What is the best way to hold a bowlback? Is it recommended that you loosen the strings between playing them to give relief from the tension? I am using light strings. Thanks.
What an interesting question. I never loosen the tension on any of my instruments. Seems to me the wood would eventually "adjust" to the tension, and improve the tone. Every time I have bought or traded for an instrument that was never played, and the strings were loose, it always had a "dead" or muted quality. Instruments that are played and kept tuned seem to have a "life" of their own. I have a little bowlback from Rumania, that was so tinny and muted that I put it in a stand as a decoration, and placed it a few inches from a speaker that always has music on it. After a couple of months I played it again, and the tone was so improved that my wife also commented on the improvement.
That's a really interesting way to look at it. I'll continue playing my little bowlback from time to time and hopefully add to its longevity. That's much better than just using it to decorate my room.
In my first attempt at lutherie I restored an Italian bowl back from Sardinia. I used pre mixed hide glue and light strings and after three weeks the neck started letting loose.Although the rest of the restoration came out great of course this put me back to square 1. Any sugestions? I'm thinking maybe tight bond or gorilla glue.
Gorilla glue is very strong and it fills gaps; I've used it successfully to tighten up loose necks....but I gather it's very hard to loosen up if you need to remove the neck later. I'll be using titebond in the future for this reason...I think it's plenty strong.
I've pulled bridges off two el cheapo guitars that had been glued on with Gorilla Glue. Rather than damaging the wood, the varnish peeled off under the bridge on each, so they needed refinishing.
