How To Ruin a Violin

I had 50 violins that needed repair. Some of the violins needed to reconditioning. Other violins needed reconstruction and other violins needed restoration. Many of them someone had tried to repair before our project started. Our Luthier was constantly pointing out the work of previous well meaning amateurs or unskilled professionals. He called some of their work "Horrors". With some of the other work in his shop he showed me many others of the ways that people could ruin a violin. So here is a list of how people ruin violins not in any particular order.

-People use epoxy or some other all purpose bonding glue or cement to repair cracks in their violins. They will use these cements to glue a neckpiece back into place or to glue splits that have formed between the sides and the top or bottom. Epoxy is permanent cement. Violins will need to be repaired again and again. Violins are made of a fibrous, flexible material called wood that need give and take. Epoxy will ruin your violin beyond repair or will prevent a proper repair in the future.

-The other common material that well meaning repair persons use is common furniture or wood varnish. This is very bad. Luthiers use specially made varnishes that do not dry as hard as furniture varnishes. The idea is that it has to move and vibrate with the wood to add resonance to the sound. Floor varnishes are like epoxy glue, they dry to hard to make good sound. They also flake and crack over time.

-The other error that is made with varnish is that the uninformed will varnish the neck under the fingerboard. They may think that it has been worn bare by overuse but it needs to be bare. Very simply your hand slides better on the unvarnished wood when fingering your music.

-The overzealous will also use sandpaper on violins. Sandpaper will take the wood off of the violin. Violin varnishes are permanent. A good cleaning using the proper techniques and oils will turn a dull, rough and dingy finish on an antique violin to a finish that you can see your reflection in. Sandpaper erodes the edges and corners plus it will remove the purfluing. This is irreversible destruction and can lower the value of an otherwise perfect antique violin by 40 to 60 percent.

-I am still trying to figure out why people do this one. You will often see damage to the f – holes in antique violins. I suppose they may be trying to reset the sound post or trying to see if there is any documentation inside of the violin. But if you damage the f – hole you have undone any saving you made by being a do it yourself luthier.

-Violins need to be in 40 to 60 percent humidity. Prolonged exposure to lower humidity will dry out the wood. When it dries it shrinks. When it shrinks it cracks. When a violin has a crack it does not sound as nice. Once a crack starts it will grow. The proactive solution is to buy the little tool that keeps a little moisture in your violin case.

-Another source of cracks is tightening the strings to tight and keeping them tight all of the time. This on its own or combined with the previous error results in tail piece cracks.

-When traveling with your violin or shipping your violin by air, you must make sure that you keep it in the passenger cabin as it is pressurized. Cargo holds are not pressurized and this can cause pressure on the top of the violin at the sound post. A sound post is the worst kind of crack and the most expensive to repair if it can be repaired without damage to the sound.

The final note is not to abuse your violin. Do not fall on it or kick it or punch it. Do not swing it in the air like a cat. Do not let children play with it unsupervised. In fact do not let uninformed adults play with it unsupervised. The supply of antique violins is constantly dwindling because of the acts that I have just described. I suppose one view would be to encourage others to do these things so that those who have nice violins will see their value rise due to a destruction of supply of quality antique violins.