Violin Forum/Message Board

[John Cadd]

There are several old damaged violins on ebay and Etsy .But apart from the mechanical repairs needed ---how untidy and scruffy should the violin be left. If a violin has several scratches it could still sound good. It might have most of the varnish on the back ,but obvious scatches on the top . Not the combination we see with old Italian violins.
There are two violins on sale together on Etsy needing heavy repairs and they come from Lithuania. They might be dismissed as rubbish but Lithuania had a sizable Jewish population before WW2 so these could be very nice instruments eventually , but with a tragic past . They may never be saved though . One has a loose back with the centre seam open . A big job .

[John Cadd]

Not directly connected in the title but simply looking at old violins on ebay and Etsy the randomness is very useful .Sometimes the design of a scroll makes an unimportant violin jump out as interesting . Trying to imagine a better scroll shape is very difficult and abstract . The interesting ones can be few and far between . Reverse the situation and collect features that are very unattractive instead. The central eye of a scroll may be too small . It`s position may be too high or too low. The front view showing the outer sweep coming down can create several preferences .Practical details like the curve of the pegbox edges allowing strength to support peg tensions come into the equation .
One Etsy example shows a very nice violin but it has one completely annoying extra curl in the scroll . That went too far . So each angle and feature of a scroll needs some attention before you pick up a gouge . Waiting till you are sawing chunks out is too late for a better result. Get the concept in your head first .
Some scruffy old violins may need a new scroll and matching that to the general style of a violin is part of the fun .

[John Cadd]

I was being too historical about a couple of violins from Lithuania .The sellers details say they are from the 70s . Or maybe he`s had them that long himself. But the outlines are good.The soundholes and scrolls look good .One neck has been cobbled together with screws. So a scroll graft is needed .I `ve done one good one already .How many good ones is enough practice ?
The attraction to me is the deep red colour of one violin . The front is very dusty but the back shows the colour much better . But the front has many traces of cracks . It`s still a temptation to a little puzzle . The two violins both have centre back splits but I have already renovated a guitar that had a back split from top to bottom . So there is no technological obstacle to repair that . This my hobby anyway . I know how to make a new violin but this is old wood already . Most forum comments about these kind of repairs sound like they come from complete bodgers to be perfectly honest .

[John Cadd]

Well I kicked this one into touch but the colour of the red violin was worth a look. It was a good mental workout of the possibilities .

[John Cadd]

I changed my mind about the 2 Lithuanian violins and bought them just to see close up what the red colour varnish was like. It was too good to lose that colour .
For a really scruffy violin there is a Hopf with top cracks ans a lot of scraped off varnish . An old neglected garden shed look is the best way to describe it .Old worn out gut strings are still attached .The back has a big name stamp branded on it . I don`t know about Hopf violins but the Australian violin maker has a video with an old Hopf . They sound quite good and seem to have some character .
This forum is a good place to talk about old scruffy models .

[John Cadd]

The red colour I mentioned is not Mauve but Burgundy . The varnis is not all one colour either and it reveals what order it was applied. The worn parts have an orange tinted brown. So there are some elements to work on .
In the Strings site there are two articles about varnish .One clearly hinted that Cremona varnish was quite hard . Another article said exactly the opposite . Chatoyance was referred to and the worn out varnish did not show that . One said the varnish soaked into the wood . That`s opposite to anything I have seen about Cremona varnish .Was that fake news ?
But one internet site showed all the ways for painters to achieve a burgundy colour .About 6 different combinations . Each gave a different interpretation .Now I have to filter all that good stuff through the opacity tests .Will they all tell the truth or leave me with paint ?

[John Cadd]

[quote="John Cadd"]The red colour I mentioned is not Mauve but Burgundy . The varnish is not all one colour either and it reveals what order it was applied. The worn parts have an orange tinted brown. So there are some elements to work on . Worn edges are more golden
In the Strings site there are two articles about varnish .One clearly hinted that Cremona varnish was quite hard . Another article said exactly the opposite . Chatoyance was referred to and the worn out varnish did not show that . One said the varnish soaked into the wood . That`s opposite to anything I have ever seen about Cremona varnish .Was that fake news ?
But one internet site showed all the ways for painters to achieve a burgundy colour .About 6 different combinations . Each gave a different interpretation .Now I have to filter all that good stuff through the opacity tests .Will they all tell the truth or leave me with paint ?[/quote]
Some synthetic brick coloured pigments arrived today .Synthetic colours will not lose colour or fade away .That`s what they say anyway .