Yearly Archives: 2023

After a long weekend away, it’s back to slow but steady progress on my new violin. Getting into the mindset for that heavily-fluted Amati arching. Seeing how much I can get done before my next customer job

This guitar came in with rather high action. This is normally easy to rectify, but an extra step was required here due to the fact there wasn’t much saddle exposed from the bridge, meaning that the bridge needed to be lowered before the saddle could be reduced.

This cello came in for some tweaks after having sat unplayed for several years. Main issues were an open seam and a rather extreme string height which was luckily possible to rectify without resorting to a new bridge.

Fun to be working on a local instrument, this one was made in Sheffield about 20 years ago. It needed some adjustments in order to try and mitigate the rather brash tone; a new soundpost and some fresh strings should hopefully help tame it.

Beginning 2023 with a restoration on this English violin. Seemingly a James Preston copy. A neck reset, new bridge soundpost, top nut and endpin and various other adjustments, all finished off with clean and polish. It belonged to the owner’s great uncle, and it’s so nice to bring a family instrument like this back to a playable state.

Nice 1980s baroque violin in for some setup adjustments and a neck reshape (the wood had shrunk causing the edge of the fingerboard to stand slightly proud of the neck.) It always makes a fun chance to work on a historical setup.

This was one of my final jobs from 2022. A lovely old Georg Kloz violin from Mittenwald. I’ve worked on this instrument before correcting a messy repair done in the ’70s, and it was nice to see it again and optimize the setup a bit with a new bridge and post and a
small neck angle adjustment to achieve a better elevation.