David Burgess

I thought the original repair was a rather interesting historical artifact, on an otherwise rather uninteresting fiddle. Kinda sad to see it gone. If you want to get everything "right", it's quite an extensive job, which would include relocating most of the peg holes.

Cello plate: Junkwood wedges glued on. (They don't need to fit well, use enough Titebond to fill the gaps) Trim clamp contact point of wedges to a V-shape at the ends (> viewed from the side), at a height which puts clamping force through the center of the joint. Split gluing wedges away after gluing, continue shaping plate as usual.

Why not? What reinforcement method do you think would be less invasive?

Nor do I, aside from the observation that beliefs can have major impacts on perceived outcomes.

How did you come to that conclusion? I've experienced fiddles where heavier pegs improved the sound and playability, as well as the opposite.

One option might be to leave it alone, if there are no functional problems so far.

In the future, may I refer to you as "Mr. Fancyclamps"? On violins and violas, I've always just used some cheap bass spool clamps (sorry for not having a photo with the clamps in place). They aren't long enough, so I just cut some notches (takes under 30 seconds) so the clamps will fit. For those who are interested in verifying the strength of their center joints, I take a cutoff piece (below the bottom of the outline in this case) , and break it. Ideally, it will break somewhere other than the joint, but I consider it acceptable if it breaks at the joint, with some wood from one side still stuck to the other.

Whose chart? For gluing on tops, I can get pretty close by mixing 13 grams of "315" glue with 82 grams water. Then I can get closer by measuring the gel time. But this is not at all what I would use for centerjoints, or gluing in a soundpost patch.

I don't know what "full strength" means, unless it refers to the dilution ratio used for penetration resistance testing of the glue in a gelled state. That may have something to do with what we use glue for, or it may not.

Here's the article as it appeared in The Strad, more or less. Some version which I had saved: http://burgessviolins.com/Strad glue article.pdf

While heat can release glues such as Titebond and epoxy, I haven't found it helpful with hide glue.

He might be a masochist, who derives pleasure from getting beaten up on the internet.

I use Bjorn 315 for everything, controlling gel time and strength with the amount of water dilution. This is a Maestronet thread which followed the Strad magazine article. I'll look later to see if I can find the article itself. https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/321117-latest-strad-trade-secrets-questions-for-gluemeister-burgess/&

I wouldn't care who pays it, as long as it is payed. I simply can't afford to do what would normally be a $500 setup, when my out-of-pocket expenses would come to many multiples of that. That is one of the major reasons why I no longer do maintenance on the Henry Ford Museums Strads etc. Perhaps they expected that it would be such a privilege to work on such things, that I would do it for nothing, or take a loss? But I guess they would have been less than financially responsible, if they hadn't at least explored that possibility. It doesn't need to be, to woosh over the heads of most music critics, nearly anyone in an audience, and even orchestra members who have quite a bit of experience playing many fine violins.