Building violin and mandolin

[yankees1]

I was wondering which instrument is the most difficult to build and which takes the most hours to complete the build ? Just wondering !!

[billhay4]

I would guess violin, never having built one. But the neck scroll and arching are very precise on violins as are the f-holes.
Bill

[J Caldwell]

I combined the two and came up with this. I built it for last summer's Memphis Guitar Festival.

[billhay4]

Not being argumentative, Jimmy, but how does this combine the two? Looks all mandolin to me.
Bill

[J Caldwell]

Bill,

It's built with violin style overhangs (no bindings), violin f-holes, and violin purflings. Bit of a stretch maybe, but that's my story.......

[bernabe]

I've never built a violin, but I'll take a stab at it. I'd guess based on quality mandolin workmanship, fully bound, in the traditional Gibson mandolin design and equal level of violin quality of work in the traditional style: 1-F5, 2-violin, and 3-A5 in both level of skill (difficulty) and hours. Just a guess.

[sprucetop1]

Well, I've built 4 violins , 1 viola, 2 round hole carved top/back A model mandolins, an f-hole A5 (from the Siminoff drawings), and an H1 copy mandola. As a part-time builder, I find it all difficult.....! But having attended violin-making school and been taught by professional violin makers I would hope that my approach to bowed instrument making is along the right lines and the acquired hand tool skills transfer to mandolin family builds.
I would say that the two disciplines are related and if the builder is striving for excellence, then mandolins and violins are both very challenging to build. As for which is most difficult/takes longest.......well, I'm not sure!...but I think the important thing is to enjoy the process and to continually try to learn and improve as best one can.

[HoGo]

I would guess violin, never having built one. But the neck scroll and arching are very precise on violins as are the f-holes.
Bill

Top notch mandolin work is just as precise as violin work in all respects. From my experience building F-5 mandolin with all vintage specifications by hand (no CNC etc.) takes at least twice or three times as much as comparable level violin (precise copy of old italian). There are so many details that are much more difficult to make on mando than on violin, there are more than one scroll on mandolin and it needs to be VERY precisely bound and carved to look good. Then there is pearl inlay, fretting and neck dovetail fitting that makes violin neck mortise look like nothing.
Violin makers often intentionally work less precisely to keep feel of the old master instruments while mandolin makers couldn't afford doing this without being called hacks...

[theCOOP]

Some intersting perspectives.

[Dave Cohen]

I don't think it is possible to declare one instrument or another to be more or less difficult to build. There are certainly challenges in binding F5 scrolls, etc. but also challenges in carving violin family headstock scrolls. As soon as one declares some aspect of a given instrument to be 'more difficult', a builder of a different instrument will take something that (s)he does to a higher level. If one declares the 3-string mountain dulcimer to be 'easier" to make than other plucked string instruments, some dulcimer maker will take his craft to a new level. Ukuleles are not considered to be especially difficult instruments to build, but have a look at the article on ukuleles in the current issue of American Lutherie. That article is a transcription of the ukulele workshop at the last GAL convention. There are some photos in that article of some spectacularly crafted ukuleles. I'd be willing to bet that those luthiers put all of themselves into their instruments, with all of the intensity than any of us put into mandolins. In fact, I know uke maker Bob Gleason, and I know it to be true that he puts all of himself into making the finest ukes and guitars that he possibly can. I would be disappointed in a mandoluthier who claimed to be a better luthier than Bob because 'mandolins are more difficult than ukes'.

[Brian Evans]

I have perhaps a different take on it. When I was working for a living I always said that people developed stress in relation to the level of stress that made them happy or uncomfortable, depending on the person. Building instruments, I think that difficulty is relative to the task at hand, and the person doing the task. With my background I think that building a violin would be very difficult, in particular the hand cut purfling and the scroll and headstock in general. If I had started my journey building a violin instead of archtop guitars, I would probably have a different idea. People build detail and perfection into instruments in response to a vision that they have, not because they think it's difficult. People look at my instruments and as lay people kind of wonder at how I did that - me, I kind of say "I took a bunch of wood and very slowly cut off the bits that didn't look like a guitar, then made it shiny", and somewhere in the middle is the truth. Bottom line is I don't think making anything is very hard if you know how to do it, it's learning how to do it that's hard.

[yankees1]

I have perhaps a different take on it. When I was working for a living I always said that people developed stress in relation to the level of stress that made them happy or uncomfortable, depending on the person. Building instruments, I think that difficulty is relative to the task at hand, and the person doing the task. With my background I think that building a violin would be very difficult, in particular the hand cut purfling and the scroll and headstock in general. If I had started my journey building a violin instead of archtop guitars, I would probably have a different idea. People build detail and perfection into instruments in response to a vision that they have, not because they think it's difficult. People look at my instruments and as lay people kind of wonder at how I did that - me, I kind of say "I took a bunch of wood and very slowly cut off the bits that didn't look like a guitar, then made it shiny", and somewhere in the middle is the truth. Bottom line is I don't think making anything is very hard if you know how to do it, it's learning how to do it that's hard.

Your last sentence says it all !!!