a slightly drunken violin

Pirate luthier adventures continued:

violin number 18)

This is one that I am going to return to the people who have inherited it, as they want to keep it in the family, which is always a good thing. It came from Poland originally, and looks a little bit like my number 1), so could be Markneukirchen perhaps?

It needed a bridge, tailgut, and nut. After a few attempts with tailguts made from the bits of gut string I have lying around, I gave up and bought a pack of five nylon ones.

Inside, the soundpost is in place but leans at a crazy angle. On closer inspection, I realised that the hole for the tailpin is decidedly off centre as well, and the bass bar looks quite rough, all of which left me with the impression that the maker was perhaps a little bit drunk, or couldn't quite get their fiddle straight.

However, my preliminary setup with random old strings revealed that the instrument sounded quite nice, so the owners agreed to invest in a new set of strings, after which it sounded even better. Especially at Baroque pitch which I initially used because one of the pegs refused to stick at modern pitch. Compared to many of the fiddles I've handled, it has a warmer sound at the top and nothing boxy about the lower end, so all good as far as I can tell.

It came with an interesting but somewhat damaged old bow, which I'll try to fix up next.

In other pirate luthier news, I have picked up a donation of 19 dead cello bows earlier this week, and delivered violins 15) and 19) to the local secondary school which was looking for instruments for a violin club, providing access to violin playing to children who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity.

PS to see some professional luthiers at work, see this lovely photo gallery. I believe this is the workshop which has internal windows to the RAM's little museum, so when we visited the museum back in the old days we could watch the luthiers at work. I thought the museum had closed permanently, as the gate was always locked when I came by, but on checking up I find it's open on Fridays only. Need to revisit - hoping the luthiers don't take the Fridays off ...

Update 8.12.2024 I've now managed to rehair the bow for this violin as well, greatly benefiting from the YouTube tutorials of Giles Nehr. As it's only my second rehair, it looks a little bit dishevelled, which kind of matches the drunken look of the violin, but it does work.

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

violin 6) is the half-sized Lark which was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June.

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 the first week of June.

violin 8) is the "ladies violin", a 7/8 skylark. It was one of the six violins I gave away on freegle in the first week of June.

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 the first week of June.

violin 10) is the broken one with traces of multiple repair attempts. I'm still gathering courage to try and fix that one.

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.

violins 13) through to 15) I bought locally through gumtree or facebook, nothing special to report.

violin 16) is branded Sebastian Klotz, but sadly not by the Mittenwald Luthier, but by Yamaha Malaysia, who appear to have trademarked his name. I've now managed to glue on the fingerboard and it hasn't fallen off yet. This one now lives in Germany where I use it for holiday practice when I'm there.

violin 17) is the supersized violin with a very strong sound.

violin 18) is the slightly drunken violin described above.

violin 19) is a Stentor studend violin which only arrived last Sunday, 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.