David Burgess

Perhaps it's because professional musicians have easy and regular access to the real thing. No need.

While I think it would be quite possible to make a scroll with only one flat chisel or a whittling knife, this is not my preferred method.

Chest patches have been done both ways. Another is to glue a flexible veneer onto the surface, which probably achieves the best joint using "vacuum bagging".

Wow, that kid can play!!

Sounds like a plan. What is the water/bleach ratio in the bucket, and how long do you keep the gloves immersed?

How does one know if the instrument comes from a household with no infection, since some infected people are asymptomatic, and currently, most people without symptoms are not tested?

Good idea! It's best to re-purpose all spare rooms as quickly as possible, lest the kids want to move back home.

My preference is to get an idea of the sharpness of the tool, before screwing up any work. On some things, like a roughing gouge, there is little potential to mess up the work. On other things, like cutting the inside radius of the outer edge, the first cut with a dull gouge can mess things up, so I prefer to go in at least semi-informed. Whatever an individual finds to work for them is fine with me.

Things like that have actually happened, including using the interior of a violin or cello as a cigarette butt repository. Why would there be ff holes, if fiddles weren't intended for such things?

Agreed. One violin shop I know of leaves customer violins in the showroom for several days, before working on them. This may not be foolproof, but it does take advantage of the best information we have so far.

Some people will like that antiquing job. I wouldn't be in a hurry to replace it.

That's why I use the cat.

Hogo, you have always come across as a super-smart and very creative person. Having known Norfleet for many years, I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to whether he would prefer to fashion an air compressor from a refrigerator compressor, or a pump organ.

So the test scenario failed to meet your enjoyment level? Sure, we all like to have more information when participating in tests, but that's the point of blind or double-blind experiments.... trying to sort out observations from prejudices. So your opinion is that neck vibration does have an influence on player perceptions, even going so far as there being something wrong with with a fiddle if the neck vibration is "wrong" ? Isn't that what the experiment was trying to sort out? Did you participate in this experiment with the expectation that it would confirm your prejudices or beliefs? Sometimes that works out, and other times it doesn't. Live and learn.