Pirate Luthier update
After the arrival of violin no. 25, which I found during my recent travel on a flea market in Neuss, Germany, I now have ten violins in house that are ready to play, so I guess the time has come again to give away or lend out a few of these. The limiting factor is cases and bows, so if any takers have the accessories but are just lacking the instrument itself, that would help releasing more of them back into the wild. (I could rehair a few of the hairless bows I have, but cases are trickier to conjure up, I've already posted a call for cases on Freegle.)
First of all, number 25) looks like a European one at least as old as I am - so it falls into the more interesting category, as opposed to the more modern Chinese fiddles which I'm less interested in (although I have also handled a few that were ok). The derelict case made of cardboard and lined with paper would perhaps suggest 1930s, as it is similar to the one that came with violin 1).
It came with strings GDA that are black at both ends, like the ones on 22) and I added a random E string I had lying around. With that it is playable but not quite as nice as my favourites 22) and 24). Will play around with the setup a bit to see if I can improve it.
I think part of the reason for the weaker sound is that the angle of the neck is too flat, which I can do nothing about. Will try moving the bridge a millimetre or two:
I'm planning to offer on Freegle this month the full size violins 21) and 23) (see list below), each as a complete set with case and bow, and the 3/4 violin 10) which has a historic wooden case but doesn't have a 3/4 bow. That leaves me with the six more interesting (=old and European) ones. For any of those, I would want to know that they go to the right person who will be happy with it. Also, I am short of cases and bows for these, so if anybody out there has the accessories and is only short of the instrument, that might be a chance to match up instruments and cases. Also, if anybody has invested in a fancy case and has the common or garden one sitting around in the attic, I'd be interested in adopting it.
List of violins in the pirate luthier series:
violin 1) is the one my late aunt had since the 1930s, which got me started. After restoring it in November 2022, I played it almost every day for 14 months, until number 5) showed up.
violin 2) is a Stentor student 1 (a very widely used brand of cheap fiddles available everywhere and still being produced). I bought it very cheap on gumtree, mainly because I needed a case for number 1). It has a fault that is probably not worth repairing, see the blog entry on number 3) below. After stripping it of some accessories and spares, I am now inclined to keep it in a semi-functional state to try out experimental repairs, i.e. use it as a wooden guinea pig of sorts.
violin 3) came from a folkie friend who moved away. I put the soundpost back in its place and it has now found a new home.
violin 4) is a modern Chinese one which I bought from one musical friend and sold to another, no work needed.
violin 5) (donated by a friendly freegler) was my second favourite and the one I played in folk sessions for roughly a year until number 22) showed up.
violin 6) is the half-sized Lark which was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.
violin 7) is a skylark from 1991 which I bought on gumtree for £ 10 and fitted with a new bridge. Good enough for folk I would say. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.
violin 8) is the "ladies violin", a 7/8 skylark. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.
violin 9) is the one which needed a new bridge and a tailgut and turned out to sound quite lovely on the E string. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in June 2024.
violin 10) is the 3/4 sized one with a broken neck and traces of multiple repair attempts, which I've now repaired.
violin 11) is the 3/4 sold by JP Guivier & Co Ltd. in the 1950s but may actually be older than that. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June.
violin 12) is a full-size Lark which a freegle user kindly donated and delivered after seeing my offer. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June 2024.
violins 13) through to 15) I bought locally through gumtree or facebook, nothing special to report.
violin 16) is the Sebastian Klotz branded one, sadly not made by the Mittenwald luthier, but by Yamaha Malaysia, who appear to have trademarked his name.
violin 17) is the supersized violin with a very strong sound.
violin 18) is the slightly drunken but nice sounding violin from Poland, which I restored and returned to its family.
violin 19) is a Stentor student 1 violin which only needed a little TLC, and within less than a week I had it brushed up and ready to move to our local school. The most intriguing problem it had was that somebody had put in the bridge the wrong way round, with the lower slope under the G string.
violin 20) is a Stentor student 1 violin I bought via GumTree. It sounds really nice for what it is, thanks in part to a good set-up with Dominant strings. My current plan is to make this one an official Cowley Orchestra instrument.
violin 21) is a nameless student violin I bought via facebook, not quite sure what to think of it. The fingerboard is horizontal, which is all wrong and may mean there is not enough pressure on the bridge to produce a good sound.
violin 22) is the 19th century Guarneri copy, still my favourite (although I'll have to fix that crack at some point).
violin 23) is a nameless student violin I bought from a charity shop. It looks unused but had no strings, so I set it up with a set of spare strings that came with another violin. It turned out to be no trouble at all and sounds ok for an instrument that looks really cheap (with the purfling painted on).
violin 24) is the densely cratered one I found lying on a chair at Oxfam, and which I currently play at sessions.
violin 25) is the fleamarket find from Neuss described above.
Balance 2.6.2025: Of the 25 violins listed above, 7 received via freegle, 3 from friends and family, 14 bought (gumtree, facebook, charity shops, flea markets, cost ranging £ 10 to £45), 1 taken in for repair only and returned to its family.
Of the 24 acquired, 6 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 10 currently in house and ready to play, 3 in house and still broken.
List of non-violins in the pirate luthier series:
guitar 1) is the 100 year-old one from Valencia which I set up with frets and strings and handed back to its owner.
and finally a shout-out to our family-built hammered dulcimer, which dates from 2016, long before I got any ideas about violins.
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