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. 

 I just picked up a Romanian 1/2 size violin today. Some pictures of it follow. The label says it is made in Reghin Romania  "MUSIKINSTRUMENTENFABRIK REGHIN" Lower on the label (not visible in pictures) it says: "I. P. Bv 40. Shining a snake light through the f-hole and using a mobile phone we managed to get a couple of shots of the bass bar and the violin's own little dust bunny. The sound post is not set straight and is making poor contact with the violins back. That will be one of the first thigs to fix. It also came with a full size bridge that was not even carved to fit the violin table. Label and dust bunny  Bass bar and sound post Reghin is considered the city of violins in Romania. See https://reghincity.ro/en/places/reghin-city-of-violins-rouhij3chez2pg In contrast to the link  above informing us that that Hora and Gliga are the only violin making companies in Reghin, there are apparently many, and here is just one of them.  I am not sure who made this vi

I just bought this in an eBay auction (archive of the orignal listing here ). From the little I have been able to find out, this was originally sold as a lower end beginner "trade" violin. One Luthier expert judges them as the equivalent of a Stentor Conservatoire (archived here ). Those Stentor violins in 3/4 size sell for £269 brand new and about £170 on eBay.   As you can see from the archive original listing (above) I won the 100+ year old Bienfait violin in an eBay auction for just £12.99. Yet I see that someone else on eBay has a 3/4 size Bienfait for sale at an audacious £650! (archived here ). Another sold at auction for £220 ( here ). One full size sold for £300 on eBay (archived here ). I found another full size, in need of a little renovation, went for £180 at auction (archived here ) . I found a dealer selling a full size one of these for £395 (archived here ). And yet another for sale by a dealer for £850 (archived here ). And one for sale at $911 (archived her

  My Nottingham Neighbours are a Wonderful and Joyous International Inspiration . It's an exciting day in the Kanneh-Mason household - 'Carnival' is out now! https://t.co/QQLmPz6oVO We're so grateful we could make the album despite everything this year and hope that it brings you a moment of joy. pic.twitter.com/2Hj9myDTSn — Sheku Kanneh-Mason (@ShekuKM) November 6, 2020 .