Brad Dorsey

It’s possible that the light colored street was caused by some filler material in the joint. But I think it more likely that it was caused by a mis-alignment of the joint or by varnish loss along the joint. It’s impossible to tell from the picture.

These factors are practical considerations that influence the stiffness and internal friction of strings in the real world. The string equation describes a hypothetical ideal string, which has infinite flexibility and no internal friction. I’m afraid we’ve gone off topic.

Like. Yes.

Not mass. Mass per unit length. The densities of your two strings are the same, but the masses per unit length are different, hence they have different tensions.

Your violin was not made by Vuillaume, and your bow was not made by Tubbs.

Yes. No. It's supposed to imitate wear. It's supposed to look like a violin that was originally covered with dark varnish that got worn of in some places, leaving a lighter color in those places. It's not symmetrical on the back. On the top, it's roughly, but not exactly, symmetrical. I don't understand how the top varnish would wear that much on the bass side of the neck, either. But most antiqued violins that I see are shaded like this. Make it's just a common mistake. I looks like the back seam in the upper bout was open at one time, but it's impossible to tell from the picture if it's been reglued.

The word "distressed" first came to my mind, but I think "tortured" is more appropriate.

"Steiner" or, more often, "Stainer" is the name of the old German violin maker Jacob Stainer (1619–1683) whose work this violin is purportedly a copy of. The name has nothing to do with "rosin stains." The color pattern that you see is an attempt to imitate the wear pattern often found on old violins. From the varnish, I would guess that this violin was made in or near Mittenwald, Germany, around 1880 to 1910. And it looks like a good buy at $100 from what I can see.

I just had a customer in the shop who had a Roth-stamped bow with the same fleur-de-lis-inlaid frog and the same button with the narrow black rings as shown in your "Type-3" picture, but I don't remember what the stamp looked like. Most, if not all, of the Roth-stamped bows that I have seen had the "Type-1" or the "Type-2" stamps.

With an authentic Strad label?

When were violins with authentic Strad labels common?

It’s easy. Just carve away anything that doesn’t look like Godzilla.

You are a hack.

And is that a Gibson mandola on the right?

So first you machined the neck blank and then you cut the peg box to fit it. This is the reverse order of the way I was taught to do it (entirely by hand). I think there must be some good reason why the peg box should be cut first, but I am unable to articulate it. Does this mean you did the climb cut first or second? Did this make the bottom of the insert parallel with the finger board surface? Normally there is a slight angle with the insert getting thinner, top to bottom, as it approaches the volute. Can you elaborate on fitting with ash?