ZK-4258
The plate reaches over the tailpiece, the clamp sits centrally over the bottom block and the dip lies to its left. A flat contact area, which keeps the head mobile in play. Black stained ebony with the white Götz mark, the heaviest of the three woods.
| Model | Guarneri |
| Material | Ebony |
| Fittings | Screws and barrels in metal |
| Instrument | Violin |
| Item number | ZK-4258 |
The chin rest sits on the lower bout of the violin and is clamped to the rib with a metal bracket. Its clamp grips over or beside the bottom block, the wooden block inside the body that holds the end pin and reinforces the rib at this point.
The resting chin creates a hold between shoulder and head, and the violin is carried almost entirely by this hold; the left hand supports it only slightly.
Acoustically, the chin rest adds a mass with its own damping to the edge of the body through a few contact points. It therefore mainly slows those natural vibrations of the body that move strongly at these contact points, and leaves free those that have a node (a point at rest) there.
The violin chin rests we have weighed come to between around 41 g and 80 g including screws, depending on model, wood and fittings. With closed screws the barrel sets the height above the rib; violin barrels come in 25, 27 and 29 mm, and most of our violin models take barrels up to 27 mm. With the Hill fitting, by contrast, the feet are firmly joined to the chin rest.
Ebony is the densest of the three woods we use for chin rests, followed by rosewood and boxwood. African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) has a density of 1,000 to 1,050 kg/m³ at 12 % moisture content. Only the deep black heartwood is suitable for instrument making; the broad sapwood is discarded.
How density shows in the finished piece can be seen on the violin Berber, which has the same shape in all three woods: in ebony with standard metal fittings around 56 g, in rosewood around 49 g, in boxwood around 45 g.
It is stained mainly with walnut stain and then polished; this gives the even black surface. After making, our chin rests are stored for several months so that they dry through completely.
Guarneri, Stradivari and Schulze-Priska are mounted over the tailpiece. Together with the Varga, these shapes differ mainly in how deeply the dip is curved: of the four, the Stradivari has the deepest and most contoured plate, the Varga follows, the Guarneri is gently curved and the Schulze-Priska has no curvature. The deeper plate guides the chin more closely and so gives more control.
Measured on the violin: Stradivari ZK-306 in ebony 57 g, plate 6.1 × 12.3 cm, height 22 mm; Guarneri ZK-1598 in rosewood 73 g, plate 6.8 × 14.8 cm, height 21 mm; Schulze-Priska ZK-252 25 mm high.
Before we recommend a model, our first question is whether the chin prefers to rest beside the tailpiece or centrally over it. Our experience when tightening: a chin rest only needs to sit firmly enough to hold securely, because the rib beside the bottom block is more delicate than the spot directly over the block. If the chin rest touches the tailpiece, we solve it through the angle of the screws or with a slightly longer barrel.
On the violin, the Guarneri and Stradivari in ebony are among our best-selling standard models.
Anyone who would like less weight at the chin will find many of our models in boxwood too, the lightest of the three woods; on the violin Berber that is around 11 g less than in ebony.
Anyone who prefers to rest the chin beside the tailpiece will find a flat, side-mounted shape in the Kaufmann or the Slim Style.
Natural cork without coating, so that the chin rest does not slip and no metal touches the varnish; pressed cork is unsuitable because it crumbles over time.
Yes, our ebony chin rests are stained and polished so that they are evenly black. Anyone who wants to see the natural figure of the wood chooses the unstained version with the suffix -NAT.
On average, African ebony at around 1,030 kg/m³ is just under a fifth denser than East Indian rosewood at around 870 kg/m³.
The Stradivari, followed by the Varga; the Guarneri is more gently curved, and the Schulze-Priska has no curvature.
These texts hold decades of experience and a great deal of heart. They are protected by copyright, C.A. Götz jr. GmbH. Please ask us before any use. Thank you for your appreciation.
