Luthiers lingo

Luthiers use particular names and I thought of collating them here.

Enjoy.

Violin making or Lutherie

The ”scoop”

Carving out “the scoop”, having a “pronounced scoop”, etc.

The “scoop” is the channel or “dip” in the arching next to the edge, before the arch starts to rise.

From Maestronet: “If you have more scoop, you either need a tighter arch in the middle, of the same height, or a looser one, lower, or something in between, or some variation, such as a high, broad arch with rapid descent into the scoop”.

Corpus

To assemble the “corpus” of the violin, it means to glue the sides (thus removing the mould) with belly and bottom.

Volute

By “undercutting the volute”, one works on the scroll to ‘make it 3D-like shape’.

Book match

If the plates of the violin, ie, the top (made out of spruce) and the back (maple) are made from two pieces then they were “book-matched” (entry on Wikipedia), ie, laminated together resembling a book when you open.

There’s a good discussion on this on Maestronet.

Then, we could have also a “book-flipped” situation, as depicted here next:
 

Stiffness and thickness graduations

Consult this link by making the violin.

The polarisation when ‘choosing your master’

One either ends up as Strad-like violin makers or dG-like violin makers.

In my case, since I bought the templates for the Kochanski, I guess I’m a dG-like luthier (for now).

Bushing or rebushing peg holes

This is the process of ‘recreating’ the holes because some issue happened (ill positioning, etc.).

Slang terms

Arschgeige

This is suitable in oh so many levels: an “Arschgeige” (a German language word) is “someone who doesn’t perform a particular task very well”, literally a “butt violin” or “butt fiddle”. As offences go, I’d prefer to use “Blödmannsgehilfenanwärter”, which roughly translates to “the idiot’s assistant who has not completed their training yet”.

“Die Geige” or “Die violine” (both feminine words, that’s interesting, because in Portuguese it’s masculine) are violin in the German language.

It is used as a general insult for people you disapprove of, especially if they are arrogant or egotistical. It’s probably best translated as “arsehole” (or “asshole” if you’re American) or “jerk”.

If one sucks at violin making AND he/she is an asshole, you might say “Du bist eine Arschgeige Geigenmacher!”(ich habe eine Frage: Geigenmacher oder Geigenbauer?)