Any worse bridge?

[Stavanger]

Any worse bridges out there? 

Believe it or not, this violin was played on a daily basis. (By a quite talented street musician.) It was set-up with guitar strings. (!!) 

I felt for him, and fitted a new bridge and a new set of tonicas, plus a spare set of cheap chinese steel core strings. My thought was: better than guitar strings, in case he snaps the tonicas. It has a superglued soundpost- AND bassbar crack.  

Talked to him after s few days. He loved the new bridge, but not the strings! He already fitted the cheap steel core strings. Those he liked. Habits I guess. 

[JacksonMaberry]

You're a good person, helping him out for free.

[jacobsaunders]

I bet it doesn't Sound any good any more!

[edi malinaric]

Mmmm - a bridge like that - schrage musik for sure.

cheers edi

[Stavanger]

9 hours ago, jacobsaunders said:

I bet it doesn't Sound any good any more!

(bold and italic added by me)

Oh happy days! Jacob finally describes a chinese violin with guitarstrings as good-sounding! 
Made my day  

[Bill Merkel]

When I was in school there was an endowment fiddle with a bridge like that, at least bent that bad, maybe originally cut better, but everybody thought it was great.  It was popular.

[Bill Merkel]

30 minutes ago, Stavanger said:

 a chinese violin with guitarstrings 

Not Chinese.  They have way better varnish than that.

[jacobsaunders]

32 minutes ago, Stavanger said:

(bold and italic added by me)

Oh happy days! Jacob finally describes a chinese violin with guitarstrings as good-sounding! 
Made my day  

Seriously, doing a minimal repair on a compleat wreck, where the owner is convinced that it sounded great is dangerous. If he finds that it doesn’t sound as good, after you bring it closer to DIN norms, one can hardly return it to ist original condition (sound). A fools errand, if you’re out of luck.

[Mark Caudle]

In some ways that violin in its state as shown represents the essence of what a musical instrument should be - an effective music making tool that is used as an unconscious extension of the player.

[Andreas Preuss]

The player must have been a heavy smoker, too. 

[GeorgeH]

I agree with him. Steel strings are going to be better for playing on the street; and I am not a Tonica fan, either.

[Jack Devereux]

NA

 

[Marty Kasprzyk]

Maybe a bent bridge might sound better.  The bending stiffness in the vertical direction is less while the bending stiffness in the horizontal direction parallel to the bridge feet is stiffer so the various up and down, sideways and torsional, vibration mode frequencies would all have different frequencies and amplitudes.  Therefore the bridge's filtering function to the violin body would be different.

It would make an interesting listening and player test to switch back and forth a bent bridge and a straight one of the same height and foot width.

[Stavanger]

7 hours ago, Bill Merkel said:

Not Chinese.  They have way better varnish than that.

*edited* I might be wrong

[Bill Merkel]

^I didn't realize it was in your possession.  Plus I have noticed early Chinese that looked like that I think.

[Dave Slight]

Pick your own string spacings, or even how many extra strings you would like.

[Brad H]

Wood is an amazing material.

 

[phutatorius]

8 hours ago, Andreas Preuss said:

The player must have been a heavy smoker, too. 

The sooty appearance?  Might be diesel exhaust if he's a street musician. 

[Stavanger]

On 5/13/2018 at 10:11 AM, jacobsaunders said:

Seriously, doing a minimal repair on a compleat wreck, where the owner is convinced that it sounded great is dangerous. If he finds that it doesn’t sound as good, after you bring it closer to DIN norms, one can hardly return it to ist original condition (sound). A fools errand, if you’re out of luck.

 

Complete wreck, totally agree. 

However, I dont believe it was a fools errand on the rest. He was not convinced it sounded great; He is the one that wanted a new bridge. He had allready glued it three times as it had broken on multiple occations. I gave it back to him, if he is not pleased with my new bridge - he can swap back. Even his guitar strings he got back. The new bridge I cut using his existing bridge curve, with REALLY wide string spacing. Just like he wanted it. Far from any standard. But straight.  

About the tonica strings, I do take self critique. My definition of decent sound was not compatible with his. Lesson learned. Good thing I had some steel strings aswell ; too bad about the Tonicas I could have used elsewhere. Oh well.  

[jacobsaunders]

1 hour ago, Stavanger said:

Complete wreck, totally agree. 

However, I dont believe it was a fools errand on the rest. He was not convinced it sounded great; He is the one that wanted a new bridge. He had allready glued it three times as it had broken on multiple occations. I gave it back to him, if he is not pleased with my new bridge - he can swap back. Even his guitar strings he got back. The new bridge I cut using his existing bridge curve, with REALLY wide string spacing. Just like he wanted it. Far from any standard. But straight.  
 

Ok, my misinterpritation, excuse me. My (not applicable) point was, that one should be sure, in such cases, that the customer is dissatisfied with his Instrument „as is“, otherwise one can have, as the Viennese say, „ein Scherben auf“ if one corrects anything, and he doesn’t like it.

[FoxMitchell]

Mine aren't in situ, but check these beauties out!

 

 

 

 

And of course, this one not mine, but it is a classic:

[Stavanger]

Hahaha, that last one is brilliant 

[Guido]

posted this before somewhere else - here is a good home for it.

[FoxMitchell]

How many patches can a bridge have?

[ChicagoDogs]

This showed up recently on the local classifieds -- noted as having great tone!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xEnK2cfWWBuHnC8UpGlAf-cPzt2TGR48/view?usp=sharing