How to Make It

The early Egyptians invented the fiddle, or rebab as they called it, but they did not play it with a bow. Later in medieval times, that is in about the 9th century, this fiddle came to be called a rebec and it was then played with a bow. I'll bet though that the fiddle I shall tell you how to make and play sounds better than any Egyptian rebab ever made - though it is not exactly a Stradivarius.110

To make a fiddle of this kind - it only has one string and only one is needed by a master violinist -make a sounding box of 1/8 or 3/16 inch thick wood except the ends which should be of 3/8 inch thick stuff; this box should be 4 inches high, 6 inches wide at one end, 8 inches wide at the other end and 12 inches long. Cut a hole 6 inches in diameter in the center of the board which you are going to use for the sounding board, and then glue all of the pieces together using wood clamps to hold them tight.

For the neck take a stick of wood 1 1/2 inches wide, 2Y2 inches thick and 15 inches long; cut it down until one end is 1 inch thick and cut a piece out of this end 3/4 inch wide and 1 inch deep; bore a conical hole through this end and fit in a peg. Next saw out the other end 2 inches deep for a length of 3 inches back and glue and screw this end of the neck to the narrow end of the box. The shape of the neck with the peg in it and the way it is fixed to the sounding box is clearly shown in the top view A and the side view B in Fig. 115.

Cut out a bridge of a piece of hard wood 1/8 inch thick, 1 inch high and 1 1/2 inches long as shown at C ; and, finally, make a tail-piece of a bit of hard wood 1/8 inch thick 1/2 an inch wide at one end, 1 inch wide

110 The priceless fiddles made by the famous old violin maker Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in the early part of the 17th century.

at the other end and 2 inches long. Drill a hole in each end and whittle or plane the large end to a sharp edge.

In the middle of the large end of the sounding box bore a 1/4 inch hole and glue in a hard wood peg for a hitch-pin. Fasten the tail-piece to the hitch-pin with a piece of catgut string. Slip the end of an A violin string through the hole in the sharp end of the tail-

Fig. 115. Plans For An Egyptian Fiddle piece; knot it to keep it from pulling through, and bring the other end up and thread it through the hole in the peg in the neck. Finally put the bridge under the string and tighten it up. Tune it to the treble, or G clef, if you know enough about music to do it, or if not tune it so that it gives a pleasing tone.

How to Make the Bow

The best kind of wood to make a violin bow of is Brazilian lance-wood or of snake-wood, but for this one stringed yours you can use a piece of beech.

Take a strip of wood 1/2 an inch thick, I inch wide and 24 inches long and saw it out as shown at D; then round up the stick and sandpaper it smooth. Cut out two blocks to fit the ends, or frogs as they are called: drill a hole in each one and screw it to the bow but not very tight.

Fig. 115D. How The Bow Is Made

Now comes the hard part and that is putting on the hairs; get 50 or 60 white horsehairs about 2 feet long; I do not advise pulling them out of Dobbin's tail but rather to buy a bunch of them from Sears, Roebuck, and Co., Chicago, Ill., for 10 or 20 cents.

Having got them somehow put one end of each one under one of the blocks and when you have them all even and close together screw the block down tight; this done fasten the other ends of the hairs under the opposite block, and when you have them all drawn taut screw down the block and put a little glue on the places where they go under the blocks.

If you will look at a horsehair through a microscope you will see that it seems very like the scroll saw blade I told you about in the second chapter, that is, it has a lot of fine teeth on it and all of them run the same way. By rights then half of the hairs ought to be put on the bow with the teeth running in one direction and the other half with the teeth running in the other direction so that the friction of the hairs is the same on the string on the up and the down strokes.

Fig. 115E. How The Fiddle Is Played

Do not use much rosin on the bow but rosin it often. You can buy a piece of regular violin bow rosin for 5 cents but the kind that gives the best results is the genuine Bernardel imported from France and which costs about a quarter. It bites hard on the string and makes a large volume of sound. The way the fiddle is played is shown at E.