ole timer Posted January 10, 2020 Report Share Posted January 10, 2020 O'Rocco and Son Milan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palousian Posted January 11, 2020 Report Share Posted January 11, 2020 Ah, yes. In his Dublin period, Rocca was known for drinking and carousing with various Dublin hooreens (aka, floosies), and he signed his work there O'Rocco. He was a rogue, and a wandering blade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ole timer Posted January 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2020 These are screenshots. I'm thinking about purchasing this fiddle. I'd like to hear some opinions. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duane88 Posted January 11, 2020 Report Share Posted January 11, 2020 Aside from the label looking like it was printed with a modern ink jet printer, why would the label state "Milan, Italy", when Milan would have been sufficient for 1843, and the Kingdom of Italy was officialy founded in 1861? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palousian Posted January 11, 2020 Report Share Posted January 11, 2020 Yeah, no "Italy" in 1843, and of course, no only did they not have inkjet printing, but I also doubt that they wrote their labels in English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael H Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 Also curious how a label is so torn and frayed inside a violin... maybe the seller found this violin with the top off in a chest on board a pirate ship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rue Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 Why is that LaserJet? Edges of paper have been individually crafted for years, I don't think it means anything. Think of it as an early scrapbooking technique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael H Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 3 minutes ago, Rue said: Why is that LaserJet? Edges of paper have been individually crafted for years, I don't think it means anything. Think of it as an early scrapbooking technique. Fair point, I just have not encountered an intentionally frayed label that wasn’t apocryphal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ole timer Posted January 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 I can get the fiddle for $300. Don’t know how it sounds though. Does the graft look real to you guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herman West Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 7 hours ago, ole timer said: I can get the fiddle for $300. Don’t know how it sounds though. Does the graft look real to you guys? why would you do that? It looks like a piece of junk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blank face Posted January 12, 2020 Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 Doesn't look that bad to me, probably individually made, but needs lots of restoration work. As there are badly done bottom seam, rib cracks, neck reset, pegs and complete set up, maybe some other issues which can't be detected at the photos. Wether the graft is real or not (what can't be finally decided by the photos) is neglectible, it looks anyway like a late 19th century fiddle, which could have been made nearly everywhere. This might be more a project for a restorer, because the costs could easily exceed the final value. BTW, I really like O'Rocco & Son in Milan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ole timer Posted January 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2020 It's definitely gonna need a lot of work. I'm certainly not rich so I'd do everything myself. Which means it'd be whatever it takes to just get it strung up and playing. I'm more of a player but I've loved violins as much as I possibly could for the last 25 years. Pics are so hard to even begin the understanding of a cheap old fiddle's ability to produce a nice sound. I tend to believe they all have something to offer no matter what shape they're in. That's not always true though. I'll never stop learning and that's a good thing. Thanks very kindly to all of your responses. Good stuff every bit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Cramer Posted January 13, 2020 Report Share Posted January 13, 2020 (edited) So what would it cost to get this fiddle up and running, if you want to do it yourself? Here are some guesses from my own experience. Pegs: 75$ for Planetary Perfection + 15$ for pegbox reamer. Strings: 30$ for Fiddlerman knockoffs of Dominants Bridge blanks: 40$. (That's for 5 - 6, again from Fiddlerman. You need at least this many to come up with something remotely plausible. Unless you're done this many times before). 1" wide plane from TrueValue hardware, + sandpaper: 15$ . You need this to regrade the fingerboard. bottom & top nuts, soundpost: 20$. Add in cost of xacto knife, hacksaw, and little bench vice (40$ total?) if you don't have them already. Hide-glue: 10$. Fingerboard shim: 20$ from StewMac. You only need this if the FB projection has sunk too low. Quite a lot of money! In my case it was worth it, but I think I was lucky. Edited January 13, 2020 by Al Cramer corrected syntax error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ole timer Posted January 13, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 13, 2020 I’ve been working on fiddles for over 25 years. I have the setup covered! Thanks though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blank face Posted January 13, 2020 Report Share Posted January 13, 2020 18 hours ago, Al Cramer said: So what would it cost to get this fiddle up and running, if you want to do it yourself? Here are some guesses from my own experience. You forgot to take everything into bits including the lopsided neck, open and clean all the misaligned seams and cracks, reglue it all in register and put it together again in the right working order. Otherwise it won't be running, not even limping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Cramer Posted January 14, 2020 Report Share Posted January 14, 2020 Blank face, you're talking about serious restoration. I was just trying to point how much it would cost to get it to speak again if the guy did the work himself. I figure cost of instrument + cost of self repair comes to 500-600$. Which it seems nowadays can get you a pretty nice instrument from Yitamusic.. I did this myself with an unlabeled late 19th century Maggini and was really happy with the results. If I were to try it again, I don't think I'd buy the instrument this guy is considering. The back seam is messed up and the scroll looks badly carved (maybe it's just the pix, but the left shot looks nothing like the reflection of the right). Also the way the flaming on the back points downwards? On the other hand there's the completely amazing label. In my musical neighborhood (Celtic) we have some tunes that everybody understands were composed by the Good Folk (aka. Faeries). I never heard of them making instruments, but if they did, that is exactly the kind of label they would slap on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blank face Posted January 14, 2020 Report Share Posted January 14, 2020 6 hours ago, Al Cramer said: In my musical neighborhood (Celtic) we have some tunes that everybody understands were composed by the Good Folk (aka. Faeries). I never heard of them making instruments, but if they did, that is exactly the kind of label they would slap on them. I like the idea very much to call it a Fairy maker's label; this is worth saving for other occasions, too. But I would restrain to set up an instrument in such a condition; it could end up with the neck coming off while playing or similar incidents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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