This violin came in for an emergency crack repair. For the best prognosis, the top usually needs to be taken off the top of the instrument to get proper access to clean, clamp and internally reinforce the repair. However this increases the scope of the job significantly, so in this case we’ve decided to go with an external glue-up and see if it holds. I also modified the fit of the pegs, as they weren’t at all easy to tune, and added a parchment patch to the bridge for the E string.
This violin came in for some minor setup tweaks. The tone was a bit weak on the bass end, and there were also buzzes around some notes. Fitting a new soundpost and doing a light fingerboard reshoot should hopefully put paid to the issues and let the instrument sound its best.
This lovely old 7/8 violin came in for some setup adjustments. The old bridge was too wide for the location of the bass bar, and the soundpost was not in an ideal position either. I fitted a new bridge and post as well as replacing the old tailgut and fitting a new set of strings.
This violin came in because the owner was finding it very frustrating to play and tune due to the very high neck angle (almost 30% more than standard), leading to the need for a very tall bridge. The fingerboard was also twisted towards the bass side.
The fingerboard was also a bit lumpy and was almost ready for a reshoot, so in the end I decided the best course of action was to fit a new fingerboard, which would let me adjust all of the angles safely while there was still an excess of wood. I also fitted a new soundpost, as the old one was very loose and skewed sideways. In the end I managed to reduce the overall neck angle down to within a normal range, and fitted a new bridge to match it (see the before and after shots of the bridge.)
The owner of this electro-acoustic violin wanted some mechanical pegs fitted in order to ease tuning. She was also having some issues getting the E string to sound easily. I realised that the string had cut into the bridge, meaning it was sitting very low and was difficult to catch with the bow during fast passages, so I adjusted the bridge curve a bit and fitted a parchment patch to avoid this happening in the future. (A standard feature on my new bridges.)
This student cello came in for a bit of setup work. I fitted a new soundpost and some decent strings as well as tweaking the bridge to achieve a more comfortable string height and improving the fit of the pegs.
This delightful old cello came in for some repairs and setup adjustment. The outer extremities of the front plate had been worn away over the years – I decided to replace the worst two entirely, whilst the others received minor grafts.
The instrument had picked up rather a lot of dirt, so I gave it a thorough cleaning (though I left some of the patina for “character”.)
I also fitted a new bridge and soundpost and a new set of pegs and endpin as well as replacing the tailpiece and fitting new strings. All in all, a comprehensive overhaul!
This violin had recently been rebuilt, and came into the workshop last week for some setup work to get it sounding as good as possible. I fitted a new bridge and soundpost and replaced the endpin. The sound is a lot more even now across the strings.
This bass viol / viola da gamba came in for a new soundpost and some adjustments to the bridge feet. It also needed some new top strings. We are currently trying the gamba with some unsplit lambgut strings from the wonderful Northern Renaissance Instruments
This bass ukulele came in because the bridge pulled off. As far as I can tell, it was due to a combination of a bad gluing surface and the ball ends of the strings not being seated properly in their holes. It should be a lot more solid now!