duane88

A prehensile version of the Boze Noise Cancelling devices.

Wood dealers charge more for prettier wood.

For a handmade bow that is about the starting point in today's market.

How to get over the bug? Well, first you must admit that you have a problem... Buy enough stuff that turns out to be junk that you overpay for and that will help, depending upon the credit limits of your revolving credit situation or cash flow. Find what you are looking for, and that can solve it. The real problem occurs when you DO find something of value, get a good deal on it, sell it for real money, and then the bug has been fed again and off you go. Sorta like winning at the slots and looking for the next win, and expecting it to be soon. Aside from that, if you are having fun and spending your children's inheritance, and you don't have a partner who berates you for it, have fun, but do know that in the end, after all is spent, a visit to a good shop that you can trust would have been cheaper.

He had many of those made by others, at that point in time. Mike Scoggins told me about making one for him while a student at the school in SLC. Nagy came in one day with some of his treated wood and had asked Peter to let some of his students make fiddles from the wood. Mike said that he paid $400 for a violin in the white. This one has "Xu Fu" in the upper corner of the label. He was a Chinese maker who I believe won some VSA awards decades ago.

So, can anyone tell me who in China makes a Viola that is worth 70k? A distant relative of Salustri, perhaps?...

Another vote for the peg compounds. I have two sets that I ordered when first mentioned in this thread. Best thing i have used aside from old Hill compound that you occasionally find in the aluminum tubes in old cases. A little goes a long way. Bravo! Thank you.

Those are blanks. They need work, and the surface, as it is, isn't what should be left when the fingerboard is done.

A friend's father, William Watson, who passed in 2006, was an amateur maker here in WA State. In moving his mother out of the house, they found another box of wood. All big leaf maple, violin, viola, ribs, scroll blocks. Old and light, well dried, in excellent shape. $250+shipping for the box.

In my shop, we call those people, "Askholes". From the choice of blank to how you choose to cut it, everything matters. I have, in the past, fit the feet and top, and done basic thicknesses, string the fiddle up, and using a string lifter, remove the bridge and carve wood from different parts of the bridge, put it back on the instrument, and let it be played. I think that tuning bridges is folly, and the real keys to understanding well cut bridges, barring a good teacher, are cutting many bridges and looking at old bridges that are well cut and copying them. In my opinion, until you can cut a nice, professionally cut bridge, your opinions should be put aside. Once you learn to do it correctly and consistently, some of your own opinions may fall by the wayside, and you may find yourself saying, "so that's why they do that..."

I sold a small Voirin to Jim Warren some years ago, and he told me that he had a nice collection of small, fine bows. I have a small Bazin, a small Charles Espey, and a small Hill floating around. Yep, they are out there.

We usually keep them, waiting for the correct stick to come along... Tarisio often has frogs and buttons in their sales.

I have one of these, but I can't answer your question.

Sartory Envy.

He's afraid someone will want his Sartory...