Strad O Various Jr.

All it indicates is that the wood wasn't green when it was made, hardly a sign of quality

i think you'll find some of the best makers have no presence on the internet, as they are busy working in their shop

if you know it all why did you ask for opinions

not from where I'm looking

The carving of the underside of the scroll appears to stop at 7 O'clock which along with the BOB construction would be consistent with a Markneukirchen trade violin, the graft looks like it could be fake too

What is see is a $500 violin that was lost in shipping and should have been insured, I don't see evidence of grand theft!!

Standard small size screwdriver (about 4 in long) works fine

This is a perfect example of how listing pictures of a violin you are considering buying is not unethical, but sensible, as the comments made by our experts gave the OP the confidence to buy the violin in question

the problem with the Caspari pegs is the tightness is adjusted by a screw on the end of the peg and unless it is quite tight the peg will slip, it can always be adjusted to work but it seems on old pegs the screws work their way loose more quickly and have to be tightened again, which is just a real pain

that's complete rubbish with no legal backing

Sorry, it's not a copy of anything, just a random label thrown in a German trade violin

I think that crack could be repaired without taking the top off, loose seems cost next to nothing to fix, where are you coming up with $2000 repairs, I'm only seeing about $500 needed, what else is wrong?? (didn't see your post above)

That looks like a pretty cheap cello, may not be worth $2000 fully set up, what exactly is wrong with it?

I'm assuming He didn't have a workshop buildings violins in Berlin, but that he was a dealer buying violins from the Markneukichen trade and throwing his labels in, for one thing the neck angle looks too low so you will probably need a neck reset, it could have been made in the 30s though IMHO

The OP is in Asia, where most of the fakes are coming from, so he can't really rely on his dealer to only purchase genuine strings like hopefully you could do in USA