David Burgess

The bow seems to be well thought-out, when it comes to reducing typical damages on bows, including those from rehairing.

There is no easy way to know. You might want to ask the maker, since they will usually know, but some makers can be huge bullshitters too. Or not know whether what they are using is a spirit or oil varnish, since the differences are not well defined. For example, if a maker puts a little vegetable oil into a "solvent-dry" varnish, what is it? Spirit or oil?

I agree that a dial gives an easier indication of anomalies and trends, at least for me.

Thanks, John.

I've been meaning to try that. Somewhat sadly, these days, it is often less expensive to replace than repair.

Sometimes, gluing from the outside (even if the crack doesn't come completely together), and reinforcing with a cleat inserted through the ff hole can better preserve what is original to the instrument, than extensively opening seams or removing the top. And if done well, may keep the fiddle going for another 100 years. And when the top eventually needs to be removed for other reasons, or some accumulation of reasons, the quicky repair is very easy to undo. (I tend to be very conservative about removing tops, since it is rare to see a top which has been removed with no collateral damage.)

Bohdan, I do wish to seriously commend you on your many accomplishments.

I have a bit of experience too. Certainly, an aluminum D will require a larger nut and bridge groove radius than a silver D. Things like that ain't exactly rocket science. I would not recommend a V-groove as a catchall substitute for a properly radiused groove. But as Davide Sora has already said, a V-groove in either the bridge or upper nut would be expected to conform to the shape of the string pretty quickly, whether from wear, or from plastic deformation of the wood.

Yes, this is an old technique commonly called "fishing a cleat". These days, we aren't much into drilling holes in tops, but in some circumstances, it may be less destructive than other methods.

More like 30 years.

While they may be few and far between, there are many people who know how to do things properly., and even superbly. I would rather encourage that, than take things to some sort of "just enough to get by" level.

I do consider Davide Sora to be a very valuable partner, especially when it comes to various forms of "myth-busting". Davide posts real stuff, rather than "used car salesman crap", in my opinion.

Neat idea, John. (By the way, the PM bridge knife I mentioned earlier came from John). I beat it up with every challenging wood carving task I could think of, including hogging on ebony endgrain, and it held up better than any bridge knife I have ever used.

Then try cramming some toothpicks between the tail adjuster, and the holes in the tailpiece. Slop there can be one source of rattling or buzzing. But are you sure the noise is really coming from the tailpiece? Noises can be conducted from one place to another on an instruments pretty well.

The screws on fine tuners often need some grease to keep them from making noise. Helps with longevity too.