Some time ago, I bought a badly damaged violin from a luthier who suggested it would make for good practice at violin repair. It was not economical for him to fix it, so I duly brought it home.
A quick examination showed several problems – the back was coming away from the ribs on one of the lower bouts, and the top plate had two major and one minor crack. And the nut had come off, and it would need setting up before it would again be playable.

Last night I completed the first stage – regluing the back to the lower bouts. I used hide glue in teh traditional way so it can be separated again in the future if it ever needs more repairs. I did this part first on the basis that I would have to remove the top completely to repair the cracks from a crush unjury – either someone fell on it or, like my hardanger fiddle last year, perhaps an airline treated it carelessly and stacked luggage on top of the fragile case.

So here is the fiddle still in clamps (ones I made last year when building my pochette fiddle).

violin repair

I still need to clean up the glue joint with a rag dipped in hot water, but the joint is solid and the violin is almost ready for stage two of the repair.

Cheers
Jerry