Paint It Black Violin Download
Jahed Stetter
I have a client who wants me to make a custom violin for them and is asking me to make it all black. I mean every piece of wood painted black. Aside from the merits and tonal impact, which I have conveyed, they still want it all black. I am trying to come up with ideas on how I can make that happen. I have thought about stain, however, it's not the color or effect they want. I thought about getting professional airbrush artist to paint it black. Can any one give me additional ideas on how to accomplish this?
Would you ever want to make a black violin if not requested? If not, then I wouldn't make one. It's a lot of effort to make something that you wouldn't put your name to. I would go with Rue's idea. Buy a violin in the white, and make it black.
But I wouldn't suggest painting a violin black, unless one is so desperate for business, that they are willing to do almost anything to pay the next months rent, and the violin has been paid for up front.
I once had to make a couple of black guitar necks. The problem with spraying is that you need quite a lot of coats to kill the pale wood colour. After quite a lot of experiments with Indian ink and black hair dye I found the best bet was ebony spirit wood dye to get the wood to be almost black, followed up with a black ebonizing lacquer spray finished by some black French polish. It worked quite well and I'm sure I could have improved the process if I had done some more.
I have a client interested in a black classical violin. Of course, pitch black is not really possible with hand varnishing but I have suggested a black/ebony stain which will result in a charcoal violin.
Hesse Coatings #10 dye concentrate in black, used *undiluted* will dye the wood an absolute neutral ebony black. I have used it for ebonizing custom furtniture and it has always looked great. Should be available where you are - made in Germany.
I have never seen a black violin but I have seen red and blue. That said, what kind of black are you talking about? Black like what is on a piano or a semi-transparent black where some wood grain shows?
If you want the black that is on a piano, well, that is easy--use your favorite method of filling the wood grain such as glue, clear varnish, etc. and then get a can of spray black paint and spray the instrument. Mask those areas that do not get any black paint. Cover the black with a couple coats of clear varnish and polish.
I like the idea of a black violin - semitransparent but fairly dark. The pictures you posted earlier of your sea green violin were lovely but I have a fondness for almost - but not quite - untraditional colors.
I'm an active jazz drummer in addition to being a violinist (a weird combo, i know). A few drum manufactures do a satin-finish translucent black finish that would probably look nice. Check out these two examples:
I don't really want to go pitch black as I want to retain the wood grain. The finish must be transluscent like my other coloured violins (www.violini.co.za). Hammerl do have black dyes and I have done a few (unsucessful) preliminary tests with thinned-down artists black.
May 1, 2006 at 03:08 AM I recieved a new violin last Christmas and its very good. Its just when I play it the black color from the fingerboard gets on my fingers. My mom tried wiping it with a damp paper towel thinking that it was just because it was new but it looked like it was all coming off so I made her stop. It now looks like its fading from where the strings are lying and in other places. Is this normal? Is there anything I can put on my fingerboard to make it stop coming off or to make it look dark again if it does fade? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
May 1, 2006 at 03:57 AM What kind of violin do you have? When I first began playing the violin, I had a student model violin that was worth about $400 (with the bow and case), and the fingerboard was not really ebony wood, but from the same piece of wood as the rest of the neck. The fingerboard area was painted black to look like ebony. If this is the case with your fingerboard, then the paint does in fact wear off. Don't worry, it doesn't affect the sound. If the fingerboard is true ebony, then it is not the paint wearing off, but the strings making your fingers black. It was easy to tell on my instrument that the fingerboard was painted because you could see the line where the black paint ended, and there was no seam, since it was all one piece.
May 1, 2006 at 03:25 PM It almost certainly indicates that your fingerboard is not made of ebony, but, other than being irritating, isn't any real problem. Ebony is a very dark colored, very hard wood, which is traditionally used for fingerboards, but is very expensive, so a lot of cheaper instruments, including an old factory fiddle I have from the 1920s or 1930s, used something else, probably maple or poplar (hard but cheap, and not black at all) for the fingerboard. This results in the need to color it black so it looks "normal."
I just had the fingerboard on my old, cheap fiddle regraded (it had worn under the E string 1st position...whatever fiddler had it before me spent a lot of time there) by a local luthier, and the coloring he used to re-black it keeps coming off on my fingers when I play now...but I expect it may stop or lessen in time. (I think he may have used a permanent marker or somesuch simple trick to darken it - the instrument has almost zero value except to me, and he didn't have it long enough to use stain...not even sure if one would use stain or varnish in such a circumstance.)
But who really cares? The wood in a violin is worth pennies. It is very little pieces of wood, and wood, being gathered by either poor shoeless natives or by powerful machines, or both, is very inexpensive on a per pound basis.
I was wondering, what are people's thoughts on painting black the inside of the pegbox? Is there any specific reason to do it? Do you do it on your violins, or just varnish it like the rest of it? What do you use to paint it black?
No, I'm talking about the intentional use of opaque "flat" black paint/varnish on the inside of the pegbox. When it's done, it's not like grunge antiquing, it's just explicitly painting the inside of the pegbox black. IIRC, the earliest thing I've actually seen it on is a 1950's Scherl & Roth.
Yeah, no idea who started that trend, but I'm guessing must have been from makers seeing the darkened insides of old violins' pegboxes, and slapping some black paint in there to 'copy' the effect? ...that and some black paint is cheaper, simpler, and hides imperfections?
I think a bit of color contrast can create some appealing visual effects. Stradivari did it with blackened chamfers and deyed-black strips in the purfling. I don't do the blackened chamfers, but I do darken the ff-hole edges and the inside of the pegbox. Not black by any means, but much darker than the varnish on the rest of the instrument.
Darkened pegboxes (black or what ever color) in older instruments is a typical step after a scroll graft and bushings. Most of the expensive instruments where I work have darkened pegboxes. If you like it, do it. If you don't, don't. It's not a big deal!
But a 1950 date for the start of blackening is definitely much too late when one can easily make the observation that 2/3 of the ca 1900 period Dutzend stuff has this feature. You can work it out in EBay listings in case you need a statistical evidence.
I have used a more or less flat black interior of the pegbox on crisp, clean blond or red violins with black picking on the chamfers and rib ends. On antique looking stuff I use a color approximating the varnish tone but more opaque and somewhat dusty looking. I match the insides of the FFs to the pegbox finish. Usually bone or ivory black looks best as it is more brown rather than true black
July 23, 2008 at 03:54 PM I have a question regarding use and history of edging, purfling, piping or binding of the violin scroll edges. I once saw a picture of a scroll that was edged in black. Who are the makers that use such a technique? When was it started? Is it the sign of a certain school ie; Cremonese etc. I found one maker who did it from the 1880's, H.H. Heskett.
July 23, 2008 at 04:35 PM Hi Joe, My french Derazay violin has this black edging on the scroll, and my moms italian violin also had it. I can't remember the name of her violin, I will go home and look at it, and them get back to you with the name. Both of these instruments are a really nice warm reddish brown color, and I like the black on the scroll.
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