Comment

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 12, 2011 at 9:49am

Nice idea John.  Although I may have to wait until my parents have passed on before I do something like that.  :)

 

Comment by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on July 12, 2011 at 9:30am

Got it. If you look under "Everything Else" on the Tiny Guitars web site you will see the "Fiddlestein" tenor guitar. Strip off the varnish and refinish it, give it a long guitar neck. You could have something similar.

Comment by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on July 12, 2011 at 9:25am

I'm convinced that you can have some fun with it. Wasn't there someone who put a guitar neck on one, or at least modified one in some unconventional way. I can't remember the details, but I'm sure that you will come up with something. Just give it a little time, keep looking at it and all of a sudden something will come to you.

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 12, 2011 at 8:42am

Cheers John.  Your advice was the same as Nick's.  If the violin does nothing else, I got to meet a well-respected violin luthier who has a genuine appreciation of hand-made instruments of all types.  And he only lives about 8 miles from me.  I never would have known.

Comment by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on July 12, 2011 at 7:41am

Hi E.D.

In a former life I was a viola player (RAM in London) and then bow maker (Yes. Those things with the horse hair falling off) for 11 years. The first giveaway sign is that the instrument has spray shading so that when it was new it would look a bit older. That is normally a sign of a fairly cheap factory instrument. Handmade instruments by individual craftsmen don't look like that. They have an consistent colour until they acquire the genuine patina of age.

The most important part of getting it playing again is the bridge and sound post position. The varnish coming off between the fingerboard and the bridge is probably a reaction between the varnish and the resin used on the bow, or something that was applied to try to clean off the resin from that area.

If you can get someone to repair it for almost nothing it might be quite fun, but if there is cost involved I wouldn't bother. Having said that, paint it a funky colour and put a pickup in it and just have a laugh.

All the best.

John

 

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 11, 2011 at 3:50am

Thanks for the comments oilyfool and John.

 

We looked at the whole thing in pretty good detail. There's a repairable crack in the soundboard and some loose areas around the seams.  The fingerboard is in the worst condition with a lot of wear.  A lot.  There is also an area near the edge of the fingerboard that has either worn off or someone filed off.  It needs a new post and bridge as well.  Needless to say, the last owner played it hard and put it away wet.

 

One of the bows is worth restoring, but has a badly damaged frog.  The cost to rehair it is about the same as the value of the bow so there's no sense doing it now.

 

Nick did say that many of these violins can sound absolutely great.  The wood used was excellent and it is the correct vintage of instruments made in Germany that were great sounding for the cost.

 

I think it will be good enough to clean up casually and hang it up as a family heirloom.  I've got enough going on that will keep me from playing it soon, so there's no sense in putting any money into it unless it will be played.

Comment by Ron "Oily" Sprague on July 11, 2011 at 3:22am

E D,

I'd hag on to it as a family heirloom, if nothing else. I have a similar instrument that belonged to my German great-grandfather, who attended the University of Heidelberg before moving his family to Davenport, Iowa around 1920-23. My grandmother, his daughter, gave me the instrument, which is in storage at my Mom's house. When we looked at having it restored, the first thing they did was check the finish to see what type it was. Turned out to be a simple, relatively standard instrument varnish for the time period, that cleaned up amazingly well with some lemon oil and a little elbow grease. It was especially helpful on the fingerboard, whcih wasn't quite as badly stained as yours, but was not pristine by any means. Then, I bought new strings, strung it up, tuned it, got the bow rehaired, and viola! Or violin, actually.

 

I'd say with just a little TLC, some new strings and a rehaired bow, you could probably play it now. Fiddle around with it a bit ;-)

 

 

Comment by John C Predmore on July 9, 2011 at 1:40pm

If there is a luthiers school near where you live, they might have a student who would be willing to restore your violin as school project.  Would posibly be much cheaper than having a pro work on it.

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 7, 2011 at 8:15am

I met Nick Frirsz at his shop this afternoon.  He was very generous with his time and sort of told me that if I didn't have plans to play the instrument, then it wasn't worth what it would take to make it playable.  Likely anything he did would need redoing by the time someone wanted to play it properly.

 

One of the bows would be worth restoring if the frog wasn't badly damaged.  Too bad.

 

I did get a chance to see about the coolest thing I've see this week, however.  An upright, electric washtub bass.  Or, as it was described to me, what happens when a violin maker drinks too much beer. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive in talking about CBGs, but after seeing this beautiful instrument, I walked right up to the conversation.

 

How effin' sweet is that thing?

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on July 7, 2011 at 3:53am

Thanks for the comment Knotlenny!  I absolutely won't burn it, I promise.  It's worth hanging on the wall at least for sentimental value.  My grandfather passed away when I was a very young boy and most of my memories were hearing him play piano or organ.  I wouldn't dare harm this.

 

It might be a bit more difficult to explain to my wife why I should have it cleaned up though.  :)

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