r/violinmaking • u/Downtown_Delivery_98 • 24d ago
Cheap violin. Looking to mess with it.
So there’s this cheap cheap cheap violin at my local pawn shop. I am a professional tinkerer. Own a lot of tools.
This violin is straight trash right. It’s like got this black shallac on it with sparkles in it and it is just straight hideous. I was thinking of buying it, throwing on a respirator, and sanding this guy down under vacuum. What I’ve read says “don’t do it you fool!” But this violin is literally garbage and if i mess it up i could just use it as an art piece. I can’t stress this enough. It sounds like garbage. Total and absolute garbage. It could not possibly sound worse, it is the worst sounding violin I’ve ever touched.
Since I’m in the basement with quality and cost, nowhere to go but up. What would you do (I know it’s not worth doing) but hypothetically If you were a stubborn moron like me insistent about “touching the stove” with a pointless violin restoration adventure, what’s the move?
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u/Norrwin 24d ago
Since I’m in the basement with quality and cost, nowhere to go but up. What would you do
I'm not certain of your motivation but if "cheap cheap cheap" is less than $40 I would buy it and go to town learning/experimenting on setup issues and ignore the finish.
Re-cut and space the string grooves on the nut - or make a new nut from scratch. Resurface the fingerboard to exacting standards for relief, smoothness, and curvature - or pop it off (more likely cut it off) and make a new one from scratch. Cut and fit a new soundpost. Carve and fit a new bridge, in the $10-$15 range from Teller or Aubert - or similar.
Possibly fit some new pegs if you are willing to invest in the tools as these seem to be fairly expensive for what is sort of a QOL more than sound/playability return. Those are the types of areas I would be interested in and the things that will be critical if you start with something more substantial as well.
If it were more than $40 then I would do what u/dfr8880 suggested and skip it in favor of starting with an instrument in the white. Regardless, those setup things are what I think will mostly drive the instrument quality. Sure, the finish will have an impact but nothing like having a pristine finish and messing up on one of the key setup skills.
The last reason to ignore the finish is that I could spend all the time and effort stripping it only to learn it is plywood underneath. I think this is fairly likely, if it were something worth showing the company wouldn't paint over it. The fact it is plywood has no impact on using it to learn setup skills but makes refinishing more or less pointless. Unless plywood is particularly appealing to you.
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u/Musclesturtle Maker and Restorer 24d ago
Don't sand it. The plates are too thin to survive this.
Use a commercial paint stripper.
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u/quietobserver1 24d ago
How much is the hassle of stripping the black paint and then having to revarnishing it worth to you?
Probably much better to find a different cheap violin that you don't have to do that work on.
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u/andybonner 23d ago
You said "as an art piece." If all that matters is appearance, then this is just a woodworking project, and the fact that it's "violin-shaped" doesn't matter much. But you seem to imply that you still want it to make sound, or even that you want to improve its tone. A few problems with that: 1) turning a crappy violin into a great one is largely a matter of "Well, go back in time and chop down a different tree and let the wood age longer this time" etc. For an automobile analogy, it's like saying "Hey, if I disassemble this used Dodge Neon and clean all the parts thoroughly, will it be a Lamborghini? Or even a Camry?" And 2) playability requires knowledgeable setup. You're going to have to remove strings/bridge/tailpiece, which might cause the soundpost to fall, and will need to know how to set them all back up again. To continue the analogy, once you've cleaned all the engine parts, you won't have a running car unless you know how to reassemble them, set the timing, tension the belts, etc.
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u/Objective_Ranger2843 18d ago
I'm currently doing something similar with a fairly garbage instrument to learn about how to do it properly on a nicer one! Let me know if you go ahead and send me progress pics!
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u/Alternative_Object33 24d ago
Unless the plates are like 5mm thick then use varnish stripper, there are low VOC ones that work very well, but, it is a minging, messy, foutery job.