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The University of Southampton Violin

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  Eleena Sutton (Grade 6 ABRSM student) playing the University of Southampton 1931 violin in 2024 The Douglas Clitheroe (1931) University of Southampton violin is now restored and re-voiced. Initially, I thought the high arch of the violin table and corresponding steep angle of the fingerboard, which necessitated an unusually high bridge, required me to engage in the removal of a lot of wood from the new bridge that I cut from a blank and necessitated making it with enlarged kidneys and heart. My thinking was that the amount of wood in the bridge, pre-bridge surgery, would severely mute the sound of the violin. Knowing how much bridge wood to remove, where to remove it and when to stop removing it is a counter intuitive and also intuitively informed art informed by scientific trial and error experience. This work is done incrementally on the instrument using tiny wood files. The original bridge that came with the violin was tall also and had been thinned to a greater degree than standa
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A JTL Le Parisien Violin

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 One of my current project violin restorations is on a rather well used and previously professionally repaired Jerome Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy – (J.T.L.) Mirecourt Violin from France. This appears to be a late 19th century violin and is definitely a genuine Le Parisien model as it has every precise known detail of that model and a genuine JTL label of the exact label type used on that model in the 1870s. These violins sold by JTL for more than their Medio Fino model, more than their superb Number 3 model and more than their sumptuously sounding Compagnon models. I have all of these other three models in my collection and now I am wondering how the Le Parisien will compare. What makes the playing the violin sound test I will have carried out by a professional violinist in the future all the more intriguing is that my Le Parisien violin has, previous to my ownership, had a sound-post crack repaired with the currently orthodox standard-recommended Luthier internal oval patch repair. The sm
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A JTL full size and a JTL 3/4 size No.3 Violin

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 I think I have finally solved the mystery of why a JTL 3/4 size I bought today has no name in it - only the JTL brand on the top block  (viewed through end pin hole) and 2 square JTL logo labels. It looks like some of them had no name - only the logo brand and a number:  http://www.luthiers-mirecourt.com/thibouville1901_1.htm The full size JTL I have just bought to restore also has a number 3 branded inside the pegbox.  These numbered but not named violins were classed by JTL as "master violins" They had purfling and sold for more than the much sought after today Medio Fino violins, all of which have no purfling. Moreover, they were more expensive than some lower priced named models such as the Compagnon, and fractionally less than the very highly regarded basic Bretton violin model. Interestingly, the Medio Fino models that were sold by JTL as perfectly acceptable practice instruments for students but were sold as having some irregularities and no purfling.  The images belo
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Bobbie's Violin

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  Click the video > below to see the poignant story of Bobbie's violin. For me personally the story of Bobbie dying in an RAF bomber in 1938 as the UK was rushing these planes into production to be ready for a war in Europe after Hitler annexed areas of the Czechoslovakia in that year resonated profoundly with Putin invading and annexing Ukrainian sovereign territory in Europe today.  My daughter Eleena Sutton (who is 13) is -  as of her performance yesterday - now the owner and custodian of "Bobbie's Violin". If it can be borrowed and played in the future by others to raise donations for Ukraine and the millions of invasion-displaced adults and children of Ukraine that would be a good thing.  Maybe the BBC could have it played accordingly at the Proms?  I am not sure, however, if the story of Bobbie's violin catches the imagination of others as it does me and his family - who have kept in touch after I won the instrument in an eBay auction earlier this year. B
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Compagnon violin

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  The antique French "Compagnon" violin all finished last night. It sounds incredible. This full size violin has a clear, bright and ringing voice. I am very pleased with it. Made around 1920 by the renowned Mirecourt factory (workshop) Jérôme Thibouville-Lamy. I fitted this fine violin with German Wittner geared pegs and a super comfy Wittner anti-allergenic chin rest. These geared pegs dispense with the need for fine tuners on the tailpiece, protect the pegbox from wear and allow a longer after string (behind the bridge) length. That reduces tension on the bridge, allowing it to flex ever so slightly under playing, which creates the opportunity for a more flexible tone approach by experienced players. The bridge is a very special professional quality French model, which I cut from a blank to fit and then tuned very carefully to the violin to open the sound without losing string focus and to create just a little extra resonance and ring. The e-string is set at 3mm from the
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Fixing a 14" (Primavera) viola

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This is one on my free of charge repair list for Nottingham Music Hub today. The patient is an instrument owned by a pupil. They dropped it and the table (face) cracked from the saddle right up to the f-hole. It is a 14 inch viola, which means it is the same length as a full size( 4/4) violin.  This size of viola is most usually a children's size. That said,a 14 inch viola is also commonly employed for  violinists learning to play viola. The sound post was clearly extremely badly fitted - at an angle and not at all in the right location on the treble side of the bridge foot.   Badly fitted sound post. Not perfectly vertical. The cross on the image below shows where the sound post was located. The a large dot where it should be located.  Sound post badly located. Too far in. Moreover, when examined the "sound post" looks like it was some bit of left over scrap wood stick picked up off the ground with no regard to the fact a squirrel, mouse or chinchilla had been gnawing on
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Fixing Student Violins and a Small Cello for Nottingham Music Hub: Sustainability in action

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When not editing the Internet Journal of criminology and writing books on science fraud, I repair  violins and cellos for Nottingham Music Hub. Other violins I repair and donate some to self-employed music teachers. I don't charge anything for this work. Nottingham Music Hub is a charitable music organisation. Here are some of this week's patients, a mix of  3/4 size Stentor student violins, one needed the fingerboard re-gluing, the other had pegbox cracked in two, a 1/4 size cello with he bottom half coming unglued and an old 3/4 size Lark violin that needed a sound post crack fixing, the bottom re-gluing at the seam and a new sound post. All need re-touching with the right shade of spirit varnish varnish.  All repaired with traditional hot hide glue.  1/4 Size Stentor Cello - re-glued an open seam. Re-attaching a fingerboard to a 3/4 size Stentor violin Lark - Emerging sound post crack glued on the outside and then clamped Gluing the bottom plate before removing the top (tabl
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