Restoration incomplete - back to the drawing board
After months of work, I managed, with help, to bring this little fiddle restoration project to what I thought was a satisfactory close. I had spent a lot of time carefully perfecting the varnish, working it to a shine. A friend taught me how to use a file to work the fingerboard into a good shape for the neck. All of these things were completely new to me - and all of these things have taught me a great deal about instruments and instrument making throughout the process. As I worked, I would try something, fail, and then I would do it all over again to get it right. In the end, I was extremely happy with the results, which you can see in the images below.
On this lovely past weekend, I went to visit my step father Mark who was going to show me how to set up a fiddle, something that I have never done before. It is a tedious processes, especially when you are new to it. It took some time getting the peg holes cut correctly and the pegs shaved down right. It definitely took time getting the sound post in. It took time setting up the bridge. Below, he is showing me how to file small grooves into the nut for the strings to sit in.
We also worked on stringing the instrument and he showed me how fine tuners work. We were eventually ready to put the final tuning into the instrument and give it a good play.
Below is Mark playing my restored fiddle for the first time. After having spent months fixing it up, I was so thrilled to hear what it sounded like and I must admit that it sounded pretty fantastic. It had a nice bright happy sound to it. I was thrilled.
Or, I should say, I was thrilled until we turned the instrument over and noticed that the back seam had completely cracked open. The pressure of the strings was apparently too much for this little wooden box. It was a pretty significant set back - certainly a bit heartbreaking after all of that work - but I haven’t given up on the fiddle yet. After a bit of carefully spent time, I have managed to remove the back from the fiddle and am now looking into how to sure up the seam to make it so that it will have many future years of good happy playing. While I hoped that this post would be about a success story for a fiddle now looking for a happy home - it turns out to be a “to be continued” story that I will write more on as the project continues to advance. I hope it will see a happy home yet!
