Comment

Comment by Jeremiah Cornelius on May 2, 2010 at 10:19am

Yes - the peg box is black on Cellos and Basses, too. Of course, these are drilled out, then chiseled to a clean surface and thus have a back wall.

I plan on painting mine black inside, too. I saw that on Norwegian and German "folk fiddles" and Basses, that the front of the peg box was beveled - not square as on classical instruments. I stared this bevel on mine, for a lighter appearance, and to allow the E and G strings to pass into the peg box, without bending corners.

Comment by Tracy Kennedy on May 2, 2010 at 7:07am

I read recently that on violins that the peg pocket is traditionally painted black. I forget why but maybe to draw less attention to it and draw more attention to the scroll

Comment by Jeremiah Cornelius on May 2, 2010 at 5:44am

Condolences offered for the Gerbil. When my son's rat passed into the great beyond, he pined for years.

Yes, I am going to put the little wheels on. It looks like "too much" when the headstock is seen alone - it is more elegant without them, but the box is large, and the head is proportionally too small when the neck is matched to the body. By adding them, a balance is achieved. I will be beveling the backs of the small wheels, so that they sit at an angle that mimics a real scroll. I am also planning to use ebony stain, thinned to transparency for underpainting the finished headstock for a more sculpted effect, in places. The whole will be stained heavily in dark red mahogany. I expect the underpainting to help complete the look of this.

Thanks for the Hobby Lobby tip! I was unaware of them, and now have to look into the whole site. My wife will have to endure, I am afraid... :-)

Comment by Tracy Kennedy on May 2, 2010 at 4:59am

Looking NICE! Are you still going to apply the smaller wheels to complete the scroll? I noticed yesterday while at Hobby Lobby they have those wheels in different diameters and different profiles. Its worth a look. And currently all thier unfinished wood stock is 30% off too. They have a small selection of craft boxes too that would make for some real nice CBG's. I bought 2 real small boxes just for the hardware only, 8 decrative corners, 2 hinges and a hasp per box for like $4.50. Seperatly the hardware alone would of ran $18 easy at a bib box store! And as it turned the boxes I got was a good small size for a gerbil casket, as I my sons died friday morning.