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Reid Violin
Reid Violin
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Click picture for more detail
Ingrid, a good friend of mine, is a cellist and working on her degree in music education. Since it will undoubtedly be necessary for her to play/demonstrate music in the classroom, and since a cello is a little unwieldly to quickly set up and place safely in a crowded classroom full of students, she wisely decided that a violin would be much more practical teaching accessory.
She purchased the instrument as an ex-rental violin which had seen some heavy use and abuse from years of often less than careful handling. On one hand, this meant for a somewhat "ugly" instrument with many cosmetic flaws. On the other hand however, this meant that the instrument had many, many hours of play time on it, and should be fairly settled in and free playing.
Over the span of a few months, I worked off and on meticulously restoring and freshening up the violin's varnish, and hiding or erasing the instrument's cosmetic flaws. Once cosmetically complete, I performed a total setup on the instrument (fingerboard dressed, nut and saddle adjusted, new soundpost, new bridge, new set of matching accessories and strings) and adjusted the instrument to play at its best.
I couldn't resist the urge to add a few special touches to the instrument. I chose a set of fittings of a style I had used before and particularly liked for their strong and less-frills construction, but that had inlaid mother of pearl diamond accents to add a little flair to the instrument (ebony will also show less grime and dirt from use over time as compared to say, boxwood or even rosewood). I also made a new "restored by" label for the inside of the instrument to substitute for the old rental inventory label. Finally, in a nod to an "in joke", I placed a paper label inside the violin on the neck block (quite a harrowing process to do without disassembling the violin! Similar I imaging to making a ship in a bottle). This label is completely invisible when looking through the "f" holes, but I installed a special endbutton with a removable core that allows one to peer inside the violin and see this label. The endbutton is completely inconspicuous from the outside, and gives no clue that it has a special ability.
I was very pleased with the way this instrument turned out, the sound it produces now, and ot help a friend be able to advance her own musical career and share the joy of music with countless others.
Ingrid, a good friend of mine, is a cellist and working on her degree in music education. Since it will undoubtedly be necessary for her to play/demonstrate music in the classroom, and since a cello is a little unwieldly to quickly set up and place safely in a crowded classroom full of students, she wisely decided that a violin would be much more practical teaching accessory.
She purchased the instrument as an ex-rental violin which had seen some heavy use and abuse from years of often less than careful handling. On one hand, this meant for a somewhat "ugly" instrument with many cosmetic flaws. On the other hand however, this meant that the instrument had many, many hours of play time on it, and should be fairly settled in and free playing.
Over the span of a few months, I worked off and on meticulously restoring and freshening up the violin's varnish, and hiding or erasing the instrument's cosmetic flaws. Once cosmetically complete, I performed a total setup on the instrument (fingerboard dressed, nut and saddle adjusted, new soundpost, new bridge, new set of matching accessories and strings) and adjusted the instrument to play at its best.
I couldn't resist the urge to add a few special touches to the instrument. I chose a set of fittings of a style I had used before and particularly liked for their strong and less-frills construction, but that had inlaid mother of pearl diamond accents to add a little flair to the instrument (ebony will also show less grime and dirt from use over time as compared to say, boxwood or even rosewood). I also made a new "restored by" label for the inside of the instrument to substitute for the old rental inventory label. Finally, in a nod to an "in joke", I placed a paper label inside the violin on the neck block (quite a harrowing process to do without disassembling the violin! Similar I imaging to making a ship in a bottle). This label is completely invisible when looking through the "f" holes, but I installed a special endbutton with a removable core that allows one to peer inside the violin and see this label. The endbutton is completely inconspicuous from the outside, and gives no clue that it has a special ability.
I was very pleased with the way this instrument turned out, the sound it produces now, and ot help a friend be able to advance her own musical career and share the joy of music with countless others.