Fiddle Kit

You asked for my experiences with your violin kit. I have had the kit in my possession for about a month and just yesterday I finished bending the purfling. I measured the channel for the purfling and the width of the purfling and noted that the purfling is 0.006 inch wider than the channel so I am in the process of widening the channel.

This is a great kit and I enjoy working on it. Because of my other duties, this kit is one of my lower priorities but when I get it assembled, I will order the sandpaper and varnish to finish it. It is then that you will know that I have it assembled. I suspect that it will take until this summer before I am ready for the varnish. Thanks for your concern. I appreciate the challenge.

I built the fiddle for my grandaughter's High School Graduation a couple of years ago. She is an accomplished violinist. It was a huge hit with her, her family, friends and music teachers at the graduation party. Everything in the kit was great.

I took several weeks to complete it, working a few hours at a time. I could not get the sound post set, so a repairman at a local Music Store did it for me & set a new bridge as well. He also buffed out my shelac finish to a nice gloss. When I picked it up, he made my day by saying, "This thing is a CANNON,it sounds wonderful" The only thing I had trouble with was the instructions on fitting the neck, but with careful measurements & cuts(and holding my breath a lot) it worked out beautifully. I do woodworking as a hobby. This was my 1st attempt at building any musical instrument and I learned a LOT.

I would reccomend this kit. Take your time,it is a rewarding project. Go for it !

This kit is a good value. Most of the hard work has been done, just finish it! Components appear to be of good quality.

The only negatives I had was the purfling groove did not finish across the back and the boxwood parts.

I have to rave about certain aspects of this kit, from the perspective of an amateur.
I made the discovery today that this fiddle holds a tune better than I could have possibly hoped. I didn't touch this instrument for over 6 weeks and I only needed to tweak the fine tuners slightly to get it into concert pitch. I was stunned. The tone of the instrument is very nice, though I'm not a fiddler so I can't compare, and quite loud.
I am not a trained woodworker in any sense, and I did not graduate the top and back, left them as-is. I see many reviewers took the time to do that, but if you're not comfortable with that task, you should know that it isn't required to get a good result.

I bought this kit recently, and was quite excited to open it up and check it out. The back is nicely flamed, and I'm really looking forward to putting it together.

I had one problem - the fingerboard was damaged. It has a weird stain on it, and it's pretty deep. I couldn't get it off, so I contacted customer service, and they're shipping me a new one free of charge.

I'm very happy with my purchase, and absolutely would buy this kit again.

I have recently orderd 3 fiddel kits from you and now the violin top doesn´t fit the bottom. It seems like the pre fabricated bottom wood and violin side wood has lost it´s shape during transport. Now we can´t fit the top to the bottom. This is a huge problem for us first timers. What to do?

First, let me say that a kit is the ideal way to learn about fiddle/violin making. All of the heavy work is done and you can spend your time fumbling through the finesse.
I downloaded and read the assembly instructions first, but I had no idea what to expect, With kits costing anywhere from $80 to $325, it is fair to assume the $157 StewMac kit is a reasonable place to start.

Before beginning you need a GOOD book. I got the classic Johnson and Courtnall book, but there are other reasonable offerings out there. It is also worth watching as many related You Tube videos and reading as many violin-making blogs as you can. Once you've done all this, you can dispense with the kit instruction manual, because you won't be using it.

The neck was pretty well formed with a reasonable scroll. It required just enough work to complete to allow me to learn the limit of my abilities. The finished scroll isn't perfect, but it looks pretty good for an amateur. The inside of the pegbox was rough, but thinning the walls eliminated most of the nicks and tearout. Only a few (more serious) divots required a little Plastic Wood.

The fingerboard and nut were pretty much completed, but the fingerboard contained three relatively serious knots which interfered with further planing, shaping and smoothing. The fingerboard also began to bow a little, so I got a new fingerboard, nut and saddle from another supplier.

The front and back woods appear to be of reasonable quality, but I don't understand why the grain runout is in opposite directions on each side of both the front and back. It makes scraping difficult, so I resorted to sandpaper. Still, this is a learning process! Both the front and back were thick enough to allow any type of graduation you might choose.

The purfling was a little rough, and installing it was a bit of a challenge - before I learned about tapering the bottom corners (with a scraper) to ease insertion. FWIW this purfling is easily formed with a curling iron.

While getting the replacement fingerboard, I also replaced the bass bar, soundpost and bridge. The bassbar and soundpost may not have needed replaced, but for $0.50 each, I got wood of much finer and more even grain. This also provided an escape route in case I overcut the soundpost. Replacing the bridge with a better one also allowed practice forming/shaping on the original bridge.

So far, the work has been perfomed, in spare time over a period of weeks in a dry (50% humidity) cool (65° F) area and the wood has been responding as wood always does to a change in environment. No serious warping or twisting has occurred, but it is worth thoroughly acclimating the kit to your environment. The back appears to have straightened a little, since the ribs are a bit too wide for the front at the bottom of the C bout - just enough to position the point of the rib too close to the edge of the front. Since I don't want to compress this and build stress into the finished fiddle, I'm hoping that a slight increase in humidity and temperature might allow the back to return to normal.

The kit isn't finished yet, but it is far enough along to see that the materials and factory work are adequate, and the overall quality of the finished instrument is the responsibility of the person who builds it.
Do your resaearch, and enjoy the experience - you'll learn a lot - including where you need to polish your skills.

You get everything you need to build a decent fiddle. The quality of the material could be improved a little (i.e.: no micro knots on the back or narrower veins on the belly), but overall, this is a good kit.
Instructions leaflet is clear and informative. Being a professional luthier since 1987, I'll have no trouble completing this kit.
The belly has eventually to be worked down at some spots to get a better acoustical response, but if you skip this fussy step, a good sound can be obtained anyway.
If you live in Europe (as I do) think about customs and taxes.

Alright, first, let me say I bought this kit at a discount because it didn't have any instructions. Luckily, there are a number of these kits branded by various retailers and it was no problem to download acceptable instructions in a pdf format.

OK, so my kit didn't have marvelously flamed maple back like the photos in the catalog. But ugly wood can sound just as good as pretty wood. The wood doesn't know. The top is fine and looks good.

I assembled the violin using the instructions, for the most part, except for the neck joint, where I only cut the top block and ribs, rather than the much harder maple neck. I managed to get the correct neck angle. The nut required some careful attention, filing the slots. I bought a new bridge for $16 from a music shop/luthier. French. Nice. 3-stars. HARD maple. Sounds like *tink!* when you drop it on a table top.
But here is the most important part--you have to graduate the plates. They are way too thick. Luckily, there are graduation calipers available that make this job easier. I found the measurements for an actual Stradivarius violin plate thickness online. I duplicated those figures on this fiddle. This was, as it turns out, just the thing to do. The violin has very uninteresting appearing wood on the back, but the sound of the violin is GIANT. When you hear it, you really won't care what it looks like. It has the potential to sound that good.
I have done blind comparison tests with a German fiddle from the 1950s and a $1500 Cremona fiddle two years old. This one wins. But you have to be prepared to copy the strad dimensions into this fiddle. Good luck. Took me over a year (most of the time, it sat in a box under my workbench. If I had known how it was going to sound, I would have finished it in six weeks! Build one!!