tarawa1943

Its been a tough year (almost two now) with covid. I retired from the fiddle business, which due to covid was almost non-existent. When you thought it couldn’t get any worse, my friend, a fiddle and pochette make, succumbed to covid. Adamar Muchado was a sculptor who came to me when he was taking violin lessons for therapy. He was diagnosed with kidney failure and was lucky to find a donor and had a kidney transplant. He no longer could work in the sculpting field and got interested in violinmaking. I had plenty of materials for him and an old set of pochette plans. He took off running and made quite a few instruments. I knew he was fragile and worried about him when covid was spreading. He stayed isolated the whole time, then his family members came down with covid. He wasn’t stong enough to survive. I will miss him.

I say that you travel to all the shops in the area and show your instruments to them. They may take an instrument on consignment. Price your instruments fairly. Fair to you first and fair to the prospective buyers. I would also wait until I have several to show also.

Ashley, Thanks for stopping by. I had a great time talking with you and admiring the fiddles that you made. Stop by anytime....the beer is always cold and the ramblings of another old timer are always free! Cokes are always a nickel....Nickels are on top of the machine! There is another maker near by that I will invite over next time. I haven’t seen him since covid, but he will probably be happy to bring a few of his fiddles over too.

After being in the business for 30 years, I am finally closing shop. Met a lot of great people (and good customers) on this forum over the years. I think its's time to go fishing and maybe even pick up the old fiddle again. I will still fix the local kids fiddles....I never charged them anyway. George Loxahatchee Vintage Strings, LLC

Now this is funny!

Great looking knife!

I have been using Shar's Overture Ultras on all my set-ups now. Sound great and customers keep coming back for more. Around $20/set with spare e-string sure beats $50+ for a set of strings.

PM sent.

It sounds pretty good to me under ear, but I will let a friend play it for me. I must admit though, my hearing is starting to go a bit at my age. . Sales have been slow, so I have been scouring the area for old fiddles to fix. I have been finding some nice trade fiddles, my favorite being a 1927 Carl Neumann. After a few year dry spell finding decent fiddles, a few nice ones are starting to surface at the local antique shows.

Thanks, I was thinking the same. I really was wondering about the sharp corners.. I only had one other with corners like this.

If it were a person, I would have to call it a pin-head.

I picked this up on an online auction and except for a hundred years of battle scars, it is a really nice instrument.. Apparently the "Student" model to Lyon and Healy wasn't the typical $2.00 violin in 1910.. can anyone give me some idea of origin and valu these days? Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know how Mike Sheriff Bows are graded? Also does he brand commercially made bows with his brand?

I never had good luck with Dominant "a" strings. They always seemed to go dead prematurely. I also like the John Pierce "Artiste" strings.

I will certainly pass on your website.