Rescue Violins: The Violin Rescue Centre

 I am currently trying to address an overloud and harsh A string on a basic 1/2 size 1970's Romanian violin where all the other strings sound very nice.  I hope this will help me:  https://josephcurtinstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/bridge_tuning.pdf

 A very interesting heated debate  in the Global Village over Carved-In Bass Bars HERE

I am particularly interested in the story that German HOPF violins had their name changed to HOPE by makers/dealers in the early 20th century, after Word War 1, due to anti-Semitism.  There is an archived link to the story here .  The one below for sale here   This one on eBay on 29 November 2020 that led me to investigate the story  There were at least 50 German manufacturers of violins using the name HOPF in the 19th century. The orignal luthier of the name,   David HOPF of Klingenthal, (German) c.1790-1800 was a master violin maker. This issue is discussed by luthier experts HERE   1. Maestronet archive of comments on this issue:  (a)  https://archive.is/5xKyX (b)  https://archive.is/a11dG (c)  https://archive.is/ZPHHj (d)  https://archive.is/qWTZl

  Manby Violins  Here is a label from a Manby violin with his fretted fingerboard Here is the 1912 US patent for his invention ( here ). ( Archived ) A 1914 and revised 1918 price list with other useful information on the effect of the 1st world war on prices and places of manufacture of violins  here A useful research paper on the topic  here My daughter has a Manby violin. I purchased it on eBay for £67. It had areas where the face needed gluing to the ribs and there was a large part of the middle seam of back split open. I fixed it and re-varnished the back to my 11 year old daughter's wishes to have it tiger striped. In effect, the flaming of the maple on the back is artificially exaggerated by my efforts. She loves the violin and it does play and project very well indeed.