Barry J. Griffiths

I’d check the flatness of both surfaces. If they’re hollow you can get a false impression that they are making good contact but might just be fitting along the edges. Backlight them and check with a straightedge.

Perhaps it says Gotcha.

Every note is a ‘down bow’.

I’m voting for the leather theory too.

I’d like to see a photo of the side of the neck where it meets the pegbox, under the nut.

If you know how many violins you have, you don’t have enough.

I use parallel jaw, flat ground pliers. The parallel nature of the gripping surfaces tend not to ‘pinch’ the endbutton but apply a more uniform amount of pressure. I also use them with added padding to remove stuck ferrules from bow frogs.

As luck would have it I just ran out of Everclear. There are now two versions. The original recipe is 190 proof (95% alcohol) and another, less potent 151 proof (75% alcohol). I also found a new brand made here in Kentucky which is 190 proof and was $13 or $14 for a 750ml bottle. It’s sold as Clear Spring from Red Bull Co. in Bardstown, KY.

I don’t know what Californians are using but I switched to Everclear. It’s 190 proof grain alcohol (95% alcohol). It costs more than denatured because of all the taxes that get added on to the price since it’s drinkable.

It’s hard to tell where this dot is located on the stick. It could possibly be a filled in hole from where a wire winding was glued into the stick.

From the symptoms you describe and the smaller size of the violin I would take a look at the string distance between the bridge and tailpiece. Sometimes a shorter tailpiece can get the after-length corrected. No major surgery and, if you don’t like the results the whole thing can be easily reversed.

I was cleaning up my workbench (always a dangerous thing) and I rediscovered this violin soundpost from years ago. Overall length of 50mm, width at the ends 6-6.25mm, and width in the middle 4.0mm. I have no idea who made it or what violin it was from. Clean cut ends and very narrow grain (spruce).

I had a number for Sousa’s distributor (Allegro Music) in Miami but they are no longer working with Sousa. If anyone can furnish the contact information for Sousa I would greatly appreciate it.

A violin bow was brought into the shop yesterday. The bow was dropped and the tongue on the frog is broken. The only thing holding the bow together is the glue holding the hair at the spreader wedge. If you push on it it's like rubber. Is this worth fixing or would a replacement frog be a better option? It's stamped Valdecir on one side and Sousa Sonata on the other side. The stick appears to be pernambuco; not sore of the metal used in the mountings. For some reason I can"t seem to attach photos to this post. Thanks for any and all input.

Everything you could possibly want to know about carving a violin bridge can be found here: https://trianglestrings.com/carving-a-violin-bridge/