David Burgess

Afghanistan? Sure, why not?

Your envy is showing. All of us around here were schooled on the Detroit automobile assembly lines, which is a far superior education to a diploma from some priggish violin making school.

OK. Is this pub in Michigan or in Japan?

Maybe they're better than they were originally? Are there any left with the original bass bars?

It looks like either of these would be OK. I presume the Bitrex ("the world's most icky tasting substance") would remain in the varnish film, so I wonder if that would be a problem for those of our customers who are varnish-lickers?

I prefer to call it "wood dough".

I can't quite figure out what it is that you are inquiring about. If it is a clean angle at the scroll end of the pegbox, this doesn't really matter, functionally. I prefer mine really clean. Is that what you are asking about?

I like to avoid body contact with methanol, also breathing the fumes. A number of hand sanitizers were recalled when they were found to contain some methanol

What are the ingredients of this "denatured alcohol" and in what proportions? Is it mostly ethanol, with additives to make it undrinkable or poisonous, or what?

I don't appreciate our government requiring additives to make ethanol more toxic than it already is. But I do appreciate that most of the stuff which is sold through liquor stores is required to be pretty highly tested for stuff like that.

First and foremost, the purpose of making moonshine alcohol illegal was to preserve tax revenue to the government. But I will add that some back-wood stills can produce unhealthy levels of things like methanol.

Wow! Another possible interpretation might be that the player gets so worn out with all the "relentless" (your description) questioning, that they pretend that they are happy, just to be able to get the phuck out of there, and get back to a somewhat normal life! Do some luthiers (possibly you) presume that to be a successful adjustment? In my opinion, Andreas Preuss has made some really nice instruments. Is it possible that you would do better by learning from him, than by honking your own horn?

A "bass bar"?

LOL, I actually got a chuckle out of that statement, since one does not become fast and proficient with a hand plane by never using it! It is a high skill requiring practice, and ideally some hands-on personal instruction.... a little like learning to play the violin well. To respond to the question in your first post of this thread: Maple is used for bridges because just about everything has already been tried, and maple still comes out on top in terms of the preferred sound. For example, just yesterday, I ran across a fiberglass-skinned balsa-core experimental cello bridge that I made about 40 years ago. I have also made one or two with the carbon fiber reinforcing strips, similar to what FiddleDoug illustrated in another thread. There's an interesting axiom in the fiddle trade: "You aren't the first genius to work on violins."