T UES D A Y, S EP T EM B ER 1 , 2 0 0 9

Fitting the Bass Bar

One of the most challenging tasks that I have faced thus far in my apprenticeship is properly fitting a bass
bar. As a prerequisite to fitting the bar, the interior surface of the top plate must be finished well smooth
arch, no bumps or irregularities.
The bass bar starts as a stick of spruce that is 5.5mm thick. The exact placement of the bass bar is then
calculated and pencil lines are made in the appropriate places. Although many makers use wooden studs to
assist them in fitting the bassbar, I am using the Alf Studios bass bar frame, as pictured below. The edges of
the top plate are clamped to the frame to minimize distortion, and the arms of the bass bar frame are adjusted
so that the rough bass bar stock is aligned with the pencil lines and thus in the proper place:

The rough bass bar stock is then placed into an acry lic jig and roughly trimmed to the appropriate curv e:

Then, chalk is used to fit the bar ex actly to the inside curv e of the top plate. First, powdered chalk is
brushed onto the inside of the top plate. When brushing the chalk, it is important to try to attain an ev en
distribution of chalk dust throughout the surface where the bass bar will touch:

When the chalk is ev enly distributed, the bar is lowered carefully into position and rubbed slightly from
side to side:

The bar is then remov ed, and the chalk marks on the bottom of the bar indicate where the bar is making
contact with the top plate. If the entire bottom surface of the bar isnt cov ered with chalk, then the chalk
marked high spots are remov ed with a small plane, and the process is repeated until the fit is perfect in all
dimensions. The process for me entailed hours of doing this:

To make matters a bit more complicated, the bass bar in my v iolin is sprung, which means that the ends
of the bar rise from the surface of the plate by .5mm and are later pressed flush with the surface when
glued and clamped. This requires a perfect fit in the middle of the bar and .5mm gaps at the ends of the bar,
such that the end gaps close when the bar is rocked to either side or when light pressure is applies at both
ends of the bar.
Once a perfect fit is achiev ed, which is much more difficult to do than it may sound, the bar is clamped and
glued into place as follows:

When the glue dries, the clamps are remov ed and the top contour of the bass bar is trimmed, which will be
the subject of my nex t blog entry .