of larks and skylarks

Chinese violins of the Lark and Skylark brands have a terrible reputation - even though they're probably not all bad. Hence they are going very cheap and I found a pair of Skylarks and a big pile of sheet music all together for £ 30 on gumtree and took the opportunity to find out more about the notorious skylarks.

What I got was a 7/8 violin which I'll present later and a full size one (4/4) which I'll discuss here. It has a lovely label inside with the manufacturing year given as 1991. (I'm not sure what the model number MV--005 means does anybody know? The 7/8 violin that came together with this one has MV--007.)

I'm guessing that the Lark and early Skylark violins that ruined the brand reputation were a lot earlier because this one isn't worse than the cheapest Stentor student model you can buy today. The only thing that needed doing was to replace the bridge which was a bit warped (and also narrower than it should be?!):

but with a new bridge (Stentor from a derelict violin I am plundering for spares) and a bit of cleaning the instrument looks and sounds acceptable. A little bit boxy on the G string but good enough for folk as they say. It still has the strings it came with which may be quite old, so if anybody wanted to play it seriously, they might want to invest in a new set.

I do love the Skylark shoulder rest that came with it, which has a real steampunk vibe:

and it also came in the original Skylark case:

I think the pirate luthier series now needs some navigation aids as I have presented a few different instruments here (and they now have systematic numbers, violin number 9 arrived on the premises this week).

violin 1) is the one my late aunt had since the 1930s, which got me started. I played it almost every day for 14 months, until number 5) showed up.

violin 2) is a Stentor student 1 that I am plundering for spares and accessories as it has a fault that is probably not worth repairing, see the blog entry on number 3) below.

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 5) is my new favourite and the one I currently play in folk sessions.

violin 7) is the one discussed above.