Joe Burdock's Violin And Bow Restoration

09/13/2023

Getting creative! Unusual clamping g situations call for unusual solutions. In this case, I'd say this isn't all that unusual and rubber bands can be my best friend.

Adding material for a cracknthat was poorly repaired and was missing a lot of material.

05/25/2023

Careful fitting using graphite and small scapers is important for full, complete contact providing the best sound transfer. Vibrations travel through the bridge, into the top Plate (and soundpost/back plate ect.) Just like electricity, good contact means better conductivity.

04/10/2023

Neck resets. My favorite work is tuning in old instruments and getting them playing and sounding their best, one small shaving at a time

02/10/2023

Sold some instruments to the John C Cambell folk School and spending a little time here this weekend. What a beautiful place

02/02/2023

01/23/2023

Faux whalebone wrapping, goat leather thumb grip, and fresh Mongolian stallion hair

I didn't used to like doing these(whalebone) but I've really focused on them lately. Some sticks just need less weight and the material is cheaper than silver tinsel. Also, some players prefer it, which the case here and we shaved a few grams off of an already heavy bow.

01/18/2023

On the bench this morning, first time for everything

01/16/2023

Silver tinsel wrapping with goat leather

09/19/2022

Damage to the button requires a doubling of the area. There's a lot of stress on the little piece of wood and the purfling channel has already thinned it.

Often, a ebony crown will hide the doubled button. I'll decide on that later. The Crack itself is glued with something other than hide glue(epoxy I believe) so I've left it as is, somewhat uneven and will do my best to hide it with some touch up. The repair will be solid and I've gone a little deeper with the doubling than I normally do

I'm returning to this personal instrument in my first customer work lull in a long time. Hope to get a few fiddles and bows out of my restoration pile!

07/01/2022

Took a brake from fiddles to build this twining loom for bday! Fun project

06/17/2022

Planetary Perfection pegs can be a great economic solution for fiddles with pegbox issues or just to get rid of your fine tuners on the tailpiece. These are the cheaper synthetic ones but they also come in ebony, rosewood and i believ a few other options. I won't be surprised if they become a lot more common over the years

06/14/2022

For the fellow maker/restorers/ and nerds, the neck block on this mid 40's catania carmelo shop instrument has the grain going across the mortise. It was well fit, and released very easily and clean. Less likely for my opening knife to travel into the end grain of this block when releasing along the side of the neck than usual, and those same sides did not splintering.
I would also imagine the joint there should be stronger since the grain direction matches that of the necks. I wonder if the glue was just weak though (as you may have guessed, the instrument needed a neck reset) and otherwise maybe it would have been too difficult to release the neck cleanly? Any one else have experience with this?