Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

Looking on ebay at old damaged violins shows a sorry collection of old school violins with scratches and splits. Most are too far gone and cheap to interest any skilled restorer . Maybe the ones coated with black rosin layers can teach us how to remove the gunge without damaging the varnish beneath . Try Tripoli liquid in your researches for that . Maybe even the effort to look up Tripoli liquid is too much to ask for these lost cases .
Splits all along the tops would need special clamps to bring the edges closer together .But who would lavish that care on a cheapo manufactured thing of no beauty or style .
A prolonged search this week revealed only one violin of interest for it`s style .The scroll has an unusual artistic quality .It was within the normal limits of what a scroll should be .It had no extra curls . There was some drama at the depth of cut.The curves were directly from the gouges and not smoothed out .The eye of the scroll was oval rather than circular. Left and right sides were in the same style but had definite differences within it`s style . Would that idea be hard to understand or accept in the general violin world . What kind of AI rules could be discovered to explain this mystery and make it acceptable ? AI might show a path away from complete submission to one final solution and no other for the rest of eternity .
A simple practical lesson could be learned by rebuilding cheap violins and testing them for sound. Careful measurements beforehand would show why bad sounding violins are that way for their lifetime . Enough to encourage the unfortunate new player to throw it away in disgust .
A new book would be useful after this research ."How to make a Bad Violin.Things to Avoid ". AI might be dragged into that as well .Maybe the title could also be "How to mass produce cheap violins and deter young musicians ".