Westbury 15.5" Viola Outfit

Westbury viola

Made by Eastman strings

Good making and dimensions

Includes full luthior set up, Despiaux bridge and Thomastic Dominant strings

Wood bow

Strong wood shell case that suspends the back of the instrument

You can try this instrument at our premises, please phone to make an appointment.

String instrument  set up
There is some misunderstanding about what this means or can mean. To some, it means standing the bridge, tuning the instrument and rosining the bow. This is not what it means to us, our set up does the following:

Sound post (the small cylinder of wood that stands inside the instrument)
The old factory sound post is removed and a new high quality post fitted accurately. This allows the instrument to be acoustically responsive as well as supporting the downward tension of the strings on the treble side.

Bridge
This is thinned and shaped to allow the vibrations from the strings to be transferred into the top efficiently. The feet are also fitted accurately to the instrument top.
The curve on the top of the bridge is set correctly to allow clean bowing of the inner strings and at the same time the height above the fingerboard is set.

Top nut
Strings are evenly spaced at the correct overall distance apart and the strings are set at the correct height above the fingerboard, this allows the players fingers an even amount of room to 'stop' the strings cleanly.
Excess material is then removed from the top surface of the nut. Lastly the string slots are graphited to allow ease of tuning.

Saddle (where the tail piece gut or nylon passes over the instrument back edge)
This is smoothed and the height adjusted if necessary.

Pegs
Often pegs are not perfectly shaped,which can lead to problems tuning the instrument. We remove the pegs, re-shape them as necessary then fit them precisely into the peg box using a reamer. Before final fitting,
a compound is applied to the pegs to allow firm but smooth movement for accurate tuning.

Fingerboard
This is shaped correctly so that the strings can vibrate freely without rattling against the fingerboard.

Bow
We clean the hair first before applying some good quality powdered rosin.

Enhanced set up
We also offer an enhanced set up which includes all of the above plus fitting a new high quality bridge and high quality branded strings (usually Pirastro or Thomastic) which allows for the best sound production of the instrument.
cost is usually an extra £15 plus the cost of strings which varies from around £30 to £50.