It seems amazing to me how often Violins suffer a fall…but then I sit very still with them..I don’t play/teach/travel/move around constantly with them with many other people around me….like players do. This one fell from shoulder height and suffered a dramatic injury. The top was essentially in two pieces from a crack that runs right through the soundpost area. This is the interior repair with the crack glued and studded to stabilize the crack long term. The patch area has been carefully carved out and the patch is being fit …with chalk as a transfer to make sure that there is total contact before gluing in….otherwise the top will be distorted. In the process of removing the top to repair the damage … I thought that the Bass Bar was not up to the crucial role it plays – and that the Violin sound would be dramatically improved by a better one … so in this photo the new Bar is fit and glued … but not shaped yet. As they say …”never let a good catastrophe go to waste”. I’ll update this post with the exterior varnish restoration when it gets to that point.
Here is the next step.. gluing in the patch…supported by a cast of the top…with the Bass Bar shaped.
Finally, the patch is worked down flush with the topography of the arching…but interestingly the grains are oriented on the diagonal to add a slight “plywood” strength….so that the pressure of the soundpost is not being borne solely by the soft summer grains …but there is some added strength by the winter grains coming across the crack at an angle.
