Rescue Violins: The Violin Rescue Centre

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

 This JTL violin will sound lovely when finished. I am currently about to glue an open seam on the bottom. It is going to get a set of geared Witner pegs and a very good bridge. Pirasto Tonica strings will compliment it. And I have a great vintage chinrest I'm going to give it. I am thinking this one is going to become my violin for a while. I'll see how rich and colourful it sounds when done. My ultra fine blade shows the open seam in need of hot hide gluing and clamping. Compagnon hot hide glued and clamped Unfortunately, in its past, some window-licking bozo thought it a good idea to scratch their initials on the back of the scroll of this lovely old violin. So this will have to be very diligently sorted out.  Compagnon corner repair. Initial wood bonded. Corner Repair. Initial wood bonded.

What I never first realised as I initially set about fixing it is that this instrument is probably a genuine baroque violin (probably 18th century); the fingerboard being a fair bit shorter and the back being noticeably flatter and other proportions different to a Strad model.  The purfling on the violin is simply drawn on and would have been done using a goose quill and ink. At some point in time - a long time ago by the looks of it - an expert luthier added a small wedge under the fingerboard, which was likely done in the C19th to elevate the fingerboards of older baroque violins to be closer to the steeper angle of  a Stradivari model. But the neck is genuine and there is no graft. The steeper angle increases the tension of the strings across the bridge and so make the instrument louder. Usually when this was done a longer Stradivarius fingerboard was added. But not in the case of this particular violin. A very long time ago a small wedge was expertly fitted to the neck, to elevate

Most Maidstone violins have an oval label depicting two girls dancing. Murdoch, who imported most of his Maidstone violins from the Saxony area of Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, later involved his son in the company. Hence the later models were labelled "Murdoch and Murdoch and Co.  There are the typical oval labels bearing the simple name Murdoch and Co and later ones as "Murdoch and Murdoch and Co. As far as I know, all the square ones simply say Murdoch and Co just like the one in the picture below. Some experts claim the square labeled violins are best. Rumours exist that some Maidstone violins were made in what was then named Czecho-Slovakia (Bohemia) and even France. Moreover, that not all Murdoch violins were Maidstone's. I own another square labelled Maidstone violin that I repaired. I must say it beats into the ground all my oval labelled Maidstone's - using the same strings ( Thomas Infeld Vienna, Alphayou - synthetic core strings). Here

 I hide glued, clamped and then varnished the back of this violin. Manby violins seem to have a tenancy for the back seam to open. I am not sure why. But is is a definite characteristic of these lovely instruments. Even after gluing and clamping the seem can give the appearance of not being totally closed when it is. I guarantee the repair to this one for my lifetime. Fixing an open backseam is in fact an incredibly simple process so long as you have the correct equipment an know how to use it.

 One for sale here has the same label with the serifs in the font and same trademark. Dates it as 1920's. Archived advert:  https://archive.is/rIoS2 The ebayer is Fine Violins:  https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/fineinstruments?_trksid=p2047675.l2559  (archived:  https://archive.is/0gH3y ) . 

 The eBay add is achieved here:  https://archive.is/ZQ00g They wanted £170 for it.We haggled and I bought it today for £90. I am going to use my repair method that I used in the Mirecourt 3/4 size fake. Only this time I will also use parchment to repair.