another old violin's tale

Some thoughts on

The Violin Maker’s Secret
Evie Woods
Harper Collins 2026

Bookshop.org

Last year I read an old (1914) novel about a fictional Stradivarius violin following the fates of real and fictional players through the centuries of its lifetime. The author of that very romantic romp hiding behind a male pseudonym was Anna von Bonin (1856-1933).

Now I discovered a modern equivalent in the novel by Evie Woods (120 years younger than Anna von Bonin). It is a similarly wild romantic romp, but thankfully this time the violin is not a Stradivarius. It was made by a fictional Irish luthier called William Rathbone who died in 1841. He allegedly learned the craft from Thomas Perry (1738-1818) and knew Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840). Again, we're getting a mix of historic and fictional people through the two centuries of the violin's lifetime (1817-2025). There is a fantasy element in that the soul of the luthier's tragically deceased fiancee appears to have entered the violin, speaks to us as the voice of the instrument, and seems to have a magical influence on the romantic lives of the people who come near it.

Most of the plot is set in the present day (2025), however, with dramatic events unfolding after criminals steal the violin from an auction house but leave it at Heathrow airport where a baggage handler finds it and takes it home. A lot of the novel is also about personal baggage, so the protagonist's job is kind of an early hint to where we're going.

I've read this fairly swiftly and enjoyed it thanks to the subject matter matching my current interest in lutherie. I also happen to agree with the romantic statement being made here that string instruments can change lives (magically or otherwise) - can happen to all of us. I would also consider the author's earlier work The lost bookshop, for similar reasons (is it nominative determinism that she's drawn to objects made from trees?), but might skip the one about a bakery.

lucky day

Pirate Luthier update

After a bit of a drought period in terms of new violins coming in, I had a lucky day this week discovering a violin (number 38) and two violas in one lot at the Gloucester Green market. They appear to have come the same journey because all three instruments have been "decorated" with splodges of red paint. initial tests show the paint isn't water soluble so I'll probably have to leave it on.

Will share some photos once I've put strings on them. I'm not entirely against the red paint. In the meantime here's how I carried the three of them back from the market (hashtag #carryshitolympics). I'm really glad I decided a few months ago to have the big blue coop bag in my shopping bag when I go into town just in case any instruments need carrying. It would have been tricky without it:

The instruments are short of almost everything (although they do have cases and their soundposts are in place), but I also picked up some accessories from a friendly freegler on the same trip, so it will work out in the end. Will have to order viola strings though. And pegs are beginning to become a crisis. The three instruments only have eight pegs between them, and not necessarily well-fitting ones either.

 

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NB I've now moved the list of instruments that pass through my pirate luthier workshop to a permanent page which I will update whenever necessary, independent of the blog entries.

a posthumous strad

Pirate Luthier update

A friendly freegler who had already donated a violin previously, came back with one she rescued from a skip, which is now violin number 37 on my logs. It had a crack in the belly so I had to open it up. The inside was very dirty so I had to clean it out quite thoroughly with a wet rag. This revealed a very beautiful flaming, showing up more nicely on the inside than on the outside:

It also gave a better view of the label which is one of those referring back to a Stradivarius model of which the violin was meant to be a copy. This one is strange though as it reads 1758. Antonio Stradivari died in 1737.

Looking even closer, just below the label I think I can read "Aug. 1899" written in pencil. It's not obvious in the photo, but turning the open violin to find the best angle for the light on the writing, I am quite confident that I can read that. Which also makes sense for a slightly dubious Strad copy.

I've now closed it again but haven't finished the setup yet, so I will update this entry once I know what it sounds like.

 

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NB I've now moved the list of instruments that pass through my pirate luthier workshop to a permanent page which I will update whenever necessary, independent of the blog entries.

fiddles fixed in February

Pirate Luthier update

After crack repair, successful reassembly and setting up of the quite lovely violin number 30, I turned to some less beautiful specimens.

First to finish off the number 13 which served as a guinea pig for the repair I did on number 30. When I had it assembled and started tuning up the strings, the neck fell off, which was completely unrelated to the problems I fixed before (and just serves as another warning not to buy fiddles from Facebook Marketplace). I've refitted the neck now and the strings have been on for a few days now, so I'm hoping it holds this time.

In an effort to make the old fiddles more user-friendly to modern players, I ordered in a few tailpieces with integrated adjusters, so I'm now fitting these to the instruments that came with no adjusters or just one. Have done that for number 30 and 13 above, and also for the czechoslovakian student fiddle number 27.

Right now I'm setting up the 3/4 Lark violin (number 33) I recently bought for £ 5, which I believe reflects its value. I'm cutting a bridge and putting on new string and will have to find a chinrest for it.

All of which isn't generating any particularly interesting photos, so I'm sharing one from my early years in woodworking instead:

The funny thing about it is that I still have most of the tools from the toolset you see on the wall behind me, so I arranged them for a still life:

If I ever decide to make a violin from scratch, I'll cut the f-holes with that fretsaw ...

NB I've now moved the list of instruments that pass through my pirate luthier workshop to a permanent page which I will update whenever necessary, independent of the blog entries.

turning violins inside out

Pirate Luthier update

Over the xmas period, I learned how to open up violins, glue cracks, and close them again. I practiced that on the not very special violin number 13 before addressing the quite lovely Guarneri copy number 30, the one which won the prize for the most beautiful case.

After the operation number 30 looks like this (still with the historic strings and tailpiece, which I'll upgrade before returning it to its owners):

In addition to the two cracks I repaired now, I discovered another two that had been repaired previously:

Note the label which says it is a copy of a Guarnerius from 1725 (as opposed to my favourite violin from my collection which is a Guarnerius from 1731). I really like the look of the inside of these instruments (see also the cello I opened up), with all the rough bits contrasting the smooth outside. Here's the inside again with my patches added:

... and the detached and repaired top from the outside:

... and the whole thing after closing up again:

After this glut of photos I'm sure you'll be glad to see the back of it:

It does have a beautiful back, doesn't it.

Number 13 (of which I used a photo in my year review) is also closed again, but it has some damage on the fingerboard which I'll have to sand down before I set it up, so I'll report on that next month.

I've now moved the list of instruments that pass through my pirate luthier workshop to a permanent page which I will update whenever necessary, independent of the blog entries.

PS While shopping for accessories for this violin, I discovered that CJ Stephens, where I buy some of my supplies, sells DIY violin making kits ...

a fiddle with a whistle

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.

This violin remains the property of the historic owner and is now on loan to a visiting student who will be playing it at sessions.

 

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.

an old Irish banjo

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.

a lovely case

Pirate Luthier update

This month I rescued an old cello, gave away a violin (number 23), and received one to repair and return, which is number 30 on my books. I also sorted out a lovely old violin that just needed a new string and tuning up, so it only spent 15 minutes on the premises and didn't get inventorised. And I took charge of an Appalachian dulcimer which will need new strings, and about which I'll make a post once I've got a better idea about how to play it.

Violin number 30 came with a stunningly beautiful wooden case, so it's time for another reveal:

It has a massive crack in the front requiring an intervention I will need to practice on a less beautiful violin first (number 13) and possibly also on the 3/4 cello. So it may still take a few months to build up the courage and energy for that, and I'll probably make another post about this one when it's happening.

 

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.

violin 29) is the odd-size one with the lovely rosewood tailpiece

violin 30) is the one with the lovely case shown above

Balance 27.10.2025:
Of the 30 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), 2 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, 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.

an old Irish banjo

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.

a workshop guide

Three years ago, just before I embarked on my pirate luthier journey, I discovered a book about lutherie techniques in the Oxfam bookshop at St. Giles:

The making of stringed instruments
A workshop guide
by George Buchanan
Batsford 1989

It contained all the techniques I needed to restore my aunt's old violin to a playable condition. It cost me £ 4 and enabled me to do a repair for which I had been quoted £ 250, so I call that a good deal from the start. It has continued to be a useful resource ever since, even though I sometimes also consult youtube videos from professionals for specific repair techniques that aren't covered in the book.

While I haven't read all of it yet, and haven't got any plans for making string instruments from scratch, I thought the book has deserved a space in my pirate luthier blog series, so here it is:

Scan of the dustjacket of my edition.

One day I will read it cover to cover. But what if it inspires me to build lots of cellos? That could become a problem ... I might end up like this guy:

(a vintage postcard I recently spotted on Flickr)

Update 15.4.2026: In a different charity shop I now discovered another book by Buchanan, on how to make traditional wooden toys. Bought that too, although I have no plans to make any toys right now, but who knows? Also, it is a very beautiful book.

violins played by Einstein

Einstein's violin sells for £860k at auction, the BBC reported this week (on 8.10.2025). The trouble is, he owned several violins through his life time, apparently called all of them Line (US sources tend to say "Lina"), so I'm getting confused and need to sort this out.

• According to the BBC the one sold in October 2025 was made by Anton Zunterer in 1894 and believed to be his first (although he supposedly learned from age 5, which would have been much earlier - so this may have been his first full size one, or the first he bought for himself as another source said). Zunterer (1858-1917) was a Mittenwald-trained luthier who established his workshop in Munich in 1888.
• One that the top notch luthier workshop of W.E. Hill in London saw when Einstein visited in October 1933 which may or may not be the same as the above. As Kate Kennedy reports in the book Cello (based on her research using the Hill workshop diaries), the luthiers were disparaging about Einstein's instrument, and somewhat unfairly made him compare it with a Stradivarius they happened to have around.
• A later one which was made by Oscar Steger. a cabinet maker, amateur cellist and hobby luthier in the US after Einstein found refuge there. It sold at auction in March 2018 for just over $ 500,000. According to this page, Einstein eventually gave it to a Princeton University janitor whose son was learning the violin.
• Of another late violin, Paul Halpern tells me that Einstein "bequeathed in his will one of his violins to his grandson Bernhard Caesar (who is no longer alive). Consequently, Albert's great-grandson Paul Einstein became a violinist and has played that violin in concert". I think this is the event and the instrument mentioned in my entry about Einstein's favourite sonata, K304 (which incidentally I am meaning to learn on the violin too). German newspaper clippings of the event held at Ulm in March 2004 on the occasion of Einstein's 125th birthday are here.
• One violin he didn't accept was a Guarneri that was offered to him according to this article from Oxford physicist Brian Foster. He stuck with his more ordinary instrument on the grounds that more sophisticated players would make better use of the power and complexity of the Guarneri. I presume he tried it at least, so I'm listing it here among the instruments he touched.

Here's a longer piece about his violin playing first published in 1980, based on interviews with musicians who played chamber music with him. It includes the names and short bios of many people with whom Einstein played, including both scientific colleagues like Max Planck and professional musicians like Fritz Kreisler. There's also glimpses of the kind of music that that he played, preferring Bach, Mozart and Haydn more recent composers like Brahms or Wagner. Sadly though, not a single word about the instruments as such.

This is a more recent article in National Geographic but very much the same content as the earlier pieces as far as I can tell.

There is also a musical theatre piece about Einstein's violin playing, by Paul Wingfield, who also helped to authenticate his first violin when it came up for auction. Trouble is, after this record-breaking auction result, the title of the piece, "Einstein's violin" has become virtually unsearchable.

Einstein playing the violin. Photo by Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski - Zeitbilder 21/1927, 1927-05-22, p. 1 (online), Public Domain, from Wikipedia

While getting that photo from the English edition of his Wikipedia entry, I found out that the German edition, although marked with a star as an outstanding entry, lacks the info on his music playing - there's only one mention of his learning to play violin as a child, under his education record, but no mention that it was a lifelong passion. I'm afraid that may be telling us something about the lack of appreciation for amateur music making in German culture.

Researching all of the above, I realised that Einstein (1879-1955) was a near contemporary of the amateur chamber music player in my family, Heinrich the cellist (1882-1958). Surely I can find an excuse to include a few paragraphs about Einstein in my 100 years of cellotude?

I was also amused to learn from several of the sources that Einstein's counting during playing was very much relative. Which is very true of my playing as well.

an odd-sized violin

Pirate Luthier update

The second violin I discovered during that lucky day on Gloucester Green market, number 29 on my books, is a funny size, between 3/4 and 7/8 (342 mm body length). Some other details are peculiar as well. The back is flamed in the wrong direction, with the stripes running lengthwise. Still made of two halves though, with the line between the halves ever so slightly tilted. It starts in the right place at the tail end, but ends up closer to the G string at the top. The tailpiece is from a lovely piece of wood (rosewood?) and held by a proper old school tailgut. The chinrest is from the same material although not quite as nice. There are three rather clunky adjusters on D A and E, but there isn't really enough space underneath the tailpiece to use their range without scratching the wood underneath, so I am thinking of replacing these. A more compact design would also provide the opportunity to put the strings 1 mm lower at the bridge.

It came with an interesting old bow and a wooden case lined with green felt inside and covered with black sticky stuff on the outside, so let's say mid 20th century? No label or trademark of any kind (apart from the little smily face scratched into the belly by a student). The odd features make me think it may come from some place that doesn't have a long established tradition of violin making. Still it sounds ok for a smaller instrument with strange features and its original mix of strings.

I tidied 2/3 of my desk as well, so that is a lovely surface that I haven't seen in a while and that serves nicely as a background for photos.

How lovely is that tailpiece?

I like the bow. I'm glad it still has enough hair to play, because I have a backlog of bows I need to rehair!

 

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).

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.

violin 29) is the odd-size instrument described above

Balance 27.9.2025:
Of the 29 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), 2 taken in for repair only and returned to their families.
Of the 27 acquired, 8 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 12 currently in house and ready to play, 2 in house and still broken.

List of other instruments in the pirate luthier series:

an old Irish banjo

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.

paint it black

Pirate Luthier update

After a month without new arrivals, I found two violins to rescue at the antiques fair on Gloucester Green on the same day, within five minutes in fact. The first one, number 28 in my books, is a cool shiny black. It isn't branded at all, but looking online I see companies like Gear4music selling similar ones in black or other colours.

As I found it (and bought it for £25) it looked completely new, just had a couple of dents in the fingerboard and in the outside of the case, probably due to inadequate storage or transport arrangements. I would suggest that it has never been played, because it wasn't playable and hadn't been set up properly. The bridge was almost raw, so I had to cut that to the right shape and size. Then the pegs were all sticking to an extent that made tuning impossible. Once I fixed that with peg paste, they slid deeper into the holes meaning that in two pegs the holes for the strings disappeared in the sides of the scroll because they were clearly in the wrong places. So I had a couple of extra holes to drill and then everything worked ok.

After setting everything up, I was left with one problem that I can't fix: The fingerboard is slightly out of kilter with the straight line from the scroll to the tailpin. Once the strings are tuned up, the physics of the considerable pull forces doesn't lie - it chooses the shortest path, and that isn't quite where the fingerboard is attached. While this misalignment could in theory be due to the tailpin being in the wrong place, I checked by pressing a ruler to the sides of the fingerboard to extrapolate its direction. It is a good 5 mm off (to the E side) with respect to the F-holes. So the instrument looks a bit lop-sided but it is playable now. I'd even say it sounds quite nice for a cheap factory fiddle with obvious manufacturing flaws. Nice and warm sound in the lower register, nothing boxy about it. So whatever is hidden under the black paint, it isn't a cigar box.

Oh, and we have a new rug ...

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. 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

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 described above

violin 29) is an interesting old 7/8 size instrument which I'll feature in the next entry.

Balance 13.9.2025:
Of the 29 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), 2 taken in for repair only and returned to their families.
Of the 27 acquired, 8 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 11 currently in house and ready to play, 1 in house and just needs setting up, 2 in house and still broken.

List of other instruments in the pirate luthier series:

an old Irish banjo

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.

a violin from Czechoslovakia

Pirate Luthier update

My Freegle call looking for fiddle cases hasn't produced any actual cases, but it helped me rehome two fiddles (in their rickety old cases) and brought in a new one, number 27. This one was made in the 1960s in Cremona, but sadly not in the town in Italy but in the eponymous factory in Luby, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic). The town formerly known as Schönbach had been a centre of violin making since the 17th century, and it is not all that far away from the Musikwinkel around Markneukirchen, Germany.

The instrument has a beautiful Dresden bridge, and generally looks ok and in good condition, but the purfling (the line around the edges) is painted on, which is a very clear cost-cutting exercise (it should be a hand-crafted inlay, which serves to stop cracks progressing inwards).

I kept the historic G-string (gut) as well as the E string and added cheap strings in the middle. It does sound a bit cheap now, but plays ok. The bow needs rehairing and the case isn't up to 21st century requirements, but otherwise this one is ok. Not one I would want to keep though.

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. 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

violin 26) is the lady in red, which has now rejoined its family.

violin 27) is the Czechoslovakian student model described above

Balance 31.7.2025:
Of the 27 violins listed above, 8 received via freegle, 3 from friends and family, 14 bought (gumtree, facebook, charity shops, flea markets, cost ranging £ 10 to £45), 2 taken in for repair only and returned to their families.
Of the 25 acquired, 8 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, 2 in house and still broken.

List of other instruments in the pirate luthier series:

an old Irish banjo

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's holding so far.

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.

a lady in red

Pirate Luthier update

What happened in June? I haven't quite launched the big give-away I was planning, but the Freegle ad looking for violin cases (to be able to give away violins that currently don't have a case) has led to a few interesting follow-ups. One was that I gave two childrens sized violins (numbers 10 with the neck glued back on and 14, a half-sized Lark) to an organisation that gives free initial violin lessons to children at festivals, so these two fiddles may be in use at Glastonbury Festival as this blog entry goes live. Very exciting.

It also led to two new violins coming into the pirate workshop. Number 26 is an old European model that I'm just setting up with a new bridge and then returning to its family. It was described to me as a 7/8 size (like the ladies violin from last year) but it's rather small for that, closer to 3/4 according to my measurements. With a matching bow that is also between 3/4 and 7/8 size. I'm loving the historic case lined with red felt, so I took lots of photos of the violin in its case:

The other just came in yesterday, so I'll write about it later.

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. 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

violin 26) is the lady in red described above, which has now rejoined its family.

Balance 27.6.2025:
Of the 26 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), 2 taken in for repair only and returned to their families.
Of the 24 acquired, 8 given away via freegle, 2 given to a local school, 2 sold to musical friends, 1 moved to Germany for holiday practice, 9 currently in house and ready to play, 2 in house and still broken.

List of non-violins in the pirate luthier series:

An old Irish banjo

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's holding so far.

and finally a shout-out to our family-built hammered dulcimer, which dates from 2016, long before I got any ideas about violins.