Pirate Luthier update
An old violin came in for some TLC and a new set of strings, after decades spent in decorative service on a wall. It carries the label of a luthier called E.R. Pfretzschner in Mittenwald, which got me all excited because that is the most famous place in Germany for good violins.
However, if you look through the other f-hole, it also has a label from Scherl & Roth in Cleveland Ohio, stating that the instrument was "constructed and shop adjusted to MENC specifications" in August 1964. They were a major supplier of instruments for educational settings in the 1960s and 70s.
Looking for Pfretzschner, that doesn't seem to be a famous Mittenwald name and all mentions I can find are relating to instruments handled by Scherl & Roth. Which kind of begs the question how much of the manufacturing was made in Mittenwald and how much in Cleveland. Forum posts about the Pfretzschner violins note that they are heavy built. I popped this one on the kitchen scales and confirmed that it is 35g heavier than eg my favourite violin 22). That's 7% (523 vs 487g).
Speaking of US-German cooperation, it is also interesting that Scherl & Roth was apparently a spin-off from the German violin maker family of Ernst Heinrich Roth, originally from Markneukirchen (a historic hotspot for more affordable violins) but after 1945 translocated to Bubenreuth. See their history page here.
The instrument is ok overall and in good condition, but the neck is curved upwards more than it should be, meaning that even though the strings are at the right height at both ends, they are too high above the finger board in first to third position, so it is harder to play than it should be.
I guess a professional luthier would take the neck apart and straighten it out, but that would be expensive and might exceed the value of the restored instrument. Come to think of it, maybe scraping off a couple of millimetres at the top end of the fingerboard and lowering the nut might also do the trick.
Photo before I replaced all the strings:
When taking the photos I noticed it has a weird metal thing in the tailpin but I couldn't think what it might be.
When I took off all the strings and pulled out the tailpin and looked at it from both ends, I realised it houses an A440 tuning whistle, which was a new concept to me. Apparently it was common practice at Scherl & Roth though, according to this forum discussion. Given the prominent role of that company in supplying violins for education, I now imagine unruly school orchestras with random toots coming from the violin section.
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. I kept it for a couple of months to check the neck stays in place, then gave it away to a good cause in June 2025.
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 June 2024.
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 June 2024.
violin 13) is still broken
violin 14) is a half-size Lark which I gave away to a good cause in June 2025.
violin 15) is a 3/4 size Stentor student 2, which I gave away to a local school in October 2024
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. I have labelled this one as 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. Because of the crack I play it only at home and take number 24 to sessions.
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). It now lives with a young cellist in my neighbourhood who is keen to learn the violin as a second instrument.
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
violin 26) is the lady in red, which has now rejoined its family.
violin 27) is the Czechoslovakian student model
violin 28) is the black one I found three minutes before number 29), so they're basically twins. It has now found a new home.
violin 29) is the odd-size one with the lovely rosewood tailpiece
violin 30) is the one with the lovely case which still awaits repair
violin 31) is the one with the whistle shown above
Balance of violins as of 29.11.2025:
Of the 31 violins listed above, 8 received via freegle, 3 from friends and family, 16 bought (gumtree, facebook, charity shops, flea markets, cost ranging £ 10 to £45), 3 taken in for repair only and returned to their families, one taken in for repair but not done yet.
Of the 27 acquired, 8 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 1 given away via a neighbourhood mailing list, 1 given to a folkie friend, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 11 currently in house and ready to play, 2 in house and still broken.
List of other instruments in the pirate luthier series:
cello 1) is the one I bought for my own use when old Heinrich moved out. As I changed the setup quite a bit, it does get a number.
cello 2) is a 3/4 instrument with a serious crack which I received via freegle, still awaiting repair.
cello 3) is the old German cello that I rescued and repaired. I'm now playing this daily at home while keeping number 1) in the bag for weekly orchestra use.
guitar 1) is the 100 year-old one from Valencia which I set up with frets and strings and handed back to its owner.
guitar 2) is one I spotted in a charity shop "sold as seen" for a very affordable price with nothing more than a broken string, and I bought and repaired it because I knew the owner of the next one needed one while their guitar was out of service.
guitar 3) had a broken neck which I glued back on with hide glue at the same time when I repaired violin 10). It has now returned to its family.
the zither I found at the flea market in Dusseldorf.
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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