Contents
The Technically Exceptional
Carbon Fiber Violins in the World
An Instant Classic
The first thing
that will catch your attention when you play the Carbon Fiber Violin is that it
immediately notices the tremendous power that it produces. Professional and
experienced players tell us how balanced and easy they are to play. World travelers
are no longer held in airports having to show endangered wood credentials for
their conventional violin. You can play anywhere in the world without worry. We
have even witnessed some carbon fiber violin being played underwater. The
Carbon Fiber violin is light, strong and just plain beautiful.
To honor the great
Antonio Stradivarius, who perfected the classic violin shape used by virtually
every luthier today, we named our violin the Carbon Strad. The carbon fiber
violin is an exact replica of the Stradivarius design, only the wood material
is replaced with a space-age material called a carbon fiber or graphite as it
is sometimes referred to.
The Gayford Carbon Fiber Strad Violin
The world’s most technically advanced carbon fiber
violin.
Key Features of the Gayford
Carbon Strad
The Finger Board
The Gayford carbon
fiber violin fingerboards are built with AeroSpace uni-directional
pre-impregnated carbon fiber in such a way that they look and feel exactly like
an Ebony finger board. There is no difference in feel or look to the carbon
fiber fingerboards according to most players, but the reality, there is a
difference. These Carbon fingerboards are much lighter in comparison with Ebony
and much stronger at the same time. The “Nut” is also made of carbon fiber
plate, which should never wear out as is the case with ebony nuts.
Unlike wood, the
carbon made violin will never wear down. Therefore, there is no need a
resurfacing treatment. Since Ebony is becoming endangered and at the same time,
banned from crossing borders, the Gayford Carbon Fiber violin will not give you
any hassle.
Wittner Violin Fine Tuning
Pegs
The Wittner Fine
Tune pegs maintain the traditional hardwood appearance demanded by professional
musicians while offering a unique internal gearing system that creates an
unveiling performance once played. The shaft remains locked and stationary when
fitted into the peg box. The button and
the geared middle section of the shaft are the only parts that move. The Gayford’s
violin has Fine Tune pegs that have an internal gear ratio of 8.5:1 for perfect
tuning. The gear mechanism is also self-restraining, it means that it cannot
slip back once it is turned.
- Hi-tech
composite material. - The
turning ratio of the enclosed gears with 8.5:1 for very accurate tuning. - Germany
engineering quality.
Wittner Ultra “Space Age” Composite
Violin Tailpiece
Made in Germany,
the precision-made tailpiece with 4 integrated fine tuners. ‘Space Age’
Composite material mixes lightness and strength. This carbon fiber violin has a
benchmark tailpiece for all ball end strings. Its lightweight feature does not
affect the tonal qualities of the Violin in the slightest.
Our “Mantaray”
company logo located on the tailpiece in front of the fine-tuning adjusters is
pure sterling silver with the jewelers lost wax method.
- High
tech composite for lightness and strength - Metal
bushings have precision brass adjusters for long life and accurate tuning. - Included
nylon tailgut with easy fit brass nuts. - German
quality engineering.
The Carbon Fiber Scroll
The most challenging
part of copying the Strad violin was duplicating the scroll in Carbon Fiber. We
have developed a propriety method which has allowed us to duplicate the scroll
and still maintain a lightweight by giving the scroll a hollow interior.
Not having a
scroll because of the manufacturing complexity was unthinkable. We feel the
developmental difficulty were well worth the effort and cost to produce such a
beautiful Classical Violin shape.
Helicore “Heavy Tension”
Violin Strings
Helicore violin
strings are created with a multi-stranded steel core. This results in excellent
playability while producing a clear, warm tone. The smaller string diameter delivers
quick bow response.
Superior quality
materials combined with skilled workmanship produces strings known for excellence
in pitch stability and longevity. Heavy tension strings will provide for
greater projection and volume potential. The E string is a plain steel E with
no winding.
Guarneri Ebony Chinrest
The world’s most
popular chinrest style is the Guarneri, the rival of Stradivarius. Mounts at
the center and with a large cup off to the side. Most players place thethir jaw
over the tailpiece portion. They use the ridge as an anchor for secure support.
- The
top-rated choice of professional violin players the world.
Superieur Despiau France
Bridges
The Gayford Carbon
Fiber violin only uses “Superieur Despiau France” bridges and these French
bridges offer a bright clear tone. There are three different qualities of wood are
available as indicated by the number of trees stamped on the bridge. We only
use 3-tree rated quality blanks.
- All
bridges are cut in-house. - Bridges
are cut to enhance the carbon fiber violins different acoustic properties. - The
“E” string slot is intensified with a patch of parchment.
Pick-up Mic
Schatten VVM
pick-up mics are available carbon fiber violins. Customized volume control
model is standard with a 1/4″ jack. The violin’s jack housing is an in-house
design keeping with our company’s “Mantaray” emblem.
- “Phenomenal!
I don’t have to worry about choosing or installing a pickup and it’s
acoustically invisible to the sound produced when not amplified.”,
according to one violin player.
I.D. Plate
The Gayford Carbon
Fiber violin has internally mounted labels which are made of an extremely thin
Titanium plate. Titanium is intensely light and is also a space-age material
like carbon fiber. All information found is laser etched on to the label. And
as a personal touch, each of our violins has been given a personal name which
is etched into the ID plate.
- “I
really feel that the I.D. Plate speaks to the precision quality of the
instrument and I love that I own a one of kind, such as my
“Stefanie”.”, taken from another review. - A
precision-built Carbon Fiber Violin.
The Secret Behind the
Greatness.
Fred Gayford
is the driving force behind the Carbon Strad, he is an expert in carbon fiber
composites. He has more than 36 years of experience working with all manner of
composites materials and now specializing mainly on it.
The following
is the simple explanation of the process of creating the world renowned Gayford
Carbon Fiber violin.
- There are 23 separate carbon fiber parts required to produce the Gayford Carbon Fiber violin.
- When the high temperature carbon fiber molds are produced, we were ready to start making parts.
- The pre-impregnated carbon fiber cloth in this method is positioned in the molds and vacuum bagged.
- After that, the molds are then placed in the Autoclave pressure chamber and then put under 60 PSI pressure.
- The internal heaters then ramp up the chamber to 175+ degrees. After a 12-hour period the heaters and pressure are reduced slowly.
- Then the cured parts are demolded.
- The violin plates are subjected to a clamping pressure of 8000 lbs. at high temperature.
- The parts of the violin that is made this way have the highest fiber compaction possible with the least amount of excess resin.
- We performed a lot of experiments on dozens of violin plates using the three production methods mentioned above.
- We performed a tonal ring test on each of the violin plates and the results were very different from each method.
- Tapping on the Autoclaved violin plates have similar sound like tapping on a crystal glass.
- This expensive process yielded such incredible acoustical tonal qualities that we choose this method for all 23 parts of our violin.
- The last part of the process is testing the audio performance of the various finished pre-production carbon fiber violins at a sound studio
- Testing the audio performance of the various finished pre-production violins is done at Fairmeadow Studio with master violinist Trevor Dick of “Flying Bow Music Ministries”
