wasn't too keen as you were using a CNC machine, but I was really surprised at the amount of work involved. You didn't use the CNC for roughing out a violin blank, you created a thing of beauty, I'm very impressed. Great job.
I question your aversion to the use of the CNC. It is capable of more consistent and reproduceable work than a human can do over a run of production numbers. The key is the way that the CNC system is used, the ingenuity of the programming and attention to detail along with the understanding of how to best use the materials. This can drastically reduce the cost to consumers for fine instruments. It is the future...
I have the same machine, maybe if you did too you would realise its not much of a shortcut. This piece of art, produced with the help of the CNC is outstanding.
While I don't have his CNC router, I have CNC metal lathes and mills. I understand that the learning curve is initially steep. The point that I was making is that once the processes are established, the CNC systems are more than equal to any other processes, repeatable and consistent.
@@rickkernell2486 I'm not doubting your skills or knowledge mate, I guess I'm trying to draw attention to the fact that this is no milling machine. Flimsy in comparison and no where near as repeatable without loads of tweaking constantly. That violin is the best product i've seen the shapeoko produce, hands down.
My God, brilliant! I want to make guitars with CNC as I've been building them for nearly 40 year and have 25 years in 3D animation so it would be really nice to combine the two. I love that you have really thought out every stage. And, those violin notes wheren't bad - keep at it! I used to play violin and I learnt a massive amount about guitar and music from it.
Yes, a flat top Acoustic Gibson Gospel style with sides and bottom shaped and made like a viola or cello, bolt on neck. Black Walnut for back and sides like the Lowden in the video below. Sinker redwood for top. here is the very video. ruclips.net/video/sK6hPyOmPY4/видео.html. Well, I can dream can't I LOL... Beautiful workmanship and woods.
Hello! so first off, as a violinist (non professional) and carpenter, I love that you are bringing a modern edge to this craft. A few things I noticed/information that may be helpful to you in future instruments. The ribs being milled from a single piece instead of bent into shape may affect the tone. (won't know if its good or bad until we see an expert play it!) you didn't clamp the neck. I understand the clamping issue, but without any clamping force, the glue may not have set properly, there could be small air pockets, or it could potentially just be a weak joint. on the next one, you could use some string or rope to bind it while the glue cures. you used Deft brushing lacquer for your finish. It's a great product, but its technically a lacquer, not a varnish. It's solvent based, and is effectively cured in 2 hours. I'm sure there are alternatives for animal hide glue, but every good violin will need to be taken apart at some point in its life for repairs. Last, but likely not least, I noticed that you have no purfling. (those thin black lines on the edge of a wooden violin) while it is there for aesthetics, it's also there to prevent cracks traveling from the edge through the body. Other than all of that, I think you made a beautiful instrument, and I'm excited to see a professional play it some day!
Thank you for your extensive and constructive feedback! Most "wrongdoings" were intentional (no purfling, the ribs out of one piece, the choice of lacquer, which is indeed not varnish, but you really don't want to hear me trying to pronounce that word with my Dutch accent, without the need for subtitles of closed captions); I consider them to fall within the artistic freedom that a non-luthier woodworker has. ;) I've used clamps for the handful of violins I made after this (final) prototype that I show in the video (including special fingerboard loop clamps from StewMac), but have moved on to completely different projects that are not even remotely related to musical instruments since then.
Dennis, While watching this video, I was repeatedly impressed with everything you did here and your talent for all of this. Not just the woodworking, the epoxy pouring, and your knowledge of instruments, but also your ability to create an interesting video, while showing interesting content and being clear in your ability to describe what you are doing and why. TL:DR, Amazing video, Amazing skill keep it up and thank you!
I love this. I'm a baroque violinist playing on a fine instrument from the early 1700s, and my peers are such backwards purists that it is unbelievable. Now, I can understand them. Hell, I'm a tone purist when it comes to my own instrument, and I wouldn't even dream of putting on synthetic strings and completely ruin and kill my tone and therefore the joy of playing. I recognise how to achieve the sweetest tones possible, and what it takes, and that traditional purists aren't wrong. However, even though I'm really purist with my main instrument, I believe in general that violins should evolve and develop. This is a really cool step in developing it further, and I can already tell from the sound of it that it has potential to be a really nice sounding instrument for certain kinds of music. Also, it looks great! I wouljd have loved to have one of them to use for just having fun playing at home or if doing some other, more contemporary types of music. Hell, I'd even try removing all the modern hardware and put on some proper gut strings and see what it could be capable of as a pure, untouched violin. Maybe I would be surprised? My backwards peers wouldn't even consider that possibility though. I love when people do these kinds of things. We need old masterbuilt instruments to get some of the sweet and complex tones we need for early music etc, but we also need a luthier community that is alive, and not just filled with people copying the old styles perfectly for the entirety of their life. That would be dystopian in my view. Although I cannot for the life of me understand why you didn't use hide glue. You WILL have to open that violin up in the years to come, that isn't even a question, so I think hide glue is a no-brainer :)
Thank you for your extensive feedback and sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your constructive comments. :) I'm also happy that you understand I'm not trying to compete with or do better than any traditional luthiers. It's just a different approach, a fun project, thinking outside the box, and an entertaining video for an artistic result. Thank you for watching! :)
@@FatherSaccharine Yes you can, actually. That test (and EVERY SINGLE OTHER TEST LIKE IT) is performed on rebuilt Strads with modern strings and modern setups, identical to pretty much every violin being built today. It is no secret that synthetic and steel strings take away quite a bit from the tone of the instruments. Modern strings are NOT made to sound "beautiful" or "rich" or "complex". They are made to be LOUD. That't it. To have a violin setup in a modern manner, you gain a lot of volume and projection, but lose maybe 20-30% of the complexity and richness of the instrument. For baroque violinist, volume - and to a certain degree depending on situation - is worthless to us. We only care about tone, which is why we use different setups and different strings, not necessarily just because it is traditional. And when you play with a neck with no steepness to it, a different bass bar, pure gut strings and no hardware like rests attached to the violin, it will sound completely different than it did before, and each violin will sound WILDLY different from eachother. But if you set up the same instruments in a modern fashion, they will sound pretty much the same with just small differences. The modern setup narrows the tone of the instrument to gain volume, and makes each violin sound similar. Which is why these tests mean nothing unless you play on a modern setup. If you have a modern setup and modern strings, a Strad will sound like any other modern built violin.
@@dennisvanhoof9958 Finally: the end of the mystery on choosing the monstrous glue so devilish for instrument makers! So safety versus longevity vs ability to repair and make it last even longer! But I am sure you now know why both musicians and luthiers have cringed so much upon your original choice, lolllll.
So many haters in the comments, while the construction method used was not traditional or as beautiful an art form as hand carving, it is certainly evident that a LOT of care and thought was put into every single stage of this build. Well done. Im hoping there is a follow up video somewhere with someone playing these, I've no doubt they sound great.
Never played violin, never will. Never had a CNC, never will. But became totally fixed to the monitor for the whole time. Frkng great job, man. Love it!
I was very skeptical that it would produce sound but it does appear to sound like a violin at the end! Thanks, that was an interesting watch from somebody who knows nothing about CNC
A wonderful project, done with skill (DEEP skill) sensitivity and great organisational planning. And beautifully presented too. A true work of art. Bravo!
As a professional violinist, I've often wondered why we don't use more technology in producing violins and this is an existing example. The final result sounds quite good. I was pleasantly surprised. Setup can make a big difference, so tweaking the sound post, bridge and strings...
What Dennis has made is a piece of art, and as I understand is not meant to be comparable to a real violin. The reason that violins aren’t normally made with machines is that they are pieces of art, not a product. Every handmade violin is unique, and the process for making a violin is a beautiful and precise process. If we use machines to make violin making easier and more efficient, we lose sight of what a violin really is. Dennis is not trying to make a real violin, what he’s made serves a completely different purpose.
@@michaelfrank4922 With all my respect for your opinion, but I must disagree. The purpose of a musical instrument is to play with the best sound possible. The means you use to achieve this are mere means to achieve this goal. If plastic violins sounded better than wooden ones, they would all be plastic. I aknoledge the knowledge, craftsmanship and even poetry attached to making an instrument but eventually it all comes down to sound production. If technology helps to improve it it should be used.
@@jazzman_10 I suppose so, but technology did not make this violin sound better than a “traditionaly” made violin. And couldn’t you say that making an instrument sound it’s best is part of the art?
@@michaelfrank4922 I agree. The point I was trying to make is that it is quite futile to go against technology. The level of craftsmanship machines are obtaining is increasingly better because humans keep on improving it as we use them and also because they are efficient and reduce costs. If it weren't for them, only a few could afford to buy a hand made car or pretty much anything you may think of. Technology has bought consumer goods' prices down to affordable for everyone. Now, I am pretty sure that a good craftsman could make a difference, but is is smaller as time goes by and even themselves use certain specific tools designed for their task. We are just changing the tools...
@@jazzman_10 yes, technology is progress. But when you industrialize the production of many things, everything becomes the same, and part of what makes some violins and many other things so much more expensive or beautiful than others is their uniqueness, and the uniqueness of violins and other such things is so important because each player is different and needs different qualities in their instrument to be able to play the best they can. Some things should not be industrialized. That being said, factory made violins are much more accessible and cheaper, which is better for people who can’t afford a 20,000 dollar violin, but they simply just aren’t as good. Technology is useful, but it is dangerous and not always necessary. If you could industrialize human reproduction, would you? No, cuz that would make everyone the same, and that’s stupid.
Since most violinists are very picky and strict it would not be considered a "good" violin by them. Let alone the epoxy. Not saying it's bad. You would simply never see it in an orchestra.
@@drheud1512 not necessarily. Materials other than spruce and maple have been used successfully. Carbon fiber violins, violas, and celli by Luis and Clark are considered excellent instruments by world renowned artists.
Contact youtubers from TwoSetViolin so they can give a try to all four violins (Maybe even Hillary Hahn or other top violinists might try it aftewards)! They would be delighted and it would be awesome! Just a thought (as a side effect your channel will grow like at least by ten fold in the process!) Really outstanding work!
I doubt the review from TwoSet would be good. The use of olive wood is a bad decision for making a playable violin because it has high density and irregular grain, thus not being resonant enough. Gluing the violin together with permanent wood glue is also a bad call, because as he noted it can't be opened in the future for any repairs. The wood-glue mistake in particular makes me wonder if the creator did much research on how to build violins at all. After all, you need to know why things are done a certain way before you change them. These creations are wonderful works of art, that's for sure, and I find them beautiful. But in all honesty they are VSOs - violin shaped objects - and not real violins.
Thank God for the internet for sourcing and getting material from all over the world quite easily. Excellent work. Thank you for the education on mold release products. Something tells me that you have learned a lot off past projects, as you have your coordinate references and the dust shields working for you. You are a true maestro. I have one special wish-to bring Antonius forward 400 years for 30 minutes to be able to see how you made this beautiful instrument. Not only are you a fine instrument craftsman, but your video work was very very good. Did you appreciate the smell of olives when you cut the olive wood? That’s one of the special treats when working in olive wood. I wish my friend Jack Benny were still alive to try out that instrument!
Very interesting project! It seems kind of heretical in a way because luthiers have for centuries used only purely natural materials and hand work; but it is an impressive demonstration of Mr. van Hoof's understanding of the mechanics of the instrument. As some others have commented I would also like to see a master violinist play and evaluate the instrument. Thank you very much Dennis. I appreciate your work very much.
I think it’s great that he is pursuing non-standard construction techniques and using nonstandard materials. I like to see old assumptions respected, but challenged anyway. And of course, most of the time, the tried and true solution was chosen for a good reason, and so you fail. That’s okay. Because sometimes you don’t fail, and that’s how you improve the state of the art.
Well, it may look good, or interesting, but the proof of the violin is its song. Let's hear someone who is a violin virtuoso like Hilary Hahn play it in a concerto by Mozart or Beethoven. With all that epoxy how resonant will the instrument be?
@@KOLODNY95 Well yes, epoxy scares the "..." from my violin playing technique and "resonance". But then again, olive wood lines, though gorgeous to look at and admire, is tortuous to say the least; I don't know how it can carry the sound at it's best capacity. But again, how beautiful to look at!
Beautiful. With that sort of technology, consistency can be maintained when creating multiple parts. And, if it sounds good as a final instrument, it is as it should be. It might be interesting to have a professional violinist compare playability, and sound to a handmade instrument. The results could be surprising. :)
leuke video Dennis. I love that your presentation in English is clearer and easier to listen to than many videos by native speakers (of which I am one!) Thanks
Finally some violin building RUclipsr who is actually thinking on the sound post! Bravo! :D I also was searching for the bass bar and saw, that it was already on the top as part of the carving. That's cool :O But that finger board is thicc!
Fine violins, guitars and pianos all use spruce as the tone wood for the sound boards. On violins and guitars that is the tops. The sides, ribs, the back and the neck, you can use the pretty woods. But pretty woods don't vibrate like spruce (light with a strong. tight, straight grain to carry the vibrations). Your violins are beautiful!!!
Dennis this Violin produces an amazing sound! It has great reverb the strings are balanced. If you do not know how to play it and got that sound already. This is a professional instrument. If you will, make a tryout video with some professional players. I’m a luthier, and this us impressive.
Hey, that is really exciting to know! Tank you for sharing this insight. I very much appreciate and highly value the constructive feedback from professional luthiers like yourself. I'm also very much looking forward to having a skilled violinist play this instrument. Once the whole COVID-19 pandemic is better under control, it should be easy to find one who can test it out. Stay tuned...! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 I haven't studied at a famous place and don't make violins, but I can play them, and I also was pleasantly surprised by those open strings. This violin does seem to have a nice sound. I also would like to see what someone who does know how to play can do with it. It doesn't even need to be a professional to provide significant insight into the tonal character of the instrument. I'd be happy to play it for you, on camera for your audience to see, if you happen to be somewhere near Michigan.
I came to the comments to say this. The guy did an awesome job with the rest of the piece, the only thing that looked off to me was the thickness of the fingerboard and the use of regular wood glue. If some part of the instrument breaks, it's impossible to repair. Use of melting glue allows the pieces to be disassembled, repaired and replaced as needed. It sounded pretty good at the end.
It was so cool seeing the violin being shaped as a piece of art work, though the sound may not be as resonant as the traditional ones since the olive wood probably won't vibrate as well as the maple wood. Great job!!!
Original soundboards aren’t maple, they’re spruce, either Sitka or red spruce, sometimes englemann spruce. The back is maple to keep the violin strong. The olivewood may actually be better than maple in some ways (new growth maple is softer than traditional old growth) however using olivewood instead of spruce will ruin the sound
Very Very impressive. I thought you were some sort of avid fiddler but I was shocked to find out you didn't even play! How you pulled that off without having ever used one is really quite impressive. I've been asked to make guitar's but I have no idea what I need to do to create one properly.
Thanks, Dan! The best advice I can give you is to read a lot about it, ask experienced experts as many questions as you have, be very critical of your own work, and don't be afraid to make mistakes. I went through 5 prototypes before I finally built one that I believed was up to the standards. I learned the most from countless of failures. You can do it!
Absolutely fascinating! I am neither a woodworker nor a violinist, but I watched the entire 29:38! This is February, 2022. I hope you have been able to sell these beautiful pieces! As a musician - who does NOT play the violin (keyboard, piano, some occasional guitar) - I am extremely intrigued by the use of non-traditional materials. The original woods would have ben chosen for their functions, not their aesthetics, but, additionally, olive wood would - rats, I did it again! - impossible for Stradivarius et al to use , as clearly evidenced by your use of epoxy. I would love to hear these pieces played in concert, if not to hear them then to see them! (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada).
I know a lot of traditional luthiers consider CNC cheating, but they didn't use to accept CA glue, either, now we all use it. Believe me, if I could afford CNC, I would! As a much younger man, I hand cut the pearl for an F5 mandolin torch peghead and will never, ever do that again. A friend of mine put his kids through college doing CNC pearl for Gibson and Fender.
When you were gluing on that finger board you could have used a little pinch of table salt. The table salt keeps the boards from sliding around while clamping. Clamping pressure always makes a better joint, even though you don't need heavy pressure. An old wood worker's trick for those interested. I use it to glue on guitar fingerboards with success.
Thanks for the tip! I purchased fingerboard band clamps from StewMac after I finished the violin in this video: www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?search=fingerboard%20band%20clamp
@@dennisvanhoof9958 tiny piece of a brad nails will do it too, put two in the neck (one on each end and press the finger board into them when lined up. keeps from sliding when gluing
@@creativebobbo I too am a regular at RSW, He often uses titebond II and many other adhesives. His years of experience have taught him which is the best way for him for each particular job and if it's good enough for him ..... People forget that hide glue was the best back then but adhesive technology has improved greatly over the years and to just dismiss new ideas is terribly narrow minded. BTW, I loved chocolate which demonstrates your point exactly.
This looks absolutely stunning. It would probably be a pain to carve olive wood by hand but if I were a violinist and the instrument sounded good, it would be such an amazing piece of art to play
What a neat project. I too, would like to hear an assessment from a professional, perhaps "blind" in the sense that they would know nothing of who or how it was created.
It looks absolutely great, you've done great work with the CNC, absolutely stunning. I'm afraid it will stay a decoration piece though given that it's not repairable. The top, bottom, and ribs look a bit thick compared to what's handcarved and bent in a traditional violin. It would have been great to hear how the top and bottom sound when struck, and see how flexible they are :) Also very curious about the acoustic properties of olive wood and epoxy. Apart from that, congrats on the work and the video, it's actually the 2nd time I watch it! In the end, I'm all for innovation in violin making, but I think some concepts have to be kept from the traditional way of making to preserve the sound qualities of the violin if it is to be played.
Absolutely fascinating - a rarity in that I watched it all of the way through at normal speed. Beautiful work, creating some gorgeous artwork. However, just 3 points: 1 no varnish on the neck - people's hands stick to varnish too well and the back of the neck is bare wood (from violins to cellos and into the viol family with the double bass as well (I checked mine just to make sure and mine was made around 1880); 2 the front (the belly) is usually made from pine with a nice straight grain, running from top to bottom. There is a reason for this. The speed of sound across the grain is around a quarter of that along the grain and the distance between the f holes is around a quarter of length of the body. In this way, the sound gets to the f holes and the top and bottom at around the same time (research project for a PhD in music for somebody here, finding out the actual difference in sound from the differences implied here). With a beautiful piece of wood like the one you use in this video, they will arrive at different times and affect the sound. 3 you are using normal white wood glue. Apart from the effect that you stated in the video insofar as you cannot separate the pieces afterwards without leaving traces of glue filling the pores of the wood; PVA glue creeps. That is to say that if you have a joint under stress, it will move over time whereas the bone glue joints will not. remember these instruments will last for hundreds of years (my DB is over 140yo).
Thank you for your kind words and constructive feedback! I really appreciate the time you took to write this down and share your expertise and insights. I will keep all your suggestions in mind, if I ever build another violin. But for now, I'll focus on several completely different art projects that are not even remotely related to music. :)
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I think it important to keep in mind the original premise as stated by Dennis at the beginning of the video. He wants to break with traditional violin crafting methods and craft a violin with a CNC. He also acknowledges the traditional woods that the masters used in their violins but, again, breaking with tradition using olivewood. At the very least Dennis has crafted four beautiful pieces of art that would grace any home or office and what a conversation starter! Watching the care Dennis takes with the string components [fingerboard et al] I find it hard to believe the sound will be 'horrid', but certainly as good as, at the very least, as a mass produced student violin, hopefully better. Remember, Dennis never stated that his quest was to produce an instrument rivaling the sound of the masters. What I think would be interesting would be to compare the sound of the four. I say well done, Dennis! You are to be congratulated for your CNC and hand crafting skills.
Thank you for concisely reiterating what others may have missed or forgotten (or maybe some chose to ignore) by the time they got to the end of the video. You sum it up quite well, and I appreciate you pointing that out. :)
I think I'm just as curious to know what they sound like in the hands of a skilled violinist, and I'm working hard on that most frequently asked question answered. But the pandemic hasn't made it any easier to reach out to orchestras and professional violinists. A follow up video will be posted... some day...!
Well, in the meantime maybe you could create a family portrait of your "babies"! Stay safe and thanks again for your wonderful video.
'Magic Woods' are overrated. It's like winemakers talking about tasting 'the soil' in wines. Geometry of the parts is most important, which a CNC can excel at repeating. Blind professional player tests of Strad vs modern made violins reveal over and over they can't tell the difference, which is better/worse. People listen with their eyes and there is magic in marketing.
do you sell these violins, and how much would you charge for them>
@@johnpayne1523 please send a message to contact@topoarts.com
I would really like to hear this violin played by a professional violinist and hearing his opinion about the tone, feel, performance and the overall look of this violin.
It wouldn’t make a sound or be dull and scratchy
Imagine a violin being a finely tuned automatic wristwatch compared to the watch from the dollar store
Yeah, might make a sound.... but not one you’d want to listen to
Also.... I’d expect it to just rip apart
The strings of a tuned violin have a downwards pressure of around 27kg and the vibrations are extreme. It also looks like he didn’t install a sound post (a vertical piece of wood, roughly under the bridge that makes sure the instrument doesn’t collapse)
It’s nice to look at, but as someone who plays the violin.... that’s not gonna happen
@@arwo1143 You are making a lot of assumptions without even a test. Yes, all of what you said is true and the violin might explode when you look at it the wrong way, or it might also not. Hence why we are asking for a test with a professional. You on the other hand are trying to sell the fur before shooting the bear, or in this case you are judging the violin before it got a chance to explode and rip apart on us while playing.
@@arwo1143 He sure did install a soundpost starting at 26:55. All the same this violin will not make a great sound because the top is of hard olive wood which will not resonate in the sound range of a violin. The top is usually made of spruce, sometimes fir or similar. This is for resonance reasons. The rest of the instrument is usually made of maple. Dennis mentioned both in the video. I believe these violins were made for the fun of building some string instruments with modern tools and remarkable looks.
@@arwo1143 "finely tuned automatic wristwatch compared to the watch from the dollar store"
A dollar store watch is more accurate. Actually, a cheap watch is almost as consistent as an atomic clock the size of a bathtub (consistent and accurate is not the same). No comparison to a mechanical watch.
@@arwo1143 At 29:21 he plays open strings with full tension and the sound post was installed at 26:53. I'm no expert on violin tone, but I think the sound is tolerable at least.
Actually.... Those 4 notes at the end sound VERY PROMISING!!! ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL INSTRUMENT!
I made my living for the last 50 years making sawdust and woodchips and I couldn't be more impressed with what he has done in his little shed.
I couldn't help but comment on your humour here; nicely said! You have spent years of skillful work (I am sure) at creating "sawdust and woodchips"! With this amount of humour, I would be interested to see what kind of creations you came up with!
I don't have a cnc, and I don't make violins, yet I was spellbound the whole video. Top notch my man!
+1 here
This may be the coolest video I've ever seen! Please make some and sell them. I'll buy one!
Wow that was a spectacular use of a cnc router.. L.A Rob
Wow that's a beautiful violin! The olive wood is stunning, the craftsmanship looks excellent! Now the question on everyone's mind is: how does it sound? Please post a video of an experienced player demonstrating it, thanks!
1:48 1:02
And the award for the most beautiful VSO goes to...!!
I was COMPELLED to send Dennis a PM.
This makes flags, signs, cabinet and furniture parts seem like I've been whittling with a dull pocket knife.
This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
You sent him a PM willingly. No one forced you to....LOL
@@13daniel1974 indeed! compelled would have been a better choice of language here!
@@1061shrink1061 it did make much more sense!!
I enjoyed watching you make this!
I am not into violins per se....but woods, as I always look up woodworking videos, thus, that is likely how your video hit me. The wood is striking. This is absolutely the most beautiful violin I have ever seen, I am not one for heavy stain and would much rather see the beauty of the wood and it's grain. Thank you for posting.
Although I am not a violin maker, my dad was, and I learned a lot from him, and even with the background of having observed a violin maker growing up, I am impressed by what CNC can do. I think the integrated bass bar is brilliant. Also, CNC-cutting the scroll is brilliant as well. The scroll is incredibly skill-intensive to carve properly. The idea that a CNC machine could give you a nice scroll without that kind of difficulty is fantastic. I am persuaded that there's no good reason a CNC'ed violin can't be just as good as an old fashioned hand-carved violin.
I also learned a tremendous amount from this video about CNC wood carving methods. Thanks for making this video.
Thank you for your kind words and sharing some of your historical association with violin making! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 would you like to do a violin enhancement experiment that doesn't strictly depend on CNC, but would be super interesting to do? I have an idea that I feel someone needs to do, since I'm not a violin maker, and am not equipped to do it.
@@Berkana Thanks for the offer, but I'm not a luthier either, and I do not plan on making more violins. I'm a wood artist, and have already moved on with many (totally) different projects after these violins here. Check out my RUclips channel for more work to get an idea.
Amazing! The joy of creation was palpable!
It came out looking really pretty.....BRAVO!
When i was very young i choosed to study music. But because i had serious problems with carpal tunnel syndrom i had to stop playing music instruments so i switched to study mechanical engineering and many decades i designed cnc machines (very big ones) and other machines which where mostly build with any kind of cnc machines, but never build any music instrument. Now i am old and i love to see how you created a beautiful cnc version of a kind of traditional instrument and i really love to see that. It really touches me, loved to watch your building process. Good work !
Thank you for sharing your story. It's really nice to hear from the pros.
I'm a professional luthier and I love this video. Now, I want a CNC.
Thank you for your encouraging words! :)
That was Awesome! I am speechless.
I'm a classical musician (piano, harp, and flute), and I'm a firm believer that instruments are technology and should be tinkered with for the sheer fun of it from time to time. These are wonderful and fun, and I would seriously buy an acoustic one if you were to put them up for sale, just out of curiosity and to support people who explore new materials and methods of construction. The only thing that made me cringe was the permanent wood glue. Definitely consider hide glue in the future so that these instruments can be opened up in the future if need be.
Thank you for your kind and constructive feedback! :)
there is the rosa string works channel and that luthier says the old masters used hide glue because that was the best they had. now rsw says that the green tightbond 1 is far superior and will allow for disassembly again the same as hide glue. if the old masters had tightbond they would use hide glue selectively and use tightbond more often.
@@texas77563 If you need to open an instrument held together by wood glue -- you'll just end up destroying it. Yes, use alternate glues but use a water soluble one. No one with a valuable violin should get it fixed by Rosa String Works. I do like his channel though.
@John Johnson who are you talking to?
@@acerjuglans383 himself probably because he has no friends
This is a perfect example of symbiosis between craftsmanship and technology. Well done.
And art these vionlins he made are beautiful works of art.
sounds awesome is just those notes played heard great potential with those harmonics
It doesn't matter what the violin will sound like. It is a piece of art created with passion and a lot of skill. Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
They are beautiful. I'd love to see some professional violinists play them and compare with traditional woods and construction.
Me too!!
Yes a video of professionals playing your violins would be grand!
"I can hear the resin vibrate through my toes nails and into my stomach and it even made me vomit"
~ some elitist snob
No, you actually wouldn't.
@@the_algorithm Ist man denn nirgendwo sicher vor euch Antifazecken?
Your violins are so beautiful!!!
He's an artist aided by technology. Well done !!!
In my humble opinion, there is nothing wrong with making good use of technology in a technological era.
@@peterreece2340 Nothing wrong at all.
If they do awards for best youtube video this should work of yours should be a definite contender. What a great video and great workmanship. I also appreciate that you think of your viewers as adults who know their way around a wood shop. I was impressed with how humble your shop was, it proves the kind of craftsmanship that can be accomplished with modest tools. Bravo Dennis, great job. I can't imagine violin makers of hundreds of years ago saying "get that cnc out of my shop !!
Thank you for the awesome comments! It is exactly those appreciative and kind words like yours that make it worth the effort to keep posting videos. And I'm happy to share any new techniques and insights that may inspire and encourage fellow woodworkers to push their tools/machines, craftsmanship and engineering skills to the max, so that they can realize projects to be proud of. It shows that imagination is the only limitation to what humanity is capable of. Thank you, sir; you made my day! :)
It certainly is a very well done video.
Great work Dennis
Incredible is all I can say. Well done
Amazing! Stradivarius writhed for joy in his tomb.
that was awesome, and now we want to hear it played (my mom was a professional violinist so I have a love for quartet music), and to all the folks that say this olive wood violin can't sound good I say nonsense, I've seen classical guitars made with every conceivable wood and they almost all sound good, the old timers mostly didn't experiment they just used what was available and what worked in the past, but now we have so much more to chose from and we can experiment.
Thank you for your kind comments and sharing your insights! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 now you just have to make a viola and a cello !!!
When I tell you I gasped when you said you didn't know how to play violin!!!! Amazing craftsmanship.
Gorgeous! Words can't describe!
I am a indian classical musician coming from generations of musicians & film composers in my family, we have lots of traditions so before my uncle's nobody learnt western music and we learnt it too so breaking tradition is a good thing it helps to learn new things, this violin is a beautiful sounding instrument and would be excellent when a master plays it
This is probably the most impressive Cnc project I’ve ever seen!! And I watch a lot
I have never seen anything quite like this, I wasn't too keen as you were using a CNC machine, but I was really surprised at the amount of work involved. You didn't use the CNC for roughing out a violin blank, you created a thing of beauty, I'm very impressed. Great job.
Thank you for your kind words! :)
I question your aversion to the use of the CNC. It is capable of more consistent and reproduceable work than a human can do over a run of production numbers. The key is the way that the CNC system is used, the ingenuity of the programming and attention to detail along with the understanding of how to best use the materials. This can drastically reduce the cost to consumers for fine instruments. It is the future...
I have the same machine, maybe if you did too you would realise its not much of a shortcut. This piece of art, produced with the help of the CNC is outstanding.
While I don't have his CNC router, I have CNC metal lathes and mills. I understand that the learning curve is initially steep. The point that I was making is that once the processes are established, the CNC systems are more than equal to any other processes, repeatable and consistent.
@@rickkernell2486 I'm not doubting your skills or knowledge mate, I guess I'm trying to draw attention to the fact that this is no milling machine. Flimsy in comparison and no where near as repeatable without loads of tweaking constantly. That violin is the best product i've seen the shapeoko produce, hands down.
That turned out looking real good man.
My God, brilliant! I want to make guitars with CNC as I've been building them for nearly 40 year and have 25 years in 3D animation so it would be really nice to combine the two. I love that you have really thought out every stage. And, those violin notes wheren't bad - keep at it! I used to play violin and I learnt a massive amount about guitar and music from it.
Thank you for your kind words, and happy to inspire! :)
Yes, a flat top Acoustic Gibson Gospel style with sides and bottom shaped and made like a viola or cello, bolt on neck. Black Walnut for back and sides like the Lowden in the video below. Sinker redwood for top. here is the very video. ruclips.net/video/sK6hPyOmPY4/видео.html. Well, I can dream can't I LOL... Beautiful workmanship and woods.
Hello! so first off, as a violinist (non professional) and carpenter, I love that you are bringing a modern edge to this craft. A few things I noticed/information that may be helpful to you in future instruments.
The ribs being milled from a single piece instead of bent into shape may affect the tone. (won't know if its good or bad until we see an expert play it!)
you didn't clamp the neck. I understand the clamping issue, but without any clamping force, the glue may not have set properly, there could be small air pockets, or it could potentially just be a weak joint. on the next one, you could use some string or rope to bind it while the glue cures.
you used Deft brushing lacquer for your finish. It's a great product, but its technically a lacquer, not a varnish. It's solvent based, and is effectively cured in 2 hours.
I'm sure there are alternatives for animal hide glue, but every good violin will need to be taken apart at some point in its life for repairs.
Last, but likely not least, I noticed that you have no purfling. (those thin black lines on the edge of a wooden violin) while it is there for aesthetics, it's also there to prevent cracks traveling from the edge through the body.
Other than all of that, I think you made a beautiful instrument, and I'm excited to see a professional play it some day!
Thank you for your extensive and constructive feedback! Most "wrongdoings" were intentional (no purfling, the ribs out of one piece, the choice of lacquer, which is indeed not varnish, but you really don't want to hear me trying to pronounce that word with my Dutch accent, without the need for subtitles of closed captions); I consider them to fall within the artistic freedom that a non-luthier woodworker has. ;) I've used clamps for the handful of violins I made after this (final) prototype that I show in the video (including special fingerboard loop clamps from StewMac), but have moved on to completely different projects that are not even remotely related to musical instruments since then.
@@dennisvanhoof9958 Ah, the classic 'artistic' excuses.
Waht do you mean, may? thi is idiocy.
@@71volare Would you please elaborate on the "idiocy"?
Thankyou for giving me something so entertainingly educational...
You're welcome. Happy to inspire and entertain! :)
Dennis,
While watching this video, I was repeatedly impressed with everything you did here and your talent for all of this. Not just the woodworking, the epoxy pouring, and your knowledge of instruments, but also your ability to create an interesting video, while showing interesting content and being clear in your ability to describe what you are doing and why.
TL:DR, Amazing video, Amazing skill keep it up and thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it. :)
I love this. I'm a baroque violinist playing on a fine instrument from the early 1700s, and my peers are such backwards purists that it is unbelievable. Now, I can understand them. Hell, I'm a tone purist when it comes to my own instrument, and I wouldn't even dream of putting on synthetic strings and completely ruin and kill my tone and therefore the joy of playing. I recognise how to achieve the sweetest tones possible, and what it takes, and that traditional purists aren't wrong. However, even though I'm really purist with my main instrument, I believe in general that violins should evolve and develop. This is a really cool step in developing it further, and I can already tell from the sound of it that it has potential to be a really nice sounding instrument for certain kinds of music. Also, it looks great! I wouljd have loved to have one of them to use for just having fun playing at home or if doing some other, more contemporary types of music. Hell, I'd even try removing all the modern hardware and put on some proper gut strings and see what it could be capable of as a pure, untouched violin. Maybe I would be surprised? My backwards peers wouldn't even consider that possibility though. I love when people do these kinds of things. We need old masterbuilt instruments to get some of the sweet and complex tones we need for early music etc, but we also need a luthier community that is alive, and not just filled with people copying the old styles perfectly for the entirety of their life. That would be dystopian in my view.
Although I cannot for the life of me understand why you didn't use hide glue. You WILL have to open that violin up in the years to come, that isn't even a question, so I think hide glue is a no-brainer :)
Thank you for your extensive feedback and sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate your constructive comments. :) I'm also happy that you understand I'm not trying to compete with or do better than any traditional luthiers. It's just a different approach, a fun project, thinking outside the box, and an entertaining video for an artistic result. Thank you for watching! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 Also curious about this-is there a specific reason you chose not to use hide glue? Totally mind-blowing work, by the way!
@@t3db0t97 Thank you! I doubt hide glue adheres to the epoxy good enough for strong bonds. Wood glue does an excellent job, so I played it safe.
@@FatherSaccharine Yes you can, actually. That test (and EVERY SINGLE OTHER TEST LIKE IT) is performed on rebuilt Strads with modern strings and modern setups, identical to pretty much every violin being built today. It is no secret that synthetic and steel strings take away quite a bit from the tone of the instruments. Modern strings are NOT made to sound "beautiful" or "rich" or "complex". They are made to be LOUD. That't it. To have a violin setup in a modern manner, you gain a lot of volume and projection, but lose maybe 20-30% of the complexity and richness of the instrument. For baroque violinist, volume - and to a certain degree depending on situation - is worthless to us. We only care about tone, which is why we use different setups and different strings, not necessarily just because it is traditional. And when you play with a neck with no steepness to it, a different bass bar, pure gut strings and no hardware like rests attached to the violin, it will sound completely different than it did before, and each violin will sound WILDLY different from eachother. But if you set up the same instruments in a modern fashion, they will sound pretty much the same with just small differences. The modern setup narrows the tone of the instrument to gain volume, and makes each violin sound similar. Which is why these tests mean nothing unless you play on a modern setup. If you have a modern setup and modern strings, a Strad will sound like any other modern built violin.
@@dennisvanhoof9958 Finally: the end of the mystery on choosing the monstrous glue so devilish for instrument makers! So safety versus longevity vs ability to repair and make it last even longer! But I am sure you now know why both musicians and luthiers have cringed so much upon your original choice, lolllll.
So many haters in the comments, while the construction method used was not traditional or as beautiful an art form as hand carving, it is certainly evident that a LOT of care and thought was put into every single stage of this build. Well done. Im hoping there is a follow up video somewhere with someone playing these, I've no doubt they sound great.
I love that wood and the finish it's incredible looking.
This is great! What smart man that takes time to explain this amazing process!
Never played violin, never will. Never had a CNC, never will. But became totally fixed to the monitor for the whole time. Frkng great job, man. Love it!
Thank you for your kind words! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 You definitely deserve it, man! Awesome!
Absolutely STUNNING pieces of art! 🤩👍🏻
I LOVE them! 😍
Olive wood certainly is one of the most BEAUTIFUL woods in the World.
Fascinating. Absolutely amazing what you can do with that CNC. I love the combination of old fashioned craftmanship and modern technology.
I was very skeptical that it would produce sound but it does appear to sound like a violin at the end!
Thanks, that was an interesting watch from somebody who knows nothing about CNC
Thank you for your kind words! :)
The projects are complex and the end result is always stunning.
A wonderful project, done with skill (DEEP skill) sensitivity and great organisational planning. And beautifully presented too. A true work of art. Bravo!
am at a loss for words! Beautiful work! Good luck learning to play the violin....then the project will be complete!
As a professional violinist, I've often wondered why we don't use more technology in producing violins and this is an existing example.
The final result sounds quite good. I was pleasantly surprised. Setup can make a big difference, so tweaking the sound post, bridge and strings...
What Dennis has made is a piece of art, and as I understand is not meant to be comparable to a real violin. The reason that violins aren’t normally made with machines is that they are pieces of art, not a product. Every handmade violin is unique, and the process for making a violin is a beautiful and precise process. If we use machines to make violin making easier and more efficient, we lose sight of what a violin really is. Dennis is not trying to make a real violin, what he’s made serves a completely different purpose.
@@michaelfrank4922 With all my respect for your opinion, but I must disagree. The purpose of a musical instrument is to play with the best sound possible. The means you use to achieve this are mere means to achieve this goal. If plastic violins sounded better than wooden ones, they would all be plastic. I aknoledge the knowledge, craftsmanship and even poetry attached to making an instrument but eventually it all comes down to sound production. If technology helps to improve it it should be used.
@@jazzman_10 I suppose so, but technology did not make this violin sound better than a “traditionaly” made violin. And couldn’t you say that making an instrument sound it’s best is part of the art?
@@michaelfrank4922 I agree. The point I was trying to make is that it is quite futile to go against technology. The level of craftsmanship machines are obtaining is increasingly better because humans keep on improving it as we use them and also because they are efficient and reduce costs. If it weren't for them, only a few could afford to buy a hand made car or pretty much anything you may think of. Technology has bought consumer goods' prices down to affordable for everyone. Now, I am pretty sure that a good craftsman could make a difference, but is is smaller as time goes by and even themselves use certain specific tools designed for their task. We are just changing the tools...
@@jazzman_10 yes, technology is progress. But when you industrialize the production of many things, everything becomes the same, and part of what makes some violins and many other things so much more expensive or beautiful than others is their uniqueness, and the uniqueness of violins and other such things is so important because each player is different and needs different qualities in their instrument to be able to play the best they can. Some things should not be industrialized. That being said, factory made violins are much more accessible and cheaper, which is better for people who can’t afford a 20,000 dollar violin, but they simply just aren’t as good. Technology is useful, but it is dangerous and not always necessary. If you could industrialize human reproduction, would you? No, cuz that would make everyone the same, and that’s stupid.
No clue if these would be considered “good” violins or not but that fire one is dope.
No clue if olive is a good wood for musical instruments...
Since most violinists are very picky and strict it would not be considered a "good" violin by them. Let alone the epoxy. Not saying it's bad. You would simply never see it in an orchestra.
probably pretty good except for needing a soft flexible wood for the top. I'd love to see another one made with a spruce top!
@@drheud1512 not necessarily. Materials other than spruce and maple have been used successfully. Carbon fiber violins, violas, and celli by Luis and Clark are considered excellent instruments by world renowned artists.
Beautiful looking instruments!
Some serious skills involved there. Very nice!
Contact youtubers from TwoSetViolin so they can give a try to all four violins (Maybe even Hillary Hahn or other top violinists might try it aftewards)! They would be delighted and it would be awesome! Just a thought (as a side effect your channel will grow like at least by ten fold in the process!) Really outstanding work!
they would troll the everlasting poop out of these violins
😆
I doubt the review from TwoSet would be good.
The use of olive wood is a bad decision for making a playable violin because it has high density and irregular grain, thus not being resonant enough. Gluing the violin together with permanent wood glue is also a bad call, because as he noted it can't be opened in the future for any repairs. The wood-glue mistake in particular makes me wonder if the creator did much research on how to build violins at all. After all, you need to know why things are done a certain way before you change them.
These creations are wonderful works of art, that's for sure, and I find them beautiful. But in all honesty they are VSOs - violin shaped objects - and not real violins.
@@NMS409 Totally right!
Thank God for the internet for sourcing and getting material from all over the world quite easily. Excellent work. Thank you for the education on mold release products. Something tells me that you have learned a lot off past projects, as you have your coordinate references and the dust shields working for you. You are a true maestro. I have one special wish-to bring Antonius forward 400 years for 30 minutes to be able to see how you made this beautiful instrument. Not only are you a fine instrument craftsman, but your video work was very very good. Did you appreciate the smell of olives when you cut the olive wood? That’s one of the special treats when working in olive wood. I wish my friend Jack Benny were still alive to try out that instrument!
Very interesting project! It seems kind of heretical in a way because luthiers have for centuries used only purely natural materials and hand work; but it is an impressive demonstration of Mr. van Hoof's understanding of the mechanics of the instrument. As some others have commented I would also like to see a master violinist play and evaluate the instrument.
Thank you very much Dennis. I appreciate your work very much.
I think it’s great that he is pursuing non-standard construction techniques and using nonstandard materials. I like to see old assumptions respected, but challenged anyway. And of course, most of the time, the tried and true solution was chosen for a good reason, and so you fail. That’s okay. Because sometimes you don’t fail, and that’s how you improve the state of the art.
I really like the tone of that violin. Not too shabby.
This is awesome. Excellent work.
Well, it may look good, or interesting, but the proof of the violin is its song. Let's hear someone who is a violin virtuoso like Hilary Hahn play it in a concerto by Mozart or Beethoven. With all that epoxy how resonant will the instrument be?
@@KOLODNY95 Well yes, epoxy scares the "..." from my violin playing technique and "resonance". But then again, olive wood lines, though gorgeous to look at and admire, is tortuous to say the least; I don't know how it can carry the sound at it's best capacity. But again, how beautiful to look at!
Beautiful. With that sort of technology, consistency can be maintained when creating multiple parts. And, if it sounds good as a final instrument, it is as it should be. It might be interesting to have a professional violinist compare playability, and sound to a handmade instrument. The results could be surprising. :)
While I'm not likely to ever try making a violin, this video has lots of good tips for CNC users.
gorgeous work, a masterpiece , Id blame the utube algorithm for not having more subs
leuke video Dennis. I love that your presentation in English is clearer and easier to listen to than many videos by native speakers (of which I am one!) Thanks
Finally some violin building RUclipsr who is actually thinking on the sound post! Bravo! :D
I also was searching for the bass bar and saw, that it was already on the top as part of the carving. That's cool :O
But that finger board is thicc!
Wordlessly, incredibly beautiful.
Fine violins, guitars and pianos all use spruce as the tone wood for the sound boards. On violins and guitars that is the tops. The sides, ribs, the back and the neck, you can use the pretty woods. But pretty woods don't vibrate like spruce (light with a strong. tight, straight grain to carry the vibrations). Your violins are beautiful!!!
At some point, if it is financially profitable, someone will invent a polymer that mimics all the characteristics of spruce.
I find myself drawn to CNN videos, amazing what they are capable of with the right programer. Great video, really good editing, a pleasure to watch.
Dennis this Violin produces an amazing sound! It has great reverb the strings are balanced. If you do not know how to play it and got that sound already. This is a professional instrument. If you will, make a tryout video with some professional players. I’m a luthier, and this us impressive.
Hey, that is really exciting to know! Tank you for sharing this insight. I very much appreciate and highly value the constructive feedback from professional luthiers like yourself. I'm also very much looking forward to having a skilled violinist play this instrument. Once the whole COVID-19 pandemic is better under control, it should be easy to find one who can test it out. Stay tuned...! :)
@@hugofejgielman3132 Thank you for your encouraging words! :)
@@dennisvanhoof9958 I haven't studied at a famous place and don't make violins, but I can play them, and I also was pleasantly surprised by those open strings. This violin does seem to have a nice sound. I also would like to see what someone who does know how to play can do with it. It doesn't even need to be a professional to provide significant insight into the tonal character of the instrument. I'd be happy to play it for you, on camera for your audience to see, if you happen to be somewhere near Michigan.
@@edifyguy Thank you! I'll keep that in mind. :)
This is actually really impressive
The violins look great, and the sound seems good to
Great job :)
thats really amazing, what a great job you did on this for not being a luthier
I like the non-traditional methods, but I still think using the traditional glue would have been beneficial! (For repairs and whatnot)
I couldn't possibly imagine any professional violin shop taking in these pieces for repairs, so the point of using hide glue absolutely beats me
I came to the comments to say this. The guy did an awesome job with the rest of the piece, the only thing that looked off to me was the thickness of the fingerboard and the use of regular wood glue. If some part of the instrument breaks, it's impossible to repair. Use of melting glue allows the pieces to be disassembled, repaired and replaced as needed. It sounded pretty good at the end.
It was so cool seeing the violin being shaped as a piece of art work, though the sound may not be as resonant as the traditional ones since the olive wood probably won't vibrate as well as the maple wood. Great job!!!
Original soundboards aren’t maple, they’re spruce, either Sitka or red spruce, sometimes englemann spruce. The back is maple to keep the violin strong.
The olivewood may actually be better than maple in some ways (new growth maple is softer than traditional old growth) however using olivewood instead of spruce will ruin the sound
Nice sound. Very bright and clear. Fine!
Very Very impressive. I thought you were some sort of avid fiddler but I was shocked to find out you didn't even play! How you pulled that off without having ever used one is really quite impressive. I've been asked to make guitar's but I have no idea what I need to do to create one properly.
Thanks, Dan! The best advice I can give you is to read a lot about it, ask experienced experts as many questions as you have, be very critical of your own work, and don't be afraid to make mistakes. I went through 5 prototypes before I finally built one that I believed was up to the standards. I learned the most from countless of failures. You can do it!
We had a local luthier that made Cellos. He couldn’t play, but he built very good cellos. LaMay Cellos.
The designs are beautiful. I subscribed, and I'm excited to see a professional play them!
Nice!! I was told by a musician that it's about 20 years to play the violin, but it's worth it.
Absolutely fascinating! I am neither a woodworker nor a violinist, but I watched the entire 29:38! This is February, 2022. I hope you have been able to sell these beautiful pieces! As a musician - who does NOT play the violin (keyboard, piano, some occasional guitar) - I am extremely intrigued by the use of non-traditional materials. The original woods would have ben chosen for their functions, not their aesthetics, but, additionally, olive wood would - rats, I did it again! - impossible for Stradivarius et al to use , as clearly evidenced by your use of epoxy. I would love to hear these pieces played in concert, if not to hear them then to see them! (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada).
Thank you for your kind and extensive comments! :)
i would like to hear it played by a pro as well. I think it will sound better then you think. and olive wood is so beautiful!!!
OMG I play violin when I was a teenager, never see violin made in this way!
That olive grain, damn that’s gorgeous
Fascinating. Love the LEDs. And the olive wood looks incredible.
I know NOTHING about CNC work, but you did an awesome job of explaining each step. That’s a beautiful instrument. Great video, great work.
Thank you for your kind words! I'm happy to hear that my videos are both entertaining and educational. :)
I know a lot of traditional luthiers consider CNC cheating, but they didn't use to accept CA glue, either, now we all use it. Believe me, if I could afford CNC, I would! As a much younger man, I hand cut the pearl for an F5 mandolin torch peghead and will never, ever do that again. A friend of mine put his kids through college doing CNC pearl for Gibson and Fender.
When you were gluing on that finger board you could have used a little pinch of table salt. The table salt keeps the boards from sliding around while clamping. Clamping pressure always makes a better joint, even though you don't need heavy pressure. An old wood worker's trick for those interested. I use it to glue on guitar fingerboards with success.
Thanks for the tip! I purchased fingerboard band clamps from StewMac after I finished the violin in this video: www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?search=fingerboard%20band%20clamp
@@dennisvanhoof9958 tiny piece of a brad nails will do it too, put two in the neck (one on each end and press the finger board into them when lined up. keeps from sliding when gluing
@@LarWolkan Thanks for the tip!
@@dennisvanhoof9958 l
Hard to say which was more perfectly made: the video or the violin. Thank you
Thank you for your kind words! :)
Amazing work. As a professional luthier, I would love to experiment with this technology.
Thank you for your kind words! I'm humbled to hear this from a skilled professional in the field.
Olive wood is my favorite one. Don't know if it fits good for a violin tonally, but it fits æsthetically.
maybe is too little "resonant" for his irregularity in wood fiber... but is very nice also for floor!
@@leoneventicinque6731 also makes great firewood.
That was wild my dude. Great video.
18:49 you can soften wood glue and disassemble later using steam. Luthiers do this all the time. Cool video though!
Good to know. Thanks for sharing!
They use hide glue, because that can come apart with steam. Been in use for centuries.
RosaStringWorks uses Titebond II all the time. Titebond III however is water proof. where the type II is water resistant.
@@creativebobbo I too am a regular at RSW, He often uses titebond II and many other adhesives. His years of experience have taught him which is the best way for him for each particular job and if it's good enough for him ..... People forget that hide glue was the best back then but adhesive technology has improved greatly over the years and to just dismiss new ideas is terribly narrow minded. BTW, I loved chocolate which demonstrates your point exactly.
alot of guys use titebond 1, dont use titebond 3.
This looks absolutely stunning. It would probably be a pain to carve olive wood by hand but if I were a violinist and the instrument sounded good, it would be such an amazing piece of art to play
Yeah, olive wood is incredibly hard. Even finishing it by hand after the CNC has done the brunt of the work is finger-blistering work!
Everything is in head. Bravo maestro
What a neat project. I too, would like to hear an assessment from a professional, perhaps "blind" in the sense that they would know nothing of who or how it was created.
It looks absolutely great, you've done great work with the CNC, absolutely stunning. I'm afraid it will stay a decoration piece though given that it's not repairable. The top, bottom, and ribs look a bit thick compared to what's handcarved and bent in a traditional violin. It would have been great to hear how the top and bottom sound when struck, and see how flexible they are :) Also very curious about the acoustic properties of olive wood and epoxy. Apart from that, congrats on the work and the video, it's actually the 2nd time I watch it! In the end, I'm all for innovation in violin making, but I think some concepts have to be kept from the traditional way of making to preserve the sound qualities of the violin if it is to be played.
Hello !mr van hoop ! U made viorin
It's beautiful !! I thought I want it!!
U are awesome !!☺🙋
Lindo trabalho!
Saudações do Brasil!
Absolutely fascinating - a rarity in that I watched it all of the way through at normal speed. Beautiful work, creating some gorgeous artwork.
However, just 3 points:
1 no varnish on the neck - people's hands stick to varnish too well and the back of the neck is bare wood (from violins to cellos and into the viol family with the double bass as well (I checked mine just to make sure and mine was made around 1880);
2 the front (the belly) is usually made from pine with a nice straight grain, running from top to bottom. There is a reason for this. The speed of sound across the grain is around a quarter of that along the grain and the distance between the f holes is around a quarter of length of the body. In this way, the sound gets to the f holes and the top and bottom at around the same time (research project for a PhD in music for somebody here, finding out the actual difference in sound from the differences implied here). With a beautiful piece of wood like the one you use in this video, they will arrive at different times and affect the sound.
3 you are using normal white wood glue. Apart from the effect that you stated in the video insofar as you cannot separate the pieces afterwards without leaving traces of glue filling the pores of the wood; PVA glue creeps. That is to say that if you have a joint under stress, it will move over time whereas the bone glue joints will not. remember these instruments will last for hundreds of years (my DB is over 140yo).
Thank you for your kind words and constructive feedback! I really appreciate the time you took to write this down and share your expertise and insights. I will keep all your suggestions in mind, if I ever build another violin. But for now, I'll focus on several completely different art projects that are not even remotely related to music. :)
True, but obviously he's not making it to be played, not really.
STUPENDOUS WORK OF ART !
Can you do a follow up video where you get a talented violinist to play that?
I hope to one day post a follow up. :)
Ask Midori to play it.
I wonder what @TwoSetViolin could say about this
This is a great idea! Or how about a folk music artists like inti illimani