Brad Dorsey

Does that make it sake to drink?

If you mean the metal, it is not rails built into the frog. It is metal sheathing wrapped around the sides and underside of the pearl slide. It will come out with the slide.

I doubt that it is possible to to selectively achieve either of these outcomes by the choice of block material. There are too many other variables that are much more important.

It would not be considered a “proper” bridge in the world of fine violins, but I have seen people playing with much worse. My main concern with this bridge would would be that the smaller area of that foot will exert slightly greater pressure on the top, possibly damaging the varnish. But it’s probably fine for a cheap Ebay fiddle.

I think that the blade should bear on the intersection of the back of the throat and the sole to minimize the unsupported blade extension below the sole. And the surface that the blade bears on should be square, because otherwise you would need to grind and hone the same angle on the blade to avoid having the cutting edge twisted relative to the sole. It would be much easier to make both the blade bearing surface and the blade cutting edge square.

Do you mean Citristrip?

There is a crack of a type that is usually the result of the pearl slide being driven into its channel too tightly, probably because the slide is too wide or because some hair was in the wrong place. It is probably stable because it is being held together by the ferrule, so I don't think that you need to do anything immediately. But it should be glued the next time the bow is rehaired. If this is properly done, the crack will become invisible.

Thanks for the explanation. This makes sense. But even though there never technically was a country called West Germany, there is still the matter of United States law requiring imported goods to be labeled with the country of origin. Would it mean that this bow was imported during the 1989-1990 window? Or was the bow deceptively marked to evade prohibitions on imports from Communist countries? Or something else? (I just had an Otto Durrschmidt bow in for rehair that was stamped "GERMANY" and "SOVIET OCCUPIED.")

I don't understand. I thought that the H R Pfretzschner workshop was in Markneukirchen, in EAST Germany. Can someone explain this discrepancy?

Can we conclude from Bill’s interactions that the word “cornerblockology” is unknown outside of Maestronet? And that our own Jacob has introduced a new word into the English language?

Has the word "cornerblockology" ever been used anywhere other than on this forum? I know I have never encountered it anywhere else, and a cursory Google search yields only Maestronet citations. If this word has only appeared here, then the ChatGPT has mostly, if not entirely, just summarized and echoed back to us what we have said here. And done a pretty good job of it.

I once had a violin with a 1963 Otto Bruckner label covering another label. I took out the Bruckner label and found a Roth label and brand underneath. The violin looked like a proper Roth.

It is an authentic violin, but it was not made by anyone called “Amatus” and it was not made in the 1600s. It is a cheap commercially mass-produced German instrument made around 1900. It is in poor condition — cracked, missing a top corner and all scratched up. It has no value as a functioning violin, but it’s maybe worth $50 to $100 to someone looking for a repair project or a decoration to hang on the wall.

$315.

In addition to being less expensive, the Weisshaar book is better suited to Hiyokomaru's needs because it is organized as a comprehensive guide. Only Volume 2 of the three-volume IPCI set gives instrument repair instructions. This volume does have a lot of good stuff in it, but it is a collection of disparate chapters, each written by a different author. It includes eight chapters on "Counterforms, Molds, and Casts," but nothing on making fingerboards, and five different ways to bush peg holes, but nothing on replacing blocks. The IPCI set is an excellent supplement for advanced restorers who want to progress past the material in the Weisshaar book, but the Weisshaar book is a much better introduction.