Rescue Violins: The Violin Rescue Centre

Not all violins that are beaver tooth carved with bass bars hurriedly carved out from the violin's table are Saxony (German) violins. This is a Maggini pattern full size violin made after WWI, when the official spelling of Czecho-Slovakia with a hyphen was first used in 1919. The hyphen was dropped in 1945.  This is a typical Bohemia "trade violin", made for students.  The instrument is well used and has suffered a lot of hard treatment. It is quite light in weight and narrow in the bouts. Perfectly suited for a smaller teenager or adult. The red varnish is chipped and chaffed and scratched in many places. This violin has been played a great deal.  This violin has a flamed maple back, sides and neck. The table is fairly close grained spruce, widening slightly towards the edges. This antique student violin also has traditional Maggini double purfling on the top and back.  Like so many Saxony (German) factory violins of the 19th and early 20th century this Bohemia instrumen

 Maidstone violins bearing the "orchestral association" label have been said to be the worst. I agree.  Here is one with what appears to be a pine back on eBay 26/03/2021  : Archived  https://archive.is/UXvNl Maidstone 4/4 violin. Condition is "Used". Dispatched with Royal Mail 1st Class. Nice old fiddle. Label reads Maidstone School Orchestra Association London EC. It comes with an old Barnes and Mullins hard case, unusual shape and good condition for its age.  The colour on the back of the fiddle seems faded , not sure if it shows on the photo but it doesn't affect anything. I was going to put it up for a higher price but when I tuned it I found the A string peg kept slipping.  My luthier charges £10 per peg to change but I can't get to him at present. So if you buy it you have to be aware of this peg slippage. Other than that, it's a good solid instrument priced fairly.   It will be carefully packed and sent first class with tracking.

 These cheap Chinese Gear 4 Music violins are sprayed with a thick coat of cheap bright orange varnish - Stentor Style. There is no real purfing, it looks like its a transfer. I bought this model off eBay because I was after a 3/4size modern case, bow and modern fine tuners for a Victorian violin I intend to sell as a student kit. The table was very easy to remove. It had been glued on with hide glue The bass bar was glued on with white glue and does not fit very well as the photos reveal. The violin appears to have no graduations. It is fully lined and roughly fully blocked in the corners. I filled the crack with hot hide glue, clamped it together at the sides (gently so as not to bow the table too much) then clamped a few small cleats on the crack at the same time. Tomorrow I will reinforce the joint with thick brown paper soaked in hide glue so the repair is at right angles over the table and base bar since the crack is right up against the bass bar. 

 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