ABitRusty said
Im still not sure its common to vary too much.  I think even in those articles it mentions 3 basic shapes.  Vompared to what youre getting at with guitar necks it doesnt leave much room to change the design much without getting into custom type territory.

This is from 2nd article

To start with, there are 2 neck dimensions (and one more on the top that works with the neck dimensions) that are standard. And for a good reason......

.....So if you get used to standard, you should be able to switch from your instrument to another instrument without too much trouble playing in tune.

still seems due to the size of a violin theres not as much wiggle room to change much.  but it would be a personal thingon necks I guess.  Im sure one could find a builder to do whatever was desired to point.  Maybe if that design caught on it could become the standard.. always worth a go I guess! 

  

As I read it, the second article is just pointing out the two dimensions that are almost always standard: the length of the neck and the placement/shape of the heel. All other dimensions can vary more.

ABitRusty said

When I shop for a guitar... e.g.  lets say i KNOW a Taylor guitar has a certain type of neck construction..they do..Its very comfortable and easy to play.  Taylors are known for that.  so much so I think Martin has introduced a few years ago their necks made in a similar way.   same thing with them.  i think the neck build type is called a performing artist taper or something.   I know when they specify that what it will feel like EVERY TIME.   Its a given.

with a violin ... whats the equivelent?  I can search for a guarnari or strad copy.   and its not like they advertise on fiddlershop or my local shops a special neck build.. so either i go by what a video sounds like or I try it out.  and when i try it out i am playing and paying attention to how i play on it and how it sounds.  i cant search for a specific neck style other than famous violin build copy types.

so to me its irrelevant on the neck construction because all i can do is move to another violin if the one im trying out doesnt feel right.  I try the violin out as a whole because basically thats all i can do anyway.. I wish violin shopping was like guitars.  With a guitar i could order a specific size made with a specific type neck and specify the wood i want and type of tuners..fret size and fretboard material...it can be very customized in that way.

with violins not so much...unless i am shopping for a builder to make me one..THEN i could say...let me look at your necks and see or describe what i want.  but at that point im into a whole nother price range.

Its not that its not an important part...its just that its part of the whole instrument.

  

That's one thing that makes violin shopping harder: you're trying the whole instrument with limited ability to make changes. (You can have a luthier shave down the neck, but that only goes in one direction and it's irreversible.) The neck definitely figures into how the instrument feels to play. When shopping for my viola, I never asked about necks, but playing 3-octave arpeggios was part of my testing process, and I noticed that I was less comfortable with shifting and string crossing on certain violas. If I were commissioning an instrument from a luthier, I would definitely want to talk about the neck.

That said, maybe it doesn't matter as much as with guitars because a violin (or even viola) neck is much smaller than a guitar neck and there isn't as much contact with the hand.

I would guess that the other reason we don't see neck shape being mentioned for factory and workshop violins (basically everything with a brand name rather than a named maker) is the history of violin making. In some ways I think it's unfortunate that there are a handful of legendary makers from hundreds of years ago, because almost all the factory and workshop violins being made today are copies of old violins. Even if almost no Stradivari violins have their original necks due to conversion from Baroque style to modern style necks and fingerboards, most of the general public doesn't know that, and none of the major brands seem to want to admit that their violins differ in any detail from Stradivari's pattern.

By the way: a few years ago, when I was reading chamber music at an orchestra friend's house, I borrowed her backup violin to play a violin part for a piece. That violin was a German Strad copy from the 1950s. My violin is also a German Strad copy from the 1950s. But the necks felt very different, and I later realized that they were two entirely different neck styles -- my violin has a French neck, and hers had a German neck. Clearly "Strad copy" says nothing about the neck, and neither does the violin's country of origin.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile for a workshop to offer limited customization, such as different neck shapes. I suspect it might not be, because that price range is  mostly being sold to students; the serious amateur market might care, but is dwarfed by the vast number of high school age students buying that category of instrument.

At least violinists only have that one detail that doesn't get mentioned... violists have it much worse, because there are not only different neck shapes but also different neck lengths and body shapes. And sometimes sellers only mention the body length, so we often end up having to try a lot more violas before we get what we want.