Rescue Violins: The Violin Rescue Centre

 This is a 3/4 size Maidstone violin from my private collection  Also on YouTube  https://youtu.be/yZ0pS4f7cXg . . Images of violin

Many times, I see violins for sale described on eBay as having no obvious damage by people claiming to have no knowledge of violins. In reality, the photographs of some of these violins on eBay show clear serious damage that would most likely seriously effect the sound of the violin and only get worse. In the picture below you can see a 3/4 size Maidstone violin that has a serious crack on its back. The thing described as "something rolling around inside" is almost certainly the fact that the sound post has fallen inside, which most likely happened when the back of the violin was damaged.  Unless you know how to fix a crack on a violin and reset the sound post then this violin would cost hundreds to have a luthier repair it. That would be far in excess of he re-sale value of the instrument. A first class Maidstone 3/4 size violin should never be sold for more than £200. These are Saxony (late 19th century early 20th century lower-end 'factory violins' made for student

 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