Brad Dorsey

It happened at Skinner's spring, 2014, sale. Read about it here: https://maestronet.com/forum/index.php?/topic/332380-slips-through-the-cracks/

...other than the occasional $15,000 Del Gesu at Skinner.

About 10 days ago, I bought three more sets of Dominants, for $30 each, from the same Ebay seller I bought from before, who claims to be located in Jacksonville, Florida. Each set arrived in a separate package from Shar accompanied by a Shar invoice indicating a $69.95 payment by credit card. I'm not so sure about that. A half an hour ago a local police officer arrived at our house. He had been given my name and address by Shar, and he came to see if I knew anything about some violin strings. He said Shar told him they have had a number of irregular string sales lately. I told him what I could and he left. Do I need a lawyer?

I never liked using the common type of slip-joint pliers on end pins, because the teeth marr them. The idea of grinding the teeth off just came to me. I discovered that I had a little grinding wheel just the right diameter. I mounted it in my drill press and pinched it with the pliers to grind off the teeth.

Is The Strad still running the "Trade Secrets" series? I ask because I see it listed in the table of contents up through the February, 2020, issue on the website, but not in subsequent issues.

Always try any violin cleaner first in an unobtrusive spot -- under the chinrest or tailpiece. If you see any varnish on your cleaning rag, stop.

While "Markneukirchen" indicates where the violin was made, United States law requires the country of origin to be indicated. The name of the municipality where it was made is insufficient. I don't know why it doesn't have the "made in."

A975 is the serial number, not the model. For a fee the Roth shop will tell you what year it was made, given the number, and issue a certificate. I think there is information about this on their website.. The "GERMANY" and the "MARKNEUKIRCHEN" date it to before World War 2.

A thread wrap, though is is easily seen, is not an invasive repair, because it removes no original material and it can be removed, even if it's saturated with super glue as Lynn teaches. The investment value of the bow is pretty well shot by the crack with our without the wrap. So the only reason I see to make the repair less secure by not wrapping it is to make it less noticeable, perhaps in hope of passing off the bow as unrepaired.

Thread windings are sometimes used to reinforce long splits and breaks on bows after they have been glued. (Lynn Hannings teaches how to put them on in her bow repair classes.} They probably work well for this in at least some situations, and they add minimal weight. They make the repair obvious, but help return bows to service.

I use white "Alphacolor" which someone recommended on this forum a few years ago. As I see it, there are two main chalk considerations: 1. Good visibility on the bar. Alpha color seems to be about the same as the various other chalks that I have tried in this respect, but I always would like to find something better. 2. Non-contamination of the glue joint by binders in the chalk (grease, wax, etc.). Since chalk is not subject to the same ingredient labeling requirements as food, we don't really know what is in any of in. But the Alphacolor recommendation said that it is good in this respect, which is why I searched it out online. I haven't had any bars fall off yet.

I don't have any information, but the metal tongue reinforcement on the bow that I recently rehaired and on the frog pictured above both looked to me like nickel silver -- the metal that we usually call "nickel" when we see it on frog and button mounts.

Either I didn't notice or I don't remember. But I do remember that it had one screw and one pin just like yours.

An easy way to identify tortoise shell is look to see if bugs have been eating it. If they have, it's tortoise shell because they don't eat plastic. If there is no insect damage, it could be plastic or it could be tortoise shell that the bugs haven't gotten to. But your frog is unquestionably a genuine Hill gold-mounted tortoise shell frog. I don't see them very often, but I recently repaired a Hill bow with a frog just like this. It had the same metal reinforcement inlay in the tongue, which was put it when the frog was made, not added later as part of a repair. .

To amplify on and clarify the comments you have received, I will say that this if this bow works for you, you should enjoy using it. But it is the cheapest grade of bow available -- not even worth the cost of rehairing it. And it has no silver on it.