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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on October 27, 2016 at 5:27am

Hey Barry, I've used a couple of ways to get that room that the bow needs on the outer strings. One is the waist bout cut out which I think you're calling the scallop. I messaged you about filling that. The other method that works well is to cut out wedges in the top and side. These serve as a combination sound hole and bow clearance area. I'll see if I can get a photo of that to you since I think it's a little tough to visualize. The third thing is to start with a narrow enough box that you don't need to worry with the first two. That's easiest but it's my least favorite since the sound quality of the skinny boxes aren't as good as a wider box. OK I don't know why the same pic keeps posting. I'll try to get the others in a seperate message.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on October 27, 2016 at 5:42am

Here's one with the top and side wedge cutouts that serve the dual soundhole/bow clearance purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on October 27, 2016 at 5:46am

This one is a skinny box and didn't need any cut outs. I think around 5 inches is as wide as you can go and not need cut outs.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Sholder on October 27, 2016 at 5:50am

this is great. I think I may take a workshop at Woodcraft in a couple of weeks on dovetail box making might be pretty cool.

Im also thinking about the 40 cbf on the gourd I havent given up yet.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on October 27, 2016 at 6:04am

I've used a dovetail jig for boxes before but that skinny box fiddle is a real basic but joint box with strength added by the top and bottom. Still, dovetail and box joint corners look cool and are very strong joints so it's often worth the extra time. Good luck! It's hard to make a halfway decent fiddle!

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on October 27, 2016 at 12:19pm

I've never made a fiddle, but 1 way of gaining height is to be a bit more radical on your neck rake, I did it on a hubcap type reso, and it was surprisingly comfortable to play

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