viola_license_revoked

Hello viola (and other) makers! A few questions please?! What are the sizes and models of violas that are most often requested in your part of your country, region, world etc? What are your all time personal favorite violas? Do you have a personal model?!! Just curious Thanks! R

Cool! Here's the first thing I ever made from 2008, she's being renovated this pandemic season. I read the Wake and Strobel books when I was younger but couldn't understand either. They are good books and i still have them somewhere. Then I dug through the internet when it became a thing and combed maestronet for info when it used to be a couple of guys posting short paragraphs. Took a couple of years of netscaping, many hours at the music library reading journals, Strad, and String mags and boxes of junk instruments to figure out how was why was what... It was FUN!!!

I feel your pain Rue. I have experimented and done A TON of repairs I have never been trained to do and have never considered myself a luthier. Mostly on junk instruments but occasionally on friends instruments or schools and youth orchestra etc because they couldn't afford real repairs. I post my "repairs" here anyway to get feed back and learn. To that end I've received all sorts of comments that are really funny to read! Frequently one comment will raise my confidence and the next will tear me done to shreds and a few have have scarred me for life lol! But I have to a tendency to truck on anyway so I do. I went and looked up one of my first repair posts here and nearly laughed myself to death! And I'm so thankful I've learned so much from all the comments. AND the first and last comment were by fellow! Oh the memories...

Welcome back NotTooOld! Do share what you've repaired/made etc lately! I think my first post was maybe a decade ago... Wow time flies. Dude was alright... Was always encouraging my feeble efforts. Miss CT too

So many cool and interesting stories so far! Most intriguing beginnings, serendipity, hard work, luck, determination, ingenuity, life long study, guns and violins... I can smell varnish, maple and motor exhaust just reading this thread. I just lost my brand new trainee flute making job due to covid downsizing. Spent the last 2 months at my makerspace locked away making face shields. At this point we've made over 15,000 and have given away most of it to hospitals, nursing homes, dentists, a correctional facility and other folks. Manunlongnnight and hours to ponder where and how to move forward. Coincidentally there is some sort of a biker gang in the neighborhood and that was a shooting a block away two nights ago. We tend to stay very late pulling 12-15 hr days cutting PET and assembling etc... Maybe I should go over say hi and try and start an orchestra with the bikers... If anyone feels like it, could they share the point at which they realized they had crossed over to the Dark Side and were infact luthiers? Does playing ability etc give you confidence to make in a certain way? While covid will not end the world, it does thin out prospects in music and instrument making at least for now and the foreseeable future. What are your thoughts moving forward if I may ask?

Hello forum Just curious, how did you start your own shop/making/repairing etc? What was it like? How hard was it to strike out on your own in a sea of violin makers, many of whom are really quite good! what were the expected and unexpected pitfalls and challenges along the way? Care to share please? Thanks RL

Thank you for those suggestions! I've never liked opening plywood basses but some sort of sealer might be necessary to help mitigate possible future delamination... Here's the update: run recoverbassarch.exe was successful. Now I can glue the bass bar down and hope for the best. I flipped the top over and loosely clamped it to the sides to use as a cradle. Short 2x4's were clamped over standoff blocks and wedges were tapped into place after the rough area was wetted down with water. The whole thing was left to dry overnight and now the arch is essentially recovered. (Still a bit damp) Next step would be to essentially repeat same operation with glue for the bass bar. Still a fair amount of work to go. I'm going to dread gluing back the top. Without an overhang, it's going to take quite a bit of patience for a rank amateur like myself to line the edges up properly. The varnish touch up operation all round the edge is going to a pain...

Yes I have a bunch of balsa wood I can use. Yeah reversibility is not really a priority I think ... At least not for the plywood. I don't ever need that to delaminate again. I don't think the sound of this bass can be improved or degraded by much. Thank you for your suggestions!!

Yes of course! Wedges! Thank you!

Ha ha ha. Really not a bad idea at all! Roger that on the arching running recoverbassarch.exe.....

Hi edi !! I feel your pain... Thank you very much for your input. Maybe I should make a new top too... Or I'll be gluing splinters for the next week and half...should let someone know in case I die on the bench and no one found out...

Thank you kindly for your suggestions I'm looking into wood hardeners and zpoxy finishing resins... I think I'm gonna try and soften the laminates first to rework the arch and force the bass bar back on. Once the bar is glued, flood the sucker with hardener or resin. That's my thinking now. Subject to change every 30 seconds... The good thing here is I'm not an actual luthier, so I already know I can't meet luthier standards! ( Anyone out there hiring a hack?) Hey, at least I got the kid a nice replacement carbon fiber endpin...

Thank you kindly for the heads-up. I will be attentive to those things you mentioned. When the strings were on, one side of the bass side f-hole would sink in about an inch at its worst. Dry run clamping help a little but did not change much. The arching is shot...

hello all I'm fixing a broken bass for a kid who cannot afford a real luthier. A sizzling plate of arroz con pollo is at stake here! Any suggestions please? The bass bar had separated from the top about 2/3 of it's length. The kid played on it like that since he got it donated for all of the last 2-3 years in youth symphony. What can I try to correct the sunken/warped plywood top? Why is my hand purple in the pic? I promise I'm not dead. Thank you all for any suggestions RL

Sorry folks the pics are not mine, they are not the best. I don't think I'll be able to do a shoot, but maybe I should ask.