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Showing results for tags 'cracks'.
Found 6 results
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Hi folks, I bought a 16-1/2" unfinished "white" viola from a Chinese seller on eBay over a year ago. I bought it because I loved the look of the tight grained spruce top, the beautiful flamed maple on the back, and especially the fancy inlay. I have never tried any kind of project like this before, but after receiving it I realized that I had gotten something that was going to be more work than I bargained for. The fingerboard had a big hump in the middle of it. I double checked that it wasn't just warped, but no, the bottom was flat and the just the top had a big convex hump in it. I put it in the closet and decided to buy a much cheaper white violin to practice on and learn from before risking my luck on this nicer project. So now, over a year later, I took it out to see about fixing the hump and I noticed something I had not seen before: the fingerboard also has a long crack in it. I hoped that it was just cosmetic and I started aggressively sanding down the hump. But the crack is still there even after removing almost 1.5mm of thickness. I had saved the eBay listing photos when I bought it, and I now see that they cleverly avoided any view of this section of the fingerboard. I bet "Master Song and his 2 right hand apprentices" knew all about the hump and the crack in it - and that is how it ended up as a DIY "white" viola on eBay rather than a finished instrument... Is there a way to fix it? Fill it with CA glue? Would I be better off to remove it and put a better quality piece on? I emailed the seller asking if it was just "tack glued" and he replied, "No, it be well glued." So that solution won't be easy. Maybe I should just ignore it?
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It has been brought to my attention by a potential client that certain topographical elevations can affect the construction of instruments. The concern was that a cello that has lived a young life at 1,500ft will be affected by a new life at 7,000ft. I was told by this potential client that luthiers in high elevations dismantle the cello and reglue the top plate and neck. I have never heard of this practice, but am interested. It makes sense, in theory, but have no experience in the matter, though, I will say that have I had no complaints. Can anyone shed some light on the subject?
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I bought a student grade violin from the Goodwill for $50 and was going to experiment repairing a top crack, as I'm interested in learning how to do this as a hobby. I bought Behlen's hide glue over the internet, have watched Daniel Olsen's YouTube video on the topic, and have some spool clamps and deep throat clamps. Can I buy the wood for patches at the hardware store for this level of restoration? I called the shop where this violin was originally sold and they informed me that they use hot hide glue for gluing their violins, but the student grade varnish is possibly polyurethane. Will the polyurethane varnish make it harder to open the top? Can I sand it after repairing the crack? When purchasing the violin, I didn't notice that the neck has been broken and reglued. Under the fingerboard it looks like there is damage to the top plate (possibly caused when someone tried to remove it before?) that has been fixed with some glue that looks kind of yellow. Will this make it impossibly hard to remove the top plate without further damage? Your advice is appreciated.
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Hello. I have a friend who has been gifted a cello with some very serious belly cracks. It is a free cello from the local university. Unfortunately I don't think it's worth pulling off the belly and cleating the crack (and honestly that would be beyond my skill set). I was wondering about suggestions for gluing the cracks shut with some wood glue or epoxy, I realise this is unspeakable to many of you, so my sincerest apologies to anyone who might be offended. It's really about nothing more than getting this instrument to make noise again. I can carve bridges and set sound posts, have done seam repair with hide glue, but this is something I have not tackled. Can someone offer their guidance. Much thanks.
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The title basicly says it all. What are some good fillers to use for cracks in violins, and when do you use it? To what degree must the violin be cracked before it becomes necessary, or how big must the crack be? Thank You.
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Hi all, This excellent crack repair article really helped me out recently when a cello came into the shop with soundpost and bass bar cracks along the full length of the top. The repair work I do is generally guided by the Weisshaar book, so it was great to read some new (to me) material instead of the just referring to the same passage I've already read again and again. I was wondering if the maestronet community would be interested in compiling a thread dedicated solely to links of articles devoted to repair and restoration (of course only articles that are intentionally made available to the public via the author's personal website should be included). After all, this crack repair article was published in 2001, so I didn't have a chance to catch it the first time around (I was still in high school . . .). If everyone agrees that this is a worthwhile idea, then I think this may be a job for LinkMan! (at least to start it off.) “Hold on tight” The Strad Nov 2001 article on crack repair By Andreas Hudelmayer http://hudelmayer.com/about-me/articles/hold-on-tight-the-strad-nov-2001-article-on-crack-repair/
