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This cello came in because the bridge had become very warped over time. I fitted a new bridge and well as adjusting the soundpost and the pegs.

This violin needed a lot doing to it including a new bridge and soundpost. The pegs were also very worn and since the owner was already used to geared pegs on her electric violin, we decided that fitting geared pegs would be a good solution, as well as helping with running out of adjustment room on the fine tuners.

This violin came in because the owner was generally dissatisfied with the balance and projection of the instrument. There was also a crack in the scroll (thankfully out of the way of the pegs, as this would require serious reinforcement.) I fixed the scroll and fitted a new bridge and soundpost, which have really transformed the tone of the instrument (the old bridge was too heavily built, and the old soundpost was not a great fit.)

This bass came in for some extensive repair work – a hole had been knocked right through the side, and there was a crack on the back of the instrument. I ended up removing the front in order to gain access to do the repairs properly.

The owner of this violin was concerned that the instrument had developed a buzz. There can be all manner of causes for this, and buzzes can come and go which makes it difficult to diagnose the issue without patience. The most obvious cause was that the bridge was central with the projection of the fingerboard but because THAT was slightly twisted, it was not central with the rest of the body so wasn’t working in tandem with the bass bar and soundpost properly. I decided it was best to move the bridge and fit a new soundpost to account for the adjusted location. I also shaved a little wood off the side of the fingerboard to make the asymmetry less obvious since a fingerboard re-glue was beyond the scope of the job. Finally, a discovered that the f-holes had become lodged with dirt in the narrowest points so were not free to vibrate properly.

This violin came into the workshop because the soundpost had fallen over. A fallen post can be set upright again, but generally it’s indicative of a bad fit; a new, well-fitted post is the best course of action. Even with a bad fit, it’s quite unusual for the post to fall whilst the strings are under tension, but this instrument had very slippy pegs as well, so had presumably been routinely dropping tension. I fitted a new post and a new set of pegs, as well as repairing a crack I discovered under the tailpiece.

This violin came in because the owner was generally dissatisfied with the balance and projection of the instrument. There was also a crack in the scroll (thankfully out of the way of the pegs, as this would require serious reinforcement.) I fixed the scroll and fitted a new bridge and soundpost, which have really transformed the tone of the instrument (the old bridge was too heavily built, and the old soundpost was not a great fit.)

This 1970s English cello had sat unplayed for several decades. It needed a full setup, comprising of a new bridge, soundpost, replacement endpin and modern tailpiece with built in fine tuners, as well as some fresh strings!

This cello came in because there was an intermittent buzz. There was also a general instability in tone across the strings, and an underlying hiss. There were several aspects of the setup which together contributed to this – the most major to fix immediately was a loose fingerboard (the fingerboard stabilises the neck, so if your fingerboard is loose then it’s important you get it seen to immediately.) I also fitted a new bridge as the old one was very heavy and slightly bent, and a new soundpost as the old one was a good fit but not under sufficient tension. The saddle was also very tall and beginning to come unglued, so I replaced that with a better fitting, more appropriately sized one.

This cello came in because the bridge was too high. While it would technically have been possible to lower the existing bridge, it was already warped to the point where it might not last very long, so we decided that the best way forward was to fit a new bridge which could be correctly calibrated from the start. The cello is fairly new (2013), and as such still in its period of stretching and settling. The soundpost had obviously become too loose at a point, so someone had pushed it tighter, but as a result it was placed outside the bridge foot, resulting in a treble-heavy sound, without any possibility of doing in-place adjustments without it becoming too lost, so I fitted a new soundpost as well.