Secret messages in violins............

[M_A_T_T]

Have you ever left secret messages in a violin you've built? Like written something on the underside of the top, so somebody 70years from now who's pulled off the top to repair some cracks sees it?

Or have you ever found any secret messages in a old violin you were repairing?

I'm just curious. Been sorta thinking about writting something inside of mine before I close it up, which will hopefully be by this weekend.

[jackc]

I think it's not rare to have a signature on the neck block. Not as a secret, but as a kind of authentication. Even with the top and removed, it's still difficult to sign the neckblock.

I've seen this in a Marino Cappiccioni violin as well as one by Wilkanowski dated 1929.

I've found signatures in violins where the repairman would have been far better off not to left a clue as to who did those terrible things to the violin.

[HongDa]

There's a guy in my area that autographs the inside of the tops with a black feltip pen after regraduating them.

It's my secret way of being able to tell the owner there's nothing I can do for them to improve the tone now .

I have heard of people attaching small newspaper clippings inside instruments but have never seen one.

I have also heard of a Japanese maker in Italy who puts pictures of naked women on the upper block .

I wonder if it will ever become common for makers to put thier email or web addresses inside the violin somewhere or on the label.

[Regis]

Quote: I wonder if it will ever become common for makers to put thier email or web addresses inside the violin somewhere or on the label."

I can see it now on ebay:

"I don't know much about violins but this one is really really old and even has the maker's old web site www.Guiseppe_Guarneri_del_Gesu.crm"

Or

You can e-mail the maker at Nicolo.Amati@Cremona.it

[sweetmusic]

There's a bow rehair company (who shall remain nameless) that puts hashmarks on the underside of each bow it rehairs. Pretty annoying if you ask me!

Inside my 300 year old Markneukirchen someone has scrawled a colorful picture of 3 men in leiderhosen with their arms around each other and holding out beer steins. Cool pic. Also, each luthier who has worked on it since the early 1900s has signed their name and written a brief note about the actual work done. Very cool.

[GlennYorkPA]

I have an old American violin where the maker has written the tale about how this is probably the last violin he will make and, most interestingly, relates where the wood came from for each piece - belly from an old barn in Kentucky, maple from the Appalachian mountains etc.

This is all written on the inside of the ribs.

I think it's wonderful that the maker should include these background notes and wonder why more makers don't do it.

[JessicaS]

I put a short letter on the inside, top of all my instruments. I tend to talk about whats currently going on in my life, anything special about that particular instrument, and other such tidbits...

[frizz]

I took apart a string bass a number of years ago that had been repaired by a Detroit repaiman/maker in 1914. Inside the top where no one but another repairman could read it he wrote "To hell with the Kaiser!" I also had a 12 year old customer who wanted to leave a message inside of his cello while it was apart. His brother wanted to put his name in it also. What a thrill for those kids.

Larry

[Brad Dorsey]

A luthier I know pulled out a violin endpin, looked in the hole and saw a message written on the upper block -- something like, "You wear funny clothes and you're ugly."

[Wound_Gut]

Not quite a secret message, but the late Australian maker John Godschall Jonhnson inscribed the following anagram in his violins:

TIMBFGNBOS

which I believe stood for:

"This instrument may be freely given never bought or sold"

I believe he never charged for his violins but the catch is that the custodians can only give them away.

[AMORI]

Gives an idea. I like the idea of some poetry or perhaps the words of a Beatle song.

......"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me. She showed me her room, isn’t it good, norwegian wood?"

[Marie Brown]

Now I've made up a story about the recipe to Stradivari's magic filler being inked into the inside of one of his top plates. (HeeHee!) This recipe can only be read after the recipe to the substance that makes the ink visible has been found inside a Vuillaume. (HawHaw!)

[Jeffrey Holmes]

Quote:

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A luthier I know pulled out a violin endpin, looked in the hole and saw a message written on the upper block -- something like, "You wear funny clothes and you're ugly."

---

Hey Brad;

Who made the fiddle in question?? I'm betting I may know... (No, not me...)

[guta]

In "Martin Guitar Masterpieces" by Dick Boak there is a story about Joan Baez's 1929 Martin 0-45.

She used this wonderful instrument throughout her career, and there came a time when the wear was such that it needed servicing. Upon looking inside the instrument with an inspection mirror the repairman found a crudely lettered message, in mirror writing, which said "too bad you are a communist". He immediately called Ms. Baez , and with trepidation told her what he had discovered. She found it hilarious, and couldn't stop laughing.

They believe that the message was put in during the Vietnam era by another repair person. It was done without opening the guitar, which accounts for the sloppiness of the lettering.

All Best, Larry.

[Brad Dorsey]

"Who made the fiddle in question??"

I don't remember; it's possible that I never was told.

[Stacey_Styles]

A rather singular sense of humor, don't you think?

[Brad Dorsey]

Yes. It was Marianne who described this violin to me. Perhaps she remembers who made it?

[pahdah_hound]

I have seen many inscriptions, no insults though. I have also found pictures at times. Here is an interesting one from a very beautiful but crude American violin.

Jesse

[pandora]

Who made the one with the Lincoln picture, Jesse?

I had a student who's label included the source of the wood: the bell tower of a church that's now deep under a reservoir.

My own name's inside my high school instrument in ball-point pen, because my parents made me put it there.

Neither of these are secret, though, so sorry for going off-topic.

[pahdah_hound]

The makers name was Denneny 1914. It was a beautiful although injured violin. Is that reservoir the Quabbin? I had a violin by Hugh Good made from the old Fanuil Hall in Boston. I want a violin made from the parquet flowah of the old Boston Gahden. There was nothing like the sound of a bouncing ball on that parquet.

Jesse

[M_A_T_T]

Quote:

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Neither of these are secret, though, so sorry for going off-topic.

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Nah, I really meant 'messages', basically anything besides the regular label. I'm closing mine up tonight, not totally sure what I'm going to write in the top, though.

[pandora]

[quote Is that reservoir the Quabbin? I had a violin by Hugh Good made from the old Fanuil Hall in Boston. I want a violin made from the parquet flowah of the old Boston Gahden. There was nothing like the sound of a bouncing ball on that parquet.

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Yup, it was.

And, more off-topic, a colleague of mine's dad worked in radio in Boston way-back-when and was the guy who first got the idea of miking the court sounds during game broadcasts -- right at floor level to get the shoe squeaks too, and in the summer behind home plate for the crack of the bat.

S'funny how we take certain things for granted, forgetting that someone had to think of it first at some point.

[M_A_T_T]

Here is my secret message, perposely blurred so none of you can read it! It's only for a future repair man.

(I had to take the back off to fix something, that's why the top is already on)

[jackc]

Are those blocks and liners mahogany?

[M_A_T_T]

Nope, they are Cedar. Here's a clearer shot:

I went with Cedar because it's slightly scented. Adds a nice contrast, too.