Search the Community

For years I have had a violin at the back of my cabinet, sitting in an unplayable state with a bad crack on the top plate. The crack runs from top to bottom, straight through the soundpost position. I am confident in carrying out this repair, however, I have never carried out a soundpost patch on a cedar top. I realise that cedar tops are quite unusual, and as such there might not be much experience of repairing them. The cedar seems fairly brittle to me, which I suspect is the cause of the crack. The top plate is almost 5mm thick, which I suspect is deliberate to compensate for the cedar. Does anybody have any advice before I begin this repair? Here's what I have been thinking about; Should I use cedar (not common in the UK, but I could order some), or else use spruce, which I have, and am used to working with? Should I follow the standard size of patch? Being that the top is so thick, and the material brittle, should I still go down to .5mm? Having never heard a cedar topped violin before, should I be expecting a reasonable sound? Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks.