This month it's been three years since I repaired my first violin, and violins 39 and 40 have just come in on the last days of October, so I'm beginning to feel that this new hobby is actually working.
Violin 39 is a full-sized nearly new one painted black with subtle sparkles, which I've tried to bring out by shining a torch at the central region of the belly in addition to the natural light:
It isn't labelled at all, but I have a strong suspicion that it comes from gear 4 music or some similar outlet. What I am beginning to realis is that these companies stick together the bits and pieces without checking if they actually work. Thus I find pegs that slip because they don't fit right across the peg hole and have too little surface to grip on. That's easily fixed with a bit of sandpaper wrapped around the handle of a thin paintbrush, but novice players who naively buy these instruments may never be able to tune them up.
On this one I had to widen two peg holes and also to lower the bridge and the nut. After these interventions, it is now playable, and sounds surprisingly good for a cheap violin covered in black paint. I played it at this month's slow session and have nothing more to moan about (other than that I might put the strings half a millimetre lower still).
Next up, violin 40, which has the same sort of problems, and the additional complication that it is electrified. Must dig out my little amp and cable and see if the electric stuff works at all.
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.
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