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♣ Repairs & Restoration

Expertly Repairing Your Violin ♣ Viola ♣ or Cello ♣

We are just short-term custodians of a long life...

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Restoration ♣

Violin and Cello Restorations in process

♣ If only your instrument could tell you it's story!

 Musical instruments have the ability to live for hundreds of years, and it is with that thought that we can view our ownership of them as temporary. During this long life instruments can and will be ravished by time; from decades of neglect to years of faithful service...violins are made of wood, and wood will need to be repaired.

Violin Works employs a wide range of techniques, tools and skills to complete all violin, viola and cello repairs and restorations to the highest degree.

We hope to have the opportunity to maintain, repair, restore or setup of your fine instrument during it's long life. We invite you to view just a few examples of our work below. ♣

Scroll Graft ♣

J.J. Honore Derazey Violin (after Gasparo Duiffopruggar), Mirecourt ca.1851

♣ One common repair on old instruments is a neck/scroll graft.

This is the process of sawing off the neck at the scroll, fitting a new neck to the scroll and then re-setting the new neck into the body. This is done in such a way as to preserve the originality of the scroll while adding a new functional neck. Nearly all classic instruments have neck grafts, because the necks were set into the body differently when they were made, and because the demands of modern players are different. It is also necessary if the neck has been carved too thin or has suffered damage in some way. This instrument had also suffered a bad button break, requiring a complete replacement button, purfling restoration and a hidden button graft. ♣

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Button Graft with Heal Cap & Edge Doubling ♣

Bartolomae Obici (Obizi), Verona ca.1680

♣ Sometimes really tragic things happen to great violins.

This old Italian instrument, having survived over 300 years was one of the last items out of the house before everything else was lost to a fire.  Since it had been in it's case, it survived, but the the heat and water from the fire destroyed the case around the instrument.  The restoration involved completely disassembling the violin, doubling collapsed areas of the top by the neck and end block, a button graft, replacing the heal-cap, re-arching collapsed areas under the bridge and of course extensive varnish restoration.  All in all, a challenging but extremely rewarding restoration; the type a restorer lives for....to help resurrect and  become a part of a fine old instruments life history! ♣

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Soundpost Patch ♣

Modern Bench Cello Soundpost Patch

♣ Repairing an Instrument with a Sound Post Crack.

Sound post cracks are very common in the long life of a violin family instrument. When repaired properly with a sound post patch, the instrument can continue to be a reliable tool beyond your lifetime and perhaps even improve its tone. When a top crack passes over the sound post area it is the usual procedure to inlay a patch on the inside so that the pressure from the soundpost will not reopen the crack.  ♣

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Repair & Rstoration