My violins
I'm no violin player, but I enjoy repairing them. Therefore you'll find a few at my house. I had several more but I donated six or seven to the Chester Park Elementary School for the Arts in South Carolina. Now I'm stocking up on ebay junkers so I'll be adding them to the page as they come back to life. They will always come and go, so here they are, in no particular pecking order:Chinese violin, 4/4 size bought brand new with case and bow on ebay for SIX BUCKS. It plays and sounds great! I did lower the nut slots, as I always do. and I may refit the bridge somewhat, but overall it was very close to "ready to go" right out of the box. I'm sure it has crappy strings, but at this point I'm not good enough to know the difference!
Here's a 1/32 sized violin, also from ebay. After a little tinkering, it's playable, but it's wicked HARD to play and sounds like a toy (duh!). But it's a cute little fart.
This is yet another ebay purchase (notice a pattern here?) of an early 20th century Czech 3/4 violin. It wasn't very well built to begin with and has suffered many shoddy repairs over the years. I certainly didn't do it justice with my handywork. but after regluing many open seams, lessening the bulge in the tail button area, planing and restaining the board, refitting the nut and fitting a new bridge, it does have a nice soft tone, not "dead" but not sharp and brittle like a "new" violin. I don't have a case, so it hangs on the living room wall. In spite of it clearly being the ugliest of the bunch, I think it's my favorite.
And what violin harem would be complete without an electric one? This is cool! Came with headphones so I can play the same lameass songs over and over and over without recieving death threats.
Once I got back into violins, I thought it'd be nice for me to have a GOOD one. Well, everything is relative, and maybe a serious violinist wouldn't consider this to be all that great, but it's by far the nicest I've owned. It's a Czech 4/4 with a nicely flamed back, probably made in the 1920s or so. I didn't have to do much to it, just close up a seam or two, then spend megabucks on Thomastik strings.
