jacobsaunders

Scared of the Weltmeister?

that's near enough, use thick glue

http://www.klier-josef.de/index_us.html The Klier Family are the ones who actually make fingerboards. Most of the others are just dealers

it must have been a suicide

please report on the mess afterwards

Would you care to provide a link to this previous thread? It would seem a waste of time to repeat oneself

Does the Pope wear a silly hat?

try it

The "gap" will not close, but open

If he makes his open back joint wet/moist, it will open up more than it is already, ie. he will be further up shit creek than he was. Stick to sheep.

Take no notice of anyone who tells you to make it wet

Inserting a shaving or veneer is a very bad technique, since you finish up holding the back joint apart for eternity, along with the arching deformation that neccesarily goes with it. I illustrate a viola which came with a veneer in the back joint, with thick layer of retouching varnish on it. I soaked the joint and washed the veneer out. After that the joint was even miles further apart. The perception that dampness will help is misguided, since the joint will wander even further apart. I thought to myself, “oh God, bugger” and slung the back onto my repair heap. After about two weeks, I rediscovered the viola back, and the joint had almost gone back together of its own accord. I glued it, and put a larger stud on the back inside. Retouching it was more or less mission impossible, since this area of the viola is more or less naked, with no varnish on anyway. The joint was never a perfect fit, and never will be. The integrity of the arching is a more important consideration

Recipe for disaster

You will just have to work out a tailor made solution with whatever cramps you have

Your violin looks, in a lot of places, as if it were originally of a dark colour, and somebody washed most of the varnish off. Also the damage at the top of the back by the button is a bit critical, and difficult to repair to ones satisfaction. The scroll seems to be from a different maker. All together it seems to have been a quite nice fiddle, albeit not a Klotz, but is now pretty wrecked

Ok, not Mittenwald. I’m sorry, this morning I forgot to address your original question. Crummy centre joints could almost be listed as a Mittenwald feature, but as we see they have competition. One can have nightmares with such cello centre joints. I would wash the dirt out of the open joint with water and a short-bristeled brush, then leave it a day or two to really dry out. Then I would glue two wood blocks onto the surface where the bottom block was, so that I can pull them together with a cramp. Glue it like that, then leave it a day or two that the glue really gels, then put a fairly thick stud, just next to where the bottom block area finishes. Good luck

Is that from Mittenwald?

I would presme it to be one of those better quality Markneukirchen "copies", pre WWI. The ebony pins in the back an afterthought from someone trying to dress mutton as lamb

The 3rd volume (update) of Lüttgendorff it reads: ZEIDLER Curt / Krappitz (PL) Goslar (D) born 21.9.1894 Oppel, Oberschliesisen Son of Richard Z. 1908-12 pupil of his father, subsuquently his assistant. Made studying trips to Holand and Italy. In 1922 he settled in Krappitz and took his Masters exam in 1928. After the war he came to Goslar in the Harz, and established his own personal workshop there again. Source: Own manuscript CV in the archive of the german vm makers assn.

Impertinent to insinuate that Conor would waste his time tinkering with Ebay A spiv siren luring some poor soul onto the rocks!

Looks like (better) late 19thC. Markneukirchen

It taught him how to count

Yes, the crack needs repairing If you are determined to "repair" something yourself, you should try your hand at the dustbin-ready one, and you will realise that violin repairing isn't something you do a three year apprentiship for for nothing.

Ok, lets ignore the dustbin ready one, and concentrate on the double purfeled one: You will have to clean it inside and out, remove the saddle, open the belly for the bottom third, wash the crack out, glue the crack, fill the crack and retouch it, re-glue the belly edges and re-glue the (shortened) saddle; shoot the fingerboard, re-glue and re-shape the nut, fit new pegs, fit a sound post, carve a bridge, poss. make a new end button, glue anything else that is open, minor retouching, put new strings on, clean the tailpiece and make a new tail gut, and that is what I see from a cursory look at some photos. That would come to about 800 Euros, with a wiggle room up to one thousand, about 200 of which would be the cost of materials (new strings, new pegs, bridge blank, and sundry bits and bobs) There is no reason for your violin maker to work for nothing, just because your violin is no better than it is.

Violinists all seem to think that violin makers should work for free