Just fiddling around

I played the violin both solo and in an orchestra from a fairly young age (8?) until I was around 15, by which time I'd got to about grade 7. Then stuff happened, like electronics, radios, motorbikes, cars, beer and women - and other shit besides. So the fiddling took a back seat. I still love classical music (and most other sorts) but it's now about 45 years since I tried to play the fiddle. 

I'd been looking for my main violin for the past year or so and in the end it turned out to have been lost among some of my sisters' vast collections of instruments. And even better, they also found my spare instrument, which was a nice example my father completely stripped down and rebuilt many years ago - this was the one I used to take out to orchestral events where there was more risk of damage or even (gulp!) loss.

What have we got after all these years?

In its day this was a nice crocodile skin(?) case. Yes, we used to live in Nunthorpe (near Middleborough) back in the late 60s.

And there we have it. Most bits seem to be present still, at least to some degree.

The bow has lost a lot of its hair. That's a Menuhin shoulder rest, nestling against the scroll.

It's taken a few scratches over the years, not least from the frog of the bow (top right of pic). There's lots of black rosin residue.

Looking in the F holes, there's the paper label which reads "Jacobus Stainer in absam probe Oenipontum 1757". Although I did several years of Latin at school, Google Translate is helpful here. Translated, this means "Jacob Stainer from Absam, near Innsbruck 1757". 

That all sounds rather exciting but if you thought this meant we were looking at a 265 year old artefact, you'd be mistaken. We've known for years that this simply refers to the original masterpiece it was copied from. Most likely it's around 100 years old at the most and worth a few hundred quid tops - if it's in good condition, that is.

Sure enough, Absam is a municipality in the Austrian Tyrol, just outside Innsbruck (the bridge over the river Inn). And Jakob Stainer was a bloody good luthier (violin maker). Pity it's not a genuine Stainer!

I've bought a few bits and pieces for this machine, as it looked to be in a fairly sorry state. Obviously, I wasted no time procuring a set of Wittner "Finetune" Model No. 270111M geared pegs. These contain an epicyclic reduction stage, giving a reduction ratio of 8.5:1, which makes tuning a lot easier and also removes the risk of pegs slipping. Along with a set of new Thomastik Superflexible strings (15A), I should be able to get this thing up and running again.

Let's get to it. Firstly, I need to ream out the pegs holes to accept the Finetune pegs. There's no reason not to be analytical about this though, just because it's an artistic endeavour. Let's estimate how far the reamer needs to burrow into the head:

There's a special reamer for this. So I should be expecting the reamer to chomp its way this far through:

Like this:

I don't seem to have completely fucked it up. This is the first peg, alongside the originals. I have still to cut the pegs down to the correct length so that they don't poke out at the narrow end. Anyway, apart from the slightly matt finish, they have a very similar style and look the part:

Of course, by removing the strings, the sound post has come out. That was bound to happen. That's another task for later. The correct position is actually fairly well defined but I'll need to make or acquire a tool to insert it again.

Anyway, the peg holes are done. There's no going back now!

There's a bit of wear on the fingerboard, although some of matt effect is due to the buildup of rosin, so it's not actually as bad as it first looks:

As noted above, the bow has lost a fair bit of its (horse)hair. I've cut off the loose hairs. I need to get it rehaired - something I could doubtless have a go at but probably best left to a professional. Looks as if that would cost about £60.

In the meantime, I bought a Chinesium Vingobow 100C bow. This has a carbon fibre stick (yes, that's the correct name). I need a second bow on the face of it, as I actually have 2 violins and only one bow...

The hair on the Vingobow thing is black. Apparently it's Mongolian horse hair.

So before I refit the sound post, bridge, (new) pegs and (new) strings I should give the fingerboard a bit of a rub down. I could fling this thing back together in a hurry and get scraping away, most likely without any obvious difference to the noise I get out of it but I should at least try to show it some respect by making a half decent job.