A Wm. Moennig & Son Memory - Lynn Harrell
When Lynn Harrell came into Moennig to play Orlando Cole's 1739 Montagnana — the "Sleeping Beauty" — I was standing six feet away.
Beautiful 15 1/8" Viola by Ernst Heinrich Roth 1922
This 1922 Ernst Heinrich Roth viola — 15 1/8 inches, original label, original oval brand on the back — came out of the same Markneukirchen world the Moennig family left when they came to Philadelphia.
Cello soundpost crack
A fifteen-minute walk through Pittsburgh in the cold split a long soundpost crack across the top of this old German cello, which was already carrying somebody else's clumsy repairs and a handwritten inscription worth reading carefully.
Major violin repair
A violin dropped from shoulder height came in with its top split in two pieces, the crack running straight through the soundpost area.
Beautiful Juzek Master Arts Viola
This 1938 Juzek Master Arts came to me with the neck unglued and a bass bar that needed replacing — not unusual for a viola that had clearly been sitting untouched for decades.
Wonderful way to wait out the Virus
I've spent the pandemic working daily in my home workshop, repairing, restoring, and building instruments with fewer interruptions than I've had in years.
Cello press out
I've been pressing sunken cello tops back into shape for twenty-five years using a heated sandbag I stitched together at Moennig, and it still does the job.
Varnish Restoration on a fine Carl Becker Cello
Carl Becker made some of the finest cellos in American history, and this 1930s example came to the bench with its signature reddish-orange varnish worn through in the places a cellist's body meets the instrument every day.
Stunning Sebastian Vuilluame violin
Sebastian Vuilluame put his name on this violin, but the back was almost certainly cut and carved by Nestor Audinot, the craftsman who ran his shop and eventually inherited it.
Collin-Mezin cello
This Collin-Mezin cello from the 1870s came through the shop recently, and after thirty years of handling French instruments, I still stop at the varnish on this one.
5 string conversion
Derek Barnes needed his older German cello to play five strings, so the first thing to go was the fingerboard — replaced with a wider one flared just enough to give the E string somewhere to actually land.
Dramatic cello back
Andrea Postacchini built this cello in mid-19th century Italy, and it has been sitting in the Philadelphia Orchestra ever since — which made it hard to put down once I got it on the bench.
Dramatic fall leads to a painstaking repair
A 1940s Italian violin dropped from shoulder height and the neck joint blew out at the button, which had been repaired before but never properly patched across the purfling channel.