Gluing in purfling on the cello's top plate. Purfling is a narrow decorative edge inlaid into the top plate and often the back plate of a stringed instrument. Inexpensive instruments may have no purfling and instead simulate the appearance with paint. Purfling was originally made of laminated strips of wood, often contrasting in color as a visual accent.
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Without purfling, cracks can spread up or down the top or back. Playing, traveling and the weather all affect the cello and can increase a crack if purfling is not in place. Less expensive instruments typically have painted purfling.
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Binding and purfling materials are generally made of either wood or high quality plastic materials.
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The cello body has a wide top bout, narrow middle formed by two C-bouts, and wide bottom bout, with the bridge and F holes just below the middle. The top and back of the cello has decorative border inlay known as purfling. While purfling is attractive, it is also functional: if the instrument is struck, the purfling can prevent cracking of the wood. A crack may form at the rim of the instrument, but spreads no further.
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Purfling is similar to binding, but differs in that it is offset a small distance from the edge surface. It is typically found around the edges of the front, back and sound holes of violins. Purfling helps prevent cracks at the edge from extending deeper into the wood.
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This binding serves to seal off the end grain of the top and back. Purfling can also appear on the back of an acoustic guitar, marking the edge joints of the two or three sections of the back. Binding and purfling materials are generally made of either wood or plastic. Body size, shape and style has changed over time.
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The back and ribs are typically made of maple, most often with a matching striped figure, called "flame." Backs may be one-piece slab-cut or quarter-sawn or bookmatched two- piece quarter-sawn. Backs are also purfled, but in their case the purfling is less structurally important than for the top. Some fine old violins have scribed or painted rather than inlaid purfling on the back.
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Laminates and composites made from nacreous shell and synthetic materials, described as "fake", "faux", or "shin paua", are sometimes used by luthiers. The channel cut for the inlay of purfling may increase the flexibility of the plates where they join the sides, affecting an instrument's pitch and sustain. In cases of heavy decorative inlay, the effective vibrational area of the sound board may be reduced. Today plastic purfling is commonplace in mass-produced instruments.
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Some violins have two lines of purfling or knot-work type ornaments inlaid in the back. Painted-on faux purfling on the top is usually a sign of an inferior violin. A slab-sawn bass bar fitted inside the top, running lengthwise under the bass foot of the bridge, gives added mass and rigidity to the top plate. Some cheaper mass-produced violins have an integral bass bar carved from the same piece as the top.
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1620 where he worked c.1620-1670\. Sianis' instruments have a rather full arching, narrow purfling in very nicely channelled edges, and stiff f-holes. His scrolls show the influence of Maggini. His work is very rarely met in the trade.
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" The construction of the "Balfour" Stradivarius was an attempt of good effort but not entirely convincing: "The purfling is ebony, an obvious sign rhat the violin could not be a genuine Stradivari. Another error which they petpetrared on this and most of their instruments is the short scarfed joint in the purfling on, or just beside, the centre joint at both ends of the back. Cremonese instruments generally have a longer overlapping mitre placed well away from the centre line. The typical Cremonese-style pins are present however, at each end of the back, half covered by the puifling itself.
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His work is characterized by beautiful modelling, good wood and very dark brown varnish; the tone is strong and rich. Early specimens are highly arched but later ones have medium arching and elaborate double purfling. The earliest recorded label (on a viol) is dated 1690.
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He was a pupil of Zanotti, but was mainly influenced by Pietro Guarneri of Mantua, called the grandfather of Mantuan violin making. Guarneri's influence can be seen on the work of Camilli, particularly in the shape of the instrument, the purfling, and the way the notches of the f-hole are cut.
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One common example of plastic purfling is a sandwich of three alternating strips in black and white, measuring about . However, many distinctive variations are used. Binding is a narrow outer strip of material on the edges of the body of stringed instruments such as lutes, mandolins, guitars and ukuleles. Binding may be made of thin wood strips.
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It is applied along the entire edge of top and back plates. While it can provide a decorative function, the primary purpose of binding is to block the transfer of moisture by the hygroscopic end grain of the plates of the instrument. This prevents cracks in a way that purfling cannot. It also reduces wear to instrument body edges.
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The purfling is a wide band of inlaid ivory diamonds and circles on an ebony background. The violin's top plate is made of two-piece spruce with even medium-to-fine grain broadening toward the sides. The back is one-piece maple with narrow, nearly horizontal flame figure; the ribs are of similar maple. The neck is made of modern maple, terminating in the original pegbox and scroll.
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He sometimes added fleur-de-lis at the corners and at times added a second line of purfling. However his attempts at embellishment always fell short those he was probably copying: Nicolò Amati and Antonio Stradivari. From 1700 onward, he abandoned the Amati-like delicacy of his earlier work and adopted a larger, more masculine style. His model remained basically the same, though with increased width, enlarged edges, corners and f-holes.
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The earliest known example of purfling is on a violin made by Andrea Amati in 1564, now on display in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. It consists of two outer strips of pearwood stained black and an inner strip of poplar.Faber, Toby, Stradivari's Genius, Random House, 2004; Eventually, nacre from shell, usually mother of pearl or abalone, and other hard inlay materials were incorporated to provide highly decorative effects. Elaborate inlay is found most often on fretted instruments.
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The back and sides are made out of a variety of timbers such as mahogany, Indian rosewood and highly regarded Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra). Each one is primarily chosen for their aesthetic effect and can be decorated with inlays and purfling. Instruments with larger areas for the guitar top were introduced by Martin in an attempt to create greater volume levels. The popularity of the larger "dreadnought" body size amongst acoustic performers is related to the greater sound volume produced.
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29–30 However, the precision with which he carved the heads and inserted the purfling quickly marked him as one of the most dextrous craftsmen in the world, a prime example of this being the 1690 "Tuscan" violin.Hill et al (1963), p. 41 Pre-1690 instruments are sometimes termed "Amatisé" but this is not completely accurate; it is largely because Stradivari created many more instruments later on that people try to connect his early work with Amati's style.Petherick (1900), p.
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King Mortone logo decal (rear) and false purfling. The original H. N. White-manufactured King basses are in no way related to the latter-day King Doublebass basses of Huntington Beach, California (KDB). The construction, sizing and finishes all differ significantly, with Mortone basses being on the large size (nearer than ) with bulbous shoulders and violin corners, and KDB basses being slim- shouldered with 'Gamba'-type corners. KDB have never made any claims about any connection to the basses produced for the H. N. White Company.
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On works that are attributable to him, he shows clumsy workmanship, except on the scroll, suggesting that if his father employed a division of labour in his workshop, perhaps Omobono was assigned the scrolls. Besides the decay in workmanship, Omobono's instruments show little other departure from the design of his father except that he tended to point the mitres of his purfling outward, away from the Cs. After his father's death in 1737, Omobono, who was evidently enriched by his inheritance, stopped his production of instruments, and receded into obscurity.
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When comparing the work of Bergonzi with Vincenzo Rugeri, their similarity of work is apparent in the treatment of the scrolls, the use of beech purfling, the lack of dorsal thicknessing pins, and the working technique of scarfing the linings into the corner blocks at an angle instead of square. Bergonzi's early works such as the "Thibaud" violin from 1715 and others from this early period follow similar outlines and proportions to Vincenzo Rugeri's violins as can be expected, however the outlines of Bergonzi's later instruments became his own.
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Hill et al (1963), p. 33 Stradivari's early (pre-1684) violins are in strong contrast to Amati's instruments from the same time period; Stradivari's have a stronger, more masculine build, and less rounded curves, with the purfling set farther in.Hill et al (1963), p. 34Pollens (2010), p. 16 By 1680, Stradivari had acquired at least a small, yet growing, reputation. In 1682, a Venetian banker ordered a complete set of instruments, which he planned to present to King James II of England.Hill et al (1963) pp. 36–37 The fate of these instruments is unknown.
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Laurence Witten also lists Amati and Gasparo' da Salo, as well as Pellegrino de' Micheli, also from Brescia; as well and Ventura di Francesco de' Machetti Linarol, of Venice. Amati's first violins were smaller than modern violins, with high arches, wide purfling, and elegantly curved scrolls and bodies. Andrea Amati's two sons, Antonio Amati and Girolamo Amati, were also highly skilled violin makers, as was his grandson Nicolò Amati, who had over a dozen highly regarded apprentices, including Antonio Stradivari and Andrea Guarneri. Ex-Kurtz violin at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts (ca. 1560).
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This interior reinforcement provides 5 to 20 mm of solid gluing area for these corner joints. Solid linings are often used in classical guitars, while kerfed lining is most often found in steel string acoustics. Kerfed lining is also called kerfing because it is scored, or "kerfed"(incompletely sawn through), to allow it to bend with the shape of the rib). During final construction, a small section of the outside corners is carved or routed out and filled with binding material on the outside corners and decorative strips of material next to the binding, which are called purfling.
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Each one is chosen for its aesthetic effect and structural strength, and such choice can also play a significant role in determining the instrument's timbre. These are also strengthened with internal bracing, and decorated with inlays and purfling. The body of a classical guitar is a resonating chamber that projects the vibrations of the body through a sound hole, allowing the acoustic guitar to be heard without amplification. The sound hole is normally a single round hole in the top of the guitar (under the strings), though some have different placement, shapes, or numbers of holes.
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While we will never have a full insight as to the quality of Giovanni's work, as much of his work is thought to be unattributed, we do have the few pieces which bear his name to make an educated guess as to his skill and attention to quality and detail. One auctioneer describes his work as "rather rough... the purfling is careless, the wood not particularly handsome", while another: "Very careful workmanship. He applied a fat yellow-brown or red varnish". From these two auctioneer descriptions, it appears that his work varies in quality, although it may be based on the year or on the city where he crafted the violins.
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The top, back and sides of a classical guitar body are very thin, so a flexible piece of wood called kerfing (because it is often scored, or kerfed so it bends with the shape of the rim) is glued into the corners where the rim meets the top and back. This interior reinforcement provides 5 to 20 mm of solid gluing area for these corner joints. During final construction, a small section of the outside corners is carved or routed out and filled with binding material on the outside corners and decorative strips of material next to the binding, which are called purfling. This binding serves to seal off the endgrain of the top and back.
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Indeed, two of the five violin makers of the Guarneri family, the two Pietros—of different generations—left Cremona, the first for Mantua, the second for Venice, apparently because business prospects in Cremona were so stunted by the presence of Stradivari. From the 1720s until about 1737, Guarneri's work is quick and accurate, although he was not obsessed with quality of finish. However, from the late 1730s until his death, his work shows increasing haste and lack of patience with the time needed to achieve a high quality finish. Some of his late violins from circa 1742 to 1744 have scrolls that can be crudely carved, the purfling hastily inserted, the f-holes unsymmetrical and jagged.
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Violin label from Paolo Antonio Testore Paolo Antonio Testore (born 1700 - died 1767) was a Milanese luthier. He was born in Milan, the second son of Carlo Giuseppe Testore, also a noted luthier, and worked out of the family's workshop under the "Sign of the Eagle" on Contrada Larga in Milan. He was one of the three finest instrument-makers from the Testore family, but a distinctive characteristic of Paolo Antonio's work is that he often omitted purfling and sometimes used lower quality wood. Testore's brother Carlo Antonio Testore was also a luthier, and their sons Giovanni, son of Carlo, and Gennaro(?), son of Paolo, continued the family business in Milan during the 1760s.
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Typically the top (also known as the belly or table, in the U.K.) -- the soundboard) is made of quarter-sawn spruce, bookmatched at a strongly glued joint down the center, with two soundholes (or "f-holes", from their resemblance to a stylized letter "f") precisely placed between the C-bouts and lower corners. The soundholes affect the flex patterns of the top and allow the box to breathe as it vibrates. A decorative inlaid set of three narrow wooden strips, usually a light-colored strip surrounded by two dark strips, called purfling, runs around the edge of the top and is said to give some resistance to cracks originating at the edge. It is also claimed to allow the top to flex more independently of the rib structure.
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