1890's Markneukirchen Violin

Total Rebuild - Resurrection

PLAYER WANTED!

November 2, 2019 and I have fitted the sound post and strung it up. I managed to restore the original chin rest, so that is back in its rightful place.  There is a distinct asymmetry to this instrument, owing to a combination of non-square joints and metrics in the original pieces. Still, with a properly graded face, custom bass bar and other work, it has a good, clear sound with no dead spots. I set the sound post back a bit from the bridge, so as to bring out the natural sound of the instrument, and the volume has not really suffered. 

Now, it just needs somebody to play it!

I acquired the pieces of this from a Bulgarian trader. It was missing a shoulder rib, and all joins were either fully separated or close to it. All but two linings were missing. One rib was broken into two discrete pieces, another broken but still whole.
The initial survey revealed the mark of late 19th century factory catalogue violins made in the Marknuekirchen-Cheb region; a beaver-tooth inside face with a carved integral bass bar. The face plate was up to 8mm thick in many parts of the profile. Both face and back plates were split down the glue seams.
	There was a knot in the timber of the back plate which, although finished cleanly, was still several mm thick throughout the grading profile. The neck had a chip out of the flat edge, and a couple of old worm holes. The fingerboard was maple that had been stained black. There were diverse old worm holes visible in some ribs and the face plate.
The sting joints were not mitred, but glued together flat and then carved to a bevel. None of the stings were blocked. The dark finish was chipped and badly worn. There was a bit of work to do...

Once the pieces had been separated and cleaned of old glue, I removed the old finish. Although removing the original finish typically alters the sound of the instrument, I knew that I would be removing so much wood from the plates that the sound was going to be significantly altered anyway.

Ribs:  The breaks were reglued, new linings were cut and curved to fit, and a new shoulder rib was cut and shaped.

Neck:  A hardwood block was shaped and grafted in to fill the chip. While cleaning the scroll the whole pegbox fell off - the dry rot was so extensive that there was a thin veneer surrounding frittering dust. So...

Rather than carve a new unit, a generic pre-shaped scroll-neck was ordered, and I then carved/planed the pegbox and neck down to the same dimensions as the original. 

Plan A - cut a tenon joint and splice the pegbox/scroll onto the original neck. While cutting the mortise in the neck, the extent of the rot made that option untenable, so Plan B - the entire new neck was used.

The face plate halves were reglued, and then recarved and graduated. This included carving down the outside edge surfaces of the f-holes, slightly flattening the entrance and giving a lateral profile to the holes.  Overall, the face plate was reduced from 117 gm to 80 gm, a 32% reduction in weight.  With a cleated join and a new bass bar carved and glued in, the face was good to go. 

The regraduation of the back plate was not as severe, with only 14 gm of wood removed for a net 10% reduction in mass.
The regraduation process also exposed several internal wormholes, which were then filled with hide glue.
The traditional means of assembly - construction the complete box loop and then securing the plates - revealed a subtle warp/distortion in the plate geometry. Simply, the instrument is not square.

So, the ribs were assembled on the back plate with two shoulder stings open. This allowed for adjustment when securing the face plate, as horizontal clamps could then be applied to bring the stings together while keeping all rib edges within the edge of the top plate.


All together, time came to finishing:

• two coats dilute linseed oil
• eight coats pale shellac, with 1000-grit wet sanding after coats 3, 6 and 8
• soft wax and buff.