These pictures were taken by violin maker Jacob von der Lippe while he was building my baroque violin last winter. The idea was to copy Tartini’s violin, the so-called “Lipinski” Stradivarius from1715. The original is being played by Frank Almond, who graciously submitted detailed photos and measurements. The challenge then was to figure out how the instrument was set up when it was new. We knew how the neck most likely was built, and that it would have been nailed to the body of the instrument rather than glued on. We also had some crucial historical information about the string tension: A source from 1734 claiming Tartini’s string setup to equal 30 kg, quite a bit heavier than a set of Dominant strings vith a tension less than 22 kg.
