Make an oversized viola from a wet T-shirt.

David A Paterson (4 July 2018)

OK so I didn’t make the oversized viola solely from a wet T-shirt, but while other components and size and
tuning are optional, the wet T-shirt material, a polyester or poly-cotton knit, is obligatory. It’s used for
laminating the front and back of the body.

I have trouble naming this instrument. It began as an attempt to make a viola bigger, a similar size to a
guitar and supported the same way. But in designing it I actually interpolated between violin and cello. I
eventually decided to tune it an octave below the violin, not the viola’s fifth below. The classical “tenor
viola” of Stradivarius is tuned the same but is much smaller. The “tenor violin” of Hutchins’ Violin Octet is
tuned the same but is much larger. The “piccolo cello” is similar in size but has five strings instead of four.
What I ended up with is almost exactly the same size and shape as the Octet’s alto violin, but is tuned
differently, held like a guitar, and is made largely from polyester.

But the naming is irrelevant, because you can use this technique to make the body of everything from a
violin to a small cello, and no woodworking skills are required.

Table 1. Why it’s so difficult to name this instrument

Smaller Same size Bigger
Tuned higher Viola Octet Alto Violin
Same tuning Tenor Viola This instrument Octet Tenor Violin
Tuned lower 1/16 Cello 1/8 Cello Cello

Figure 1. Picture of Alto Violin.

Why bother? There are four good reasons.

1. The poor sound quality of the viola is legendary. eg. “Question: How is a Viola different from a lawn
mower? Answer: You can tune a lawn mower”. The strings are too short. And the soundbox is too small.
Both lead to a soft dull sound, particularly on the lowest string.

The size and shape of a viola is limited by a very large number of conflicting factors, but these can all be
swept aside if the viola is supported off straps like the guitar instead of under the chin like the violin. Such a
support system can allow the viola to be much bigger, without sacrificing playability.

2. I have arthritis in my fingers, and the result is an inability to play even the most elementary fingering on
the violin and viola. The only finger of my left hand that can reach all four strings is the little finger.

But by turning the viola sideways, facing it forwards rather than upwards, the playability for people with
arthritis is greatly improved. So it’s a better instrument for people with disabilities.
3. If tuned an octave below the violin, then much music scored for violin can be played on this instrument.
There’s a lot more great music scored for violin than there is for viola.

4. Polyester has a similar acoustic tone to wood, and a tone that is more pleasant.

That’s four good reasons.

And some other reasons.

This instrument can be made even by a person with no woodworking skills, poor handyman skills, and no
power tools other than a cordless drill.

An oversized viola is “human sized”. By that I mean that it is large enough that minor construction faults are
not fatal, and small enough that it is neither unwieldy nor expensive.

If it fails as a musical instrument, it makes a good novelty lampshade.

Why wet T-shirt.

That’s one of the brilliant ideas of Sergei Muratov in his book “The art of violin design”
http://zhurnal.lib.ru/m/muratow_s_w/violin_design.shtml . If you drape a knitted fabric over a violin-shaped
hole and wet it then it will sag under its own weight, and the shape of the sag will closely match the domed
front and back of the classical violin. I wanted a strong inextensible fibre with a fine knit for my knitted
fabric, and knitted polyester interlock or polyester jersey is both the best quality and cheapest available. This
knitted polyester is most commonly used for making T-shirts.

Muratov used multiple layers of fabric soaked with plaster to get a rigid shape that he used as a template for
carving wood. I’m using polyester resin instead of plaster to make a rigid composite material that replaces
wood. Both resin and plaster can have a consistency similar to water when painted on, which is what I want.

Materials.

The complete set of materials for this viola is:

* Knitted polyester T-shirt material – for the front and back
* Woven upholstery fabric – for the sides, neck and other parts
* Polyester resin and MEKP hardener – available from a fibreglass supplier
* Rigid cardboard such as MDF – for making templates
* Steel rod (optional, see below) – for the thrust rod and sound post (total cost $2)
* Strings and any other parts you can buy off the shelf or scrounge from existing instruments

The amount of materials needed will depend on the size you select. I needed less than 2 kg of polyester
resin. The cost (including hardener) was $32.50 per kg.

The only new tool I needed for the project is a plastic beaker for $1.65. The only power tool I used is a
cordless drill. The two most useful tools are a junior hacksaw, available new for $3.95 or less, which is ideal
for cutting plastics of all types, and a small half-round needle file with a four inch long blade.

Cardboard templates.

The first step is to determine using a template what size viola suits you, is most playable. I use 3 mm thick
MDF because it’s low cost, sufficiently stiff, and can be cut to shape with a sharp knife.

Because beautiful sounds can be produced by the vioin and cello, I interpolated between the two. The shape
of the front face of the two is identical, which makes interpolation easy. The violin, viola and cello have
nominal body lengths of 356, 430 and 755 mm. I tried two sizes, with body lengths of 470 and 518 mm. The
body size of 518 mm actually proved easier to play, so I went with that.

Figure 2. Comparison of sizes. Body lengths 312 mm (1/2 violin), 470 and 518 mm. With sharp knife.

The equation for interpolation is to call violin measurements V and cello measurements C, and interpolate
using constant  to get a dimension for the oversize viola as 𝑉 𝛼 𝐶 1−𝛼 . I ended up with 𝑉 0.5 𝐶 0.5 , so for
example 518 = √356 × 755.

My starting point was violin measurements from Sergei Muratov “The art of the violin design” and cello
measurements from https://i.pinimg.com/564x/37/9e/15/379e1567b9afd4d1317395341175c44e.jpg , as seen
in Figure 3.
Main dimensions:
𝐿1 Body length (external)
𝑊1 Largest body width W2
𝑊2 Narrowest body width W1 W3 L3
𝑊3 Top body width
𝐿2 String length L1
𝐿3 Neck length L2
𝐿4 Fingerboard length
𝑇1 Minimum side thickness (external)
𝑇2 Maximum thickness T2 T1

L4

Figure 3. Shape of Violin and Cello.

Once the templates are cut out and stapled together, try playing positions using elastic straps.

Figure 4. Playing position

I found the playing position in Figure 4 to be quite comfortable. The playing position is different to anything
I’ve encountered before. By supporting the bottom of the viola from the right shoulder instead of the chin it
can be much larger than the violin. Turning it 90 degrees from the playing position of the violin makes
fingering less difficult.

The cross-shaped template in Figure 2 was used for testing bow positions when playing arco.

Table 2. Dimensions. The selected size is a bit smaller than an acoustic guitar. Locations of each dimension
are shown in Figure 3. These dimensions can be modified if desired.
Violin Selected Guitar 1/4 Cello Cello
L_1 Body length (external) 356 518 491 580 755
W_1 Largest body width 200 294 373 333 433
W_2 Narrowest body width 104 153 212 172 224
W_3 Top body width 163 238 259 266 346
L_2 String length (nominal) 592 716 753 665 866
L_3 Neck length 245 316 543 313 407
L_4 Fingerboard length 280 392 435 421 548
T_1 Min side thickness (ext) 37 69 88 100 130
T_2 Maximum thickness 61 101 111 128 166
Volume (approx litres) 3 10 14 17 37

Building the viola front and back.

Overview:
 For the back, drape one layer of resin-impregnated T-shirt fabric over a hole cut in a template
 Add two more layers
 Repeat for the front
 Cut sound-holes in the front

Part 1. First layer.

Step 1 in building the actual instrument is to make a template outline, the board with a viola-shaped hole in
Figure 2. I cut this from MDF with a sharp knife and supported it flat with enough room underneath (about
45 mm) for the sag of the wet T-shirt fabric under its self-weight.

Cut the fabric into rectangles. An appropriate cutting patern for the T-shirt fabric looks like this, not to scale.
I used a piece 1.5 metres wide by 1 metre long at a cost of about $4. You could even use three op-shop T-
shirts.

There is a right way and a wrong way to cast the first layer. The right way is to sketch the outline of the
viola centred on the T-shirt fabric. Then lay the fabric flat on a disposable surface. I use a garbage bag as the
surface, but just about anything will do as long as it is reasonably smooth. The surface is re-usable, you’ll
find that set polyester peels off the surface faily easily, and a single surface suffices for the entire instrument.

Cover a small width, about an inch, adjacent to the hole in the MDF template with a releasing compound. I
use candle wax, rubbing it on dry from a candle, but you may prefer petroleum jelly.

I make the polyester using three plastic containers. A 100 ml beaker for measuring the resin straight from
the can, a 1 ml measuring container for MEKP hardener, and a plastic container for mixing. The 100 ml
beaker was the only new tool I needed to buy for the whole project, it cost $1.65 from the fibreglass
supplier. The 1 ml measuring container had been used for medicine. Empty yogurt tubs make good
containers for mixing. The ratio of resin to hardener is about 40 ml resin to 1 ml hardener. Remember to
pour the resin from the beaker into the mixing container before adding MEKP. Any rod or spatula will do as
a mixer. The hardener mixes easily into the resin in about 15 seconds. The polyester tin, hardener bottle, and
plastic containers are shown in Figure 6.

Pour a little mixed resin on the middle area of the fabric and work it outwards towards the edge using a
plastic or metal scraper, and fingers. Continue the mixed resin 1 cm past the marked edge. Then turn the
fabric over on the same disposible surface and apply resin to those parts of the fabric where it didn’t soak
through.

Once covered in resin, pick the fabric up and drape it over the hole. Line up the sketch with the edges of the
hole ane weigh down the outside. I use scrap timber for the weight, but anything reasonably straight and
heavy will do. Check the sag of the material in the hole, does it look like the surface of a viola, but deeper?
The resin shrinks as it dries, the sag will get less as it dries.
Polyester resin doesn’t easily clean up with solvent, wipe wet resin off with a rag, wash hands with soap and
water, scrape semi-dry resin out from under fingernails, and peel dried resin off where it’s dripped. Pour
excess liquid resin onto a disposible surface and drop in the garbage bin when dry.

The wrong way is to use a resin other than polyester, eg. varnish or epoxy. The wrong way is to not allow
enough space under the template. The wrong way is to use a paint brush instead of a scraper, because then
the paint brush sets solid. The wrong way is to drape the material over the hole before applying resin,
because then the resin coat will be uneven and it will wrinkle when it dries. The wrong way is not to take the
resin a full 1 cm beyond the edge of the hole, because this affects the tone of the final instrument.

Figure 5. Left, making the first layer of the front using T-shirt material and polyester resin. Right, marking
the positions of the sound holes and bridge.

What do you do if the first layer looks bad when it dries? Don’t give up, you may be creating a new
instrument that is just as good as the original.

Part 2. Further layers.

In the instrument illustrated here I used two layers of T-shirt fabric for the front and three for the back, a
decision I regretted as it made the front too flexible. Three layers for both front and back is better.

If the second layer is prepared too late after the first layer then, because of shrinkage of the previous layer,
the result will be unwanted bubbles of air trapped between the layers. On the other hand, if the second layer
is prepared too soon after the first layer then, because the first layer is too weak, the resultant differential
shrinkage will cause warping. About 3 hours between layers seems optimal. Ignore any bubbles smaller than
1 cm long, but try to remove larger bubbles.

Prepare the second and third layers the same way as the first. Pour a little mixed resin on the middle area of
the fabric and work it outwards towards the edge using a plastic or metal scraper, and fingers. Continue the
mixed resin 1 cm past the marked edge. Then turn the fabric over on the same disposible surface and apply
resin to those parts of the fabric where it didn’t soak through.

Then either apply the layer directly to the previous layer in the template over the hole, or apply some mixed
polyester resin to the surface of the previous layer before applying the next layer. There is not much
difference in performance between the two methods. Applying resin to the previous layer perhaps improves
the bond a bit but it gives a bit more time for the new layer to over-stretch.

After the front is complete, allow it to completely dry on the template for several days. Then, before
removing it from the hole, measure the shape of the sag a distance of 25 mm to the side of the centreline.
This saves hassle later and serves two purposes. It gives the approximate shape you will need to cut for the
back bar that attaches to the back of the front face. And it gives the approximate shape you will need to
determine the slope and height of the neck of the instrument for setting the ideal clearance between the front
of the viola and the fingerboard.

To measure the shape of the sag of the front, place a straight edge above the surface on scrap timber or
whatever else is available. Either the inside or the outside of the surface will do. Measure down from the
straight edge to the surface at enough points so you can later sketch the shape on paper and cardboard.

If you make the back first, turn the template over and put more releasing compound on the template to give a
fresh surface for the front. And vice versa. It is not necessary to decide beforehand which set of three layers
will be the front and which the back, use the better-looking one for the front.

New-layed polyester adheres exceptionally well to old polyester, but not so well to skin, mdf, wood, metal,
ceramics and flexible plastics. This makes cleanup and de-moulding easy, just wait for it to dry and then
remove.

Once everything has set and is removed from the MDF, roughly trim the outside of both front and back with
scissors to about 20 to 25 mm from the sketch on the fabric. That’s just to make them easier to handle.

Part 3. Cut sound holes.

Print out a picture of sound holes the right size. I used the image
http://collections.nmmusd.org/Violas/Guarneri3354/3354GuarneriViolaSoundholesLG.jpg from the “Index
of Digital Images of Tenor Viola by Andrea Guarneri, Cremona, 1664”. See Figure 5. You will use this
image three times, once for tracing out the sound holes, once for positioning the bridge, and once for
positioning the sound post.

Cut holes with scissors or sharp knife in the printout where the sound holes are. Sticky tape it on the front
face of the viola and trace the shape in pencil. Drill holes at the end of each sound hole. Using either a
coping saw or a hacksaw with a wire blade, cut a line along the length of each sound hole. Then expand the
sound holes to final size using a small file. A half-round file works well.

Building the viola sides

Overview
 Hammer nails into a board to mark the curves of the sides
 Wrap two layers of resin-impregnated upholstery fabric around the nails
 Attach to the viola back and fill gaps

To build the sides, a stiff but flexible woven upholstery fabric similar to canvas is used. This fabric should
be chosen so that it will support its self weight vertically without sagging over a height of 70 mm.

Prepare a nail board. Find a piece of flat timber, masonite, chipboard or MDF that is big enough (see Figure
6). Mark on the board the outlines of the big end, little end and sides of the viola. Hammer in 75 mm long
bullet head nails just inside the marked line, because you’ll be making the inside layer first. The fabric will
be wrapped around the outside of the nails except for the second last nail on each end for each piece, so
move that second last nail just outside the marked line.

Cut strips of the upholstery fabric to a width that will match the final thickness of the instrument. I used 70
mm but, looking back, 65 mm would have been better because it would have made it easier on the final
instrument to use the full length of the bow when bowing arco.
As with the front and back, place the fabric on a disposable surface and pour a little mixed resin along the
length of the fabric and work it outwards to the edge using a plastic or metal scraper, and fingers. Then turn
the fabric over and apply resin to those parts of the fabric where it didn’t soak through.

Place the soaked fabric edge-down on a nail-board, as shown in Figure 6. The polyester doesn’t run down
from the canvas onto the board. As the polyester sets it shrinks just enough to draw the polyester
impregnated fabric onto the nails, held in place by the kink produced by the second last nail at each end.

Before making the second layer, move the second last nails at each end on the nailboard out a bit to
accommodate the extra thickness of fabric.

Make the second layer like the first. I also put a little polyester resin on the outer surface of the first layer to
aid adhesion. Air bubbles and warping are not a problem this time. The main problems are if the first layer
droops at the ends due to self weight, and if the nails aren’t sufficiently vertical.

Two layers suffice.

Figure 6. Building the sides. Left, using a nail board to get the shape. Right, attaching the sides to the back.

Glue the sides onto the back using a little polyester resin. When using polyester resin as a glue rather than
for laminating, it helps to let the mixed resin sit for at least five minutes before use. This allows the viscosity
to increase a little and so helps to stop the glue from running too much.

For the big end I found that the easiest way was to loosely place that part of the side on the nail board and
turn it upside down on the back. In this way the weight of the nail board holds the side firmly down on the
back at the same time as the nails keep the side vertical. Using a torch, check under the nail board for
running glue and wipe off any runs with a rag.

Once all the sides are attached to the back and the glue is dry, there will be small gaps between the sides and
back and between the four sides. Fill these by putting sticky tape on the inside and pouring a little polyester
in from the outside. [A research project for the brave, what happens to the sound when the small gaps
between the four sides are left open in the final instrument, and the sound holes in the front are made
narrower to compensate? I think the sound would still be good, perhaps better].

Once this gluing is finished, trim the edges of the back with the junior hacksaw neatly to a distance of about
1 cm from the sides.

Don’t attach the front to the sides yet, there’s a lot more to do first.

What not to do. ABS is the plastic most commonly used in making musical instruments. Don’t try to build
the sides from ABS because it loses all its strength very fast when heated, collapsing down under its self-
weight.
Other parts

There are several options for choosing parts other than the body. One option is to liberate parts from a 1/8
cello, and/or other instrument. A second option is to buy new parts. A third option is to make those parts in
the traditional way of spruce, maple and ebony. A fourth option is to cast the extra parts in resin, the same as
the body.

I ended up with the following combination.

 Neck, bridge, bass bar and nut are cast in polyester resin.
 Headstock cut from wood.
 Tailpiece, fingerboard and three strings for a 1/8 cello, bought new.
 Top string from a guitar, bought new.
 Tail gut from a viola, bought new.
 Tuning pegs from a guitar, bought new.
 Thrust rod and sound post from steel.
 Holding strap liberated from an old bag.
 Buttons to hold the strap, using buttons designed for jeans.

The new parts for the 1/8 cello and viola were all bought at the same time from a store in China, Jinqu
Instrument, at a total cost of about USD$33 plus postage plus a currency conversion fee. The tuning pegs
cost $4 on ebay. The steel rod cost $2 from a steel supplier. The guitar string is available for $2 at the local
music shop.

The thrust rod

Guitar makers insert a metal rod in the handle, called a “thrust rod” to counteract string tension. For this
instrument I’m going to extend that metal rod the whole length of the instrument. See Figure 7. The tension
in the strings is 40 to 50 kg on a good day (more if you tension a string so much that you break the string),
which is equivalent to sitting on the instrument. So if you feel that you’ve made your viola strong enough to
take that load in compression without much deflection then by all means follow the standard method of
avoiding the thrust rod. A quick calculation suggests that the narrowest steel rod that would take that
compression without buckling is 6 mm in diameter. I used ¼” = 6.3 mm diameter.

Figure 7. Thrust rod position.

The presence of a thrust rod will significantly affect the tone of the instrument, but not in an unpleasant way.
It allows the body to be made more flexible, which is what is wanted in a musical instrument.

Have the thrust rod as close to the front of the instrument body as possible. This helps with the angle of the
neck, the clearance between the fingerboard and the body, the attachment of the tail gut to the thrust rod, and
the height of the bridge. At the head end of the body, the thrust rod will be inserted into the headstock, more
on that later. At the tail end of the viola, allow the thrust rod to protrude a distance of 20 to 25 mm beyond
the side wall. This distance is necessary to allow the load from the strings to be taken primarily in
compression in the thrust rod rather than in bending, and it can’t be much longer because then it would
interfere with the arm holding the bow.

Where the thrust rod will pass through a hole in the body, roughen the surface of the steel with a file to
ensure best adhesion of the polyester resin used as a glue. At the tail end of the thrust rod, cut a vee shaped
notch with a hacksaw or junior hacksaw. The top of the notch is horizontal when the instrument is layed on
its back. The bottom of the notch is cut at 45 degrees. Smooth off the edges of the notch with a small file.
Don’t cut it to final length yet.

Making the bass bar

The bass bar is a strip of material attached to the inside of the viola front. In a conventional stringed
instrument it serves three purposes. One is to carry the downward force of the bridge that is generated by
tensioning the strings. This is about 10 kg, on a good day. The second is to distribute the vibrations from the
strings evenly along the the length of the viola front, so that the whole front is able to vibrate as a single unit,
that’s why it’s called a bass bar. The third is to help take the compression generated by the string tension
force along the length of the front face. For this instrument, the thrust rod takes the compression generated
by the string tension force along the length of the front face, so only the first two reasons apply.

The bass bar for a 1/8 cello is 412 mm long (in a body length of 530 mm), it is 8 mm thick, and the width at
the deepest point, which is under the bridge, is 18 mm.

This instrument is similar in body length and width to a 1/8 cello. I ended up with a bass bar thickness of
four laminations of upholstery material, and a maximum width of 22 mm. The greater width is because I
only used two laminations for the viola front instead of the recommended three, for your instrument try
something between 18 and 22 mm.

Figure 8. Left, an MDF template for the bass bar, and pencil line marking its location on the viola front. Do
not take dimensions off this photo because this was a bass bar design that I ended up rejecting. Right,
starting to work out the neck geometry, not to scale.

The bass bar is positioned a distance of 25 mm to the side of the centreline. This is 7 mm in from the outer
edge of the bridge.

Did you measure the shape of the sag of the front earlier? If not, do it now. Mark the shape on MDF. Mark
the maximum width of bass bar under the bridge and vary the width linearly with distance from the bridge in
such a way that it would drop to zero at both ends of the body.

On this MDF template laminate four layers of upholstry fabric in the same way as for the viola sides. Trim
after drying to the shape of the template using the junior hacksaw. Then remove the template.
Put the viola front upside down on the hole, just as you made it, like Figure 5 left. Weight down the edges to
ensure that they are all flat horizontal. Check the shape of the bass bar by holding it losely in place, if there
are any high points on the bass bar, hacksaw them lower.

Then, using some method to keep the bass bar vertical, glue it in place with a little polyester resin. Fill any
holes between the bass bar and the back of the viola front after the glue is set using sticky tape on one side
and resin poured into the other in the same way that you did with the viola sides.

Once glued in place, do a final check. Put a load of several kg by hand on the viola front where the bridge
will be and watch to see that the front and bass bar deflects evenly along its length.

Don’t do. Don’t leave the MDF template for the bass bar attached to the polyester inside the instrument, it
will absorb sound.

Building the neck

Two layers of polyester reinforced with upholstery fabric will easily hold 20 kg in compression if it is
designed to eliminate buckling. Use three layers for the neck. Because most of the compressive load
generated by the strings is taken by the thrust rod there is no need to fill the neck with resin.

Before building the neck, there’s a bit of geometry to sort out. First you need to select the the neck length,
the width of the neck at both ends, the height of the neck at both ends, the slope of the neck and the height of
the top of the neck where it joins the body. See the right hand side of Figure 8.

I calculated the length of the neck from the length of the string of a 1/8 cello, 490 mm, minus the measured
length of the distance from the bridge to the top of the body to get 220 mm. This is a bit longer than the 195
mm calculated from 𝑉 0.5 𝐶 0.5 . Perhaps 195 mm would have been better, it would have given the instrument a
better weight balance and made it easier to play the fingering. For the width of the neck at both ends, the
easiest way is to take the width of a standard 1/8 cello fingerboard. This is 27 mm at the head end and 43
mm at the body end. Because of the way I make the headstock, with a 20 mm internal diameter hole saw, I
made the width at the head end larger, 30 mm, large enough to fit a 20 mm diameter circle inside the inner
layer, but it would have been better to use 27 mm.

For the slope of the neck, draw the shape of the sag/bulge that you measured earlier, and add a horizontal
line at the neck end whose length is 220 mm. Why horizontal? Because this is close to the top of the thrust
rod. If you don’t have a thrust rod then you have more freedom. From the end of that line, draw a straight
line that clears the bulge by 10 mm. This line is the top of the neck, which is the same as the bottom of the
fingerboard. The slope of that straight line is the slope of the neck. The distance between that straight line
and the end of the top of the viola body is the height of the top of the neck where it joins the body.

The neck is made in two parts, one part is the neck proper, the second part is a vertical channel that
distributes the load from the neck to the front and back of the body. The width of the top of this channel is
43 mm, the same as the width of the neck. The length of this channel is the height of the viola sides plus the
height of the top of the neck where it joins the body.

The depth of the neck has to be sufficient to contain the bottom of the thrust rod inside the inner layer at the
neck-body junction, and it has to be sufficient to contain a 20 mm diameter circle inside the inner layer at
the head end. The remaining dimensions of the vertical channel are largely arbitrary. I used 30 mm wide at
the bottom, 25 mm deep at the top and 17.3 mm deep (the same as for a violin) at the bottom.

You’ve previously used two ways to cast a curved surface without a mould – by deflection under the force
of gravity, and on a nailboard. The neck is most easily cast a third way. If the upholstery fabric has a
smoother and rougher side, ensure that the smoother side ends up on the outside of the channel. Candle wax
is again used as the release agent. Bend the polyester-impregnated fabric to fit between two strips of MDF
stapled to a back-board. Once the first layer is done, use the first layer as a mould to attach an inner layer,
and continue for one more layer.

Figure 9. Building the neck. The discarded DIY fingerboard is on the right of the left picture.

The neck is cast in two parts. For a strong joint where the two parts intersect, use the design shown on the
right hand side of Figure 9. A junior hacksaw and small file are used top cut the slot and tongue.

The neck is still not quite finished. A hole needs to be drilled in the vertical channel for the thrust rod to pass
through, and there are open gaps at the top and bottom of the vertical channel that can each be covered by a
single thickness of upholstery fabric. For the gap at the top, I started by trimming back the viola front in that
location to the exact edge outer edge of the side. And I extended the single thickness cover for the top hole
down to the full length of the vertical channel and attached it with polyester to the body of the instrument
before attaching the neck. In this way, the extra thickness from this single layer helps to reinforce the body
where the neck joins it.

The neck is now ready to attach to the body. But I didn’t attach it immediately, I made the headstock first.

Headstock.
Because the fitting of wooden tuning pegs on members of the string family is the number one cause of
permanent failure, I decided to use the better designed, more robust and easier to use metal tuning pegs
designed for a guitar. They only cost $4 for a set.

That means using a headstock similar to one for a guitar rather than one for a viola, and that means fitting a
rectangular-coss-section headstock on an oval neck. I could have used a headstock off an existing guitar, or
made one from laminated polyester, but decided to make it of wood. A starting point for design of the
connection to the neck is the bicycle pedal.

There are two fundamental types of headstocks for a guitar, a flat headstock and a sloping headstock. I used
my own design that is a hybrid of these – that was a mistake. The problem is that, because of the thickness
of the fingerboard, the heights of the strings as they pass over the nut at the neck end of the headstock are far
above the front face of the headstock, and so the tension in the strings is trying to pull the strings up off the
tuning pegs. Be aware of this, and design the headstock to avoid it.

Start with a flat block of wood. I used one 19.5 mm thick and 67 mm wide, but you could choose one as thin
as 10 mm for a flat headstock. Choose an angle for the headstock, either flat or sloping at up to 40 degrees.
Use a hole saw to make a circular lump 20 mm in diameter (or less) on the end of the wood at the selected
angle of slope. Cut and file it to fit within the neck under the fingerboard.
Figure 10. Left, headstock and tuning pegs. Right, second trial assembly.

Buy the tuning pegs before designing the headstock. Design a headstock shape to fit them neatly, like that in
Figure 10. The tuning pegs will be screwed to the back of the headstock and the pegs pass through holes to
protrude in front.

Remove extra wood before attaching the tuning pegs, this helps keep the weight of the head end of the
instrument low. If the head is too heavy then too much weight will end up being on the left hand doing the
fingering. I used a final thickness of the headstock of 10 mm.

Then screw the tuning pegs in place.

The connection between the headstock and neck is crowded because it contains not just the headstock, neck
and fingerboard, but also the nut and thrust rod. At the moment you just need the body, neck, thrust rod and
headstock. Test assemble these into what is going to be the final configuration. This will give you a position
and angle for the hole in the headstock that is going to hold the end of the thrust rod. Drill this hole. Allow
four mm extra on the length of the thrust rod for the thickness of the nut (assuming the nut is cast as a
separate piece, see below on nut design). Trim the thrust rod to its final length and roughen with a file the
end that will fit in the hole.

Assemble the body (back and sides only, not front), thrust rod, neck and headstock using polyester resin to
glue it all together. This assembly can be postponed until later if desired.

Don’t do. Don’t drill the hole for the thrust rod in the wrong place in the headstock.

Fingerboard, tailpiece, tail gut

The fingerboard can be either made or bought. I did both, but then discarded the made one (shown being
made on the left of Figure 9 and complete on the right hand side of Figure 10) because precision is very
important for the fingerboard. The bought one was originally made for a 1/8 cello.

If, because of construction inaccuracies, the bought fingerboard doesn’t fit neatly over the top of the junction
between the thrust rod, headstock and neck, then cut or file the back of the fingerboard to fit.

The tailpiece was also bought new, originally made for a 1/8 cello. It could have been made from polyester
and upholstery fabric but the bought one contains fine-tuning screws and levers that can’t be made DIY.

The tail gut was bought new, originally made for a viola. Why viola? Because the tail gut for the 1/8 cello is
way too long. Can you see why? Because the tail gut for this instrument only needs to reach back to the vee
notch in the thrust rod. The tail gut is a thick nylon string with threaded end and a nut and lock washer for
each end. A viola tail gut does fit neatly into a 1/8 cello tail piece. If you decided not to use a thrust rod then
you’ll need an “end pin” for the tail gut to wrap around and some way to hold the end pin in place.

Support strap(s) and buttons

This instrument can be supported in three different ways. When played standing, it can be supported by a
strap, like a guitar. When played seated, it can be supported by the left thigh, again like a guitar. The third
option is to hold it vertically like a cello when seated, with the bottom resting on both thighs. The following
is for supporting it by a strap. For classical instruments, this support style is called “da spalla”

Jeans buttons are made for thick fabric. An interior nail pokes through the fabric into the inside of the outer
metal button. I found that the nail is just long enough to poke through two thicknesses of laminated
upholstery fabric – the sides of the viola. Drill a small hole for the nail. Use a locking wrench to crimp the
button onto the nail. The result seems to be strong enough.

Rough ideas about support point locations and strap lengths come from Figure 4, reproduced in Figure 11. It
turns out that the support over the right shoulder isn’t needed, the viola is supported off the left shoulder. I
installed jeans buttons at locations 1 and 2 in the final version, each is placed on the side midway between
the front and back. The strap goes from 1, over the front of the shoulder and then under the arm to 2.

Figure 11. Left, support locations 1 and 2. Right, typical jeans buttons.

The strap came off a bag, and the button holes in the strap are cut with scissors.

If you haven’t already glued the thrust rod, neck and headstock in place then now is a good time to do it.

There are a lot of “don’t do”s here. Don’t make straps of any type of elastic, the instrument is slightly too
heavy for elastic. Don’t decide on the support points too early, wait until every component of the final
instrument is available and trial assemble everything to ensure that the centre of gravity is between the
support points and not too close to either. In Figure 7 and on the right side of Figure 10, I had attached a
support strap too early and had to end up moving it. Don’t try to glue ordinary buttons onto the outside of
the viola, it’s not strong enough. Remember that jeans buttons must be installed before the viola front is
glued to the sides.

Sound post

The sound post transmits vibrations from the bridge directly to the viola back to get it to vibrate. It is
normally made from wood, but I decided to make it from the same steel rod that the thrust post is make
from. Wood would be a viable alternative.
The sound post goes on the opposite side to the bass bar, at the same distance from the centre line, a distance
of between about 15 and 20 mm behind the bridge. Using the printout picture on the right side of Figure 5,
mark this position on the inside of the viola back.

To get the perfect length, start with a trial assembly like the right hand side of Figure 10, poke the sound
post through the sound hole closest to its final location and measure the length. Then add about 3 mm to that
length, to ensure a tight fit when finally installed. Cut to length.

To glue the sound post in place on the viola back, start by drilling a ¼ inch (6.3 mm) hole in a piece of
MDF. This will be placed to rest on top of the viola sides to ensure that the sound post stays vertical while
the glue sets. Roughen both ends of the sound post with a file to help adhesion of the glue. Mix up a small
batch of resin and leave for five minutes, it’s viscosity will slightly increase. Before that five minutes is up,
push the sound post through the hole in the MDF until it’s the right length to reach down to just touch the
viola back.

When the five minutes are up, place a reasonable sized blob of polyester resin in the correct place on the
viola back and gently lower the sound post, held by the MDF, into it. When dry, three hours or more,
remove the MDF.

Don’t do. Don’t glue the sound post in place too early in the assembly process, if the sound post is glued in
before the edges of the viola back are neatly trimmed then it will fall out. Don’t try to make the sound post
from polyester because it’s difficult to make without a mould.

Attach the front

By this stage, the sides, back, thrust rod, neck, headstock, support buttons and sound post are all glued
together, the bass bar is glued to the front, and all gaps have been filled with polyester. If some of that hasn’t
been done yet then go back and do it.

Ensure that a short wide slot has been cut out of the front for the vertical channel of the neck to fit into.

Light a trial assembly using a torch from behind. This will give the location of the top of the sound post.
Mark this on the outside of the viola front. Then turn the front over and copy the mark onto the inside of the
viola front.

Turn the front upside down on the template with a hole, Figure 5 left. Turn the back and sides upside down
on the front and move about until happy with the position. Are there any lumps on either the sides or front
that interfere with the fit? If so, then hacksaw them off.

When happy with the position, mark enough points on the back of the front to completely define where the
glue line between the sides and front will be.

Mix up a batch of resin and leave for five minutes, its viscosity will slightly increase. Pour a blob on the
back of the viola front for the sound post. Pour a near-uniform line of resin on the line where the sides will
sit. Place the sides of the viola onto the glue. Weight this down with several kilograms to get the best
possible join.

Don’t do. Don’t panic. If the gap between the sides and front is too wide to glue then you can do something
about that next. If there looks to be a gap between the sound post and the front then wait until the glue has
set before examining it with a torch placed behind.

If the gap between the sides and front is too wide to glue then paste on a bandaid, a single thickness of
polyester-impregnated upholstery fabric on the outside, shaped to fit. It’s not ideal but it will do.
Once the front is attached, small gaps can be filled with a little poured 5 minute polyester smoothed into the
gap with a fingertip. Repeat if necessary.

When all is done, neatly trim the edges of the front back with a junior hacksaw and file to a distance of 1
cm.

Bridge and nut

The only components of the instrument left to obtain are the bridge, nut and strings. This is a good time to
make another trial assembly. But not using the real bridge, nut and strings, instead make a trial bridge and
nut from MDF and trial strings of fishing line, don’t fully tigheten the tail gut in the tailpiece. Use this to
trial your selected string spacing.

From the position of the fingerboard, you will already have a good idea of the height of the bridge. I used 10
mm between the projected height of the fingerboard at the position of the bridge and the bottom of the
strings, a 1/8 cello uses 15 mm. There is a trade-off in bridge height. The lower the bridge, the easier it is to
use the full length of the bow when playing arco. The higher the bridge, the louder the sound. For this
instrument, I made the bridge as low as possible.

Your bridge will not be the same height as mine, because every instrument is different. Interpolation from
cello and violin suggests a bridge height of 57 mm, from cello and viola suggests a bridge height of 53 mm.
I use a bridge height of 50 mm. If, and only if, your bridge height turns out to be 60 mm high or higher, you
can use an off-the-shelf 65 mm (nominal max) width 1/8 cello bridge. This is 73 mm high and can be cut
back to no shorter than 60 mm. My bridge is shorter, so I needed to cast it in polyester.

To make a trial bridge from MDF, trace the large end of the fingerboard on it and expand that a constant
distance to get the top. Then measure down by the height to get the bottom. The printout on the right hand
side of Figure 5 gives the total width of the bridge at the feet. The rest of the bridge design is up to you, so
long as it’s rigid and lightweight.

The nut is the the part of the instrument that the strings pass over that sits between the bottom of the head
and the top of the neck. Options include bought, cast as a separate piece, and directly cast onto the
fingerboard. I opted as cast as a separate piece, and made two versions, one suitable for the home-made
fingerboard (now discarded) and one suitable for the bought fingerboard. The top is a few mm above the top
of the fingerboard. The bottom fits in the gap between neck and headstock and wraps around the shaft of the
headstock.

For attaching the trial strings of fishing line to the tailpiece, I used an Ashley stopper knot. See the web for
details. Also see the web for how to attach strings to guitar tuning pegs.

Since you’re making this instrument, you can decide on the string spacing at the nut. A typical string spacing
for a violin/viola/cello at the nut is a 5.5 mm gap between edges of strings (add the string width to get the
distance between the centres of the strings). On children’s instruments this is smaller, about 5 mm. On a
guitar, a gap of 6 to 6.5 mm between strings is typical. Because of limited finger mobility due to arthritis,
and because I’m big, I’m using a much wider gap of 7.5 mm between strings. Putting a vernier on my
fingers I find that they’re 12 mm wide, so even a 7.5 mm wide gap will require precision.

Everything is now ready for the trial assembly. Sticky tape the fingerboard in place. Cut slots in the bottom
edge of the front for the nylon of the tail gut to pass through. Then assemble the rest. It may help to use a
little Blu Tack or equivalent to keep the bridge in place.

When happy with the sizes, cast the bridge and nut from polyester. I used unreinforced polyester for this as
follows. Unreinforced polyester is brittle, and if doing this again I would add a layer of T-shirt fabric front
and back.
Figure 12. Casting the bridge and nut.

Cut the shapes for bridge and nut as holes in a single thickness of MDF. Make sure to cut the corners and
edges cleanly, don’t leave loose fibres. Thoroughly coat all parts with a release compound such as candle
wax or petroleum jelly until all surfaces that will come in contact with the resin feel really smooth. Staple or
otherwise attach it to a backing board. Pour mixed resin into the holes until the level in the centre is slightly
above the top of the hole, because it will shrink as it dries. Check after 5 minutes. If the level has dropped,
fill it back up.

The polyester will be soft enough to cut with a fingernail after one hour. Trim any that has spilt on top of the
mould then. Unstaple the front from the back of the mould after one and a half hours, when the polyester is
set but still soft enough to be cut by a knife. Trim the edges front and back with a sharp knife. Do not
remove the parts completely from the mould yet, do that two or three hours after pouring.

If all works perfectly well, it will slip out from the mould under finger pressure. More usually, a sharp knife
is needed to cut through the side joins between plastic and cardboard. The worst acceptable case is when a
file is needed after the knife.

Once the body of the bridge is cast, you will need to cast the feet. Cut two rectangular holes in a thickness of
MDF, smear with release compound, staple to a backing board and fill with mixed resin. Then stand the
body of the bridge vertically in the resin and adjust the position until its centred.

Don’t do. Don’t attach to the backing board before coating with release compound.

Unreinforced cast polyester can rip apart if not fully set and it can still chip when it is fully set. If chipping
becomes a problem then one option is to laminate the front and back of the bridge and/or nut with T-shirt
fabric.

Attach the fingerboard

First, erase any pencil marks on the front of the body. Make sure that any holes around the body have
already been filled.

Everything else is straightforward. Ensure that the bottom of the fingerboard is roughened where it attaches
to the neck. Mix a little polyester and leave for 5 minutes to thicken a bit. Pour a line on both the fingerboard
and neck. Quickly flip the fingerboard and put it on the neck. Hold it in place with a piece of sticky tape.
And wipe off any resin runs with a cloth.

Once dry, fill any remaining gaps with a little polyester.

The strings
I tuned it as a Tenor Viola with strings G2–D3–A3–E4 an octave below the violin. The three lowest strings
are the G2–D3–A3 of a 1/8 cello. Finding an appropriate string for the E4 is not too difficult. The top strings
of violin, guitar and cello are all “plain steel”, so it comes down to finding the right guitar string. D’Addario
produces a “tension chart” to allow you to find strings for non-standard instruments,
www.daddario.com/upload/tension_chart_13934.pdf . In units of lb (T), inches (L) and Hz (F), the string
unit weight (W) is calculated from W = 385.4*T / (2*L*F)2. For a string tension near 12 kg, the best string
for my instrument is PL016 with a unit weight of .00005671 lb/in. But I couldn’t tune that high enough, so
ended up with a PL011. That has a thin tone, a PL013 would have been better.

If tuned as a cello then finding the strings is even easier, take all four from a 1/8 cello. A piccolo cello has
five strings, use all four strings from a 1/8 cello plus a guitar string for the top E4.

If tuned as a viola C-G-D-A, that’s more difficult, one possibility is to use use the same strings that people
have used in making the alto violin, Figure 1, see http://www.nvfa.org/faq.html . Alternatively, use 1/8 cello
D and A retuned as C and G. And select top strings from the guitar tension chart, avoiding round wound
strings and going instead for plain steel and/or flat wound.

Don’t do. Don’t use a shortened 4/4 cello A3 string as your E4 string because it can’t be tuned to a high
enough pitch at a reasonable tension. Don’t use a viola D4 string as your E4 string because it isn’t long
enough.

A word of warning, I found 1/2 cello parts mislabelled as 1/4 cello, and I found 1/4 cello parts mislabelled as
1/8 cello. If you end up with 1/4 cello strings instead of 1/8 cello strings then don’t worry, they work just as
well.

Finishing off

That’s almost all. Cut slots in the nut and bridge of the desired width and depth. Firmly attach the tail gut
with the lock washers to the tailpiece, screwing the screws down to keep the loop short. Put the loop in the
Vee notch of the thrust rod. Glue the bridge and nut in place. Attach each string first to the tailpiece then
over the bridge and nut to the tuning peg and turn the tuning peg until the slack is removed. Once the strings
are in place, tune the instrument and start playing. Adjust the length of the support strap until you’ve found a
comfortable playing position. Then take a photograph and post it on the web.

Figure 13. The instrument is almost finished. Inside, you can see the bass bar, thrust rod and sound post.

Cheers.